Senior Program Manager - Malawi

About Imagine Worldwide

All children have immense potential, but hundreds of millions don’t have access to the learning they need. Imagine Worldwide believes that every child should be empowered with the basic right to literacy and numeracy. We provide an innovative education technology solution and implementation model to the global literacy/numeracy learning crisis using the onebillion application and various toolkits and systems to support implementation. Our model is massively scalable, evidence-based, and can deliver foundational learning to millions of the most marginalized children.

Imagine Worldwide partners with governments, organizations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that is accessible, effective, and affordable. We are incorporated in California (United States) as a nonprofit organization, but operate in Sub-Saharan Africa through locally-registered entities in Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. Learn more on our website.

About the Role

The Senior Program Manager will report to the Director of Programs at Imagine Worldwide Malawi. Their role is to manage their assigned implementation service providers (ISPs) to ensure timely execution of all program activities in Malawi, to support Program Managers to conduct data-driven program management, and to support the Director of Programs as required with leadership of the Programs Team and coordination with the other country departments. 

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Program Manager’s responsibilities will include - but will not be limited to - the  following: 

Program planning and coordination

• Under the direction and guidance of the Director of Programs, draft and review program plans, budgets, and schedules across all existing sites, and support the expansion to new sites. 
• Review, summarize key insights, and investigate issues arising from program reports such as ISP termly progress reports, ISP financial reports, and others. 
• Support the sourcing, vetting, selection, and contracting of implementation service providers as guided by the Director of Programs.
• Under the supervision of the Director of Programs, manage school feasibility assessments and school selection to collect accurate data and ensure successful selection of schools. 
• Facilitate regular coordination meetings with Program Managers and ISPs to monitor implementation progress, address operational challenges, and ensure consistent delivery of program activities across districts.
• Provide leadership support to the Director of Programs by representing the program in internal coordination meetings and stakeholder engagements when delegated, to ensure continuity in program oversight, decision-making, and coordination.

Data-driven program implementation:

• Engage regularly with implementation partners to track progress and oversee implementation, including check-in meetings, progress reports, site-visits, and any other relevant activities. 
• Collaborate with colleagues from MEAL, Analytics, Logistics, and other relevant teams to improve tools, systems, processes, and methodologies to support implementation and monitoring.
• Review and analyse monitoring data and share actionable insights with relevant stakeholders, i.e. identify successes, flag challenges, and make recommendations about adapting activities and approaches to achieve results.
• Work with the program and research teams to support program assessments, surveys, and impact evaluations.

Data-driven accountability and learning:

• Lead efforts to maintain and improve data-driven practices for measuring program effectiveness and continuous improvement of all program operations.
• Facilitate cross-partner learning and own the process capturing key lessons and findings to inform evidence-based program design and implementation.
• Oversee implementation of strong accountability and beneficiary / community feedback mechanisms, including quality assurance of established processes.
• Coordinate learning processes and documents, including periodically organizing learning summits for reflections on program performance, dissemination of M&E findings, and  driving partnerships and donor engagement.
• Collaborate with communications teams to collect, document, and disseminate impact stories. 

Stakeholder management:

• Coordinate and manage relationships with local community leaders, schools, parents, local education authorities, and other project stakeholders and partners.
• Support dissemination of project processes and outcomes with local and government stakeholders and share any feedback with Imagine’s team.
• Ensure effective communications between Imagine, the ISPs and the Ministry, by detailing key activities, challenges, and programmatic needs to achieve program success.
• Represent the work in local meetings and forums relevant to the progress of the project in various sites.

Capacity building:

• Support the Director of Programs in strengthening program quality by reviewing Program Managers’ implementation reports, monitoring key performance indicators, and identifying trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement. Provide constructive feedback to Program Managers to enhance learning and continuous improvement.
• Provide Program Managers, ISPs, and other colleagues who support program delivery with guidance on Imagine’s standard processes, norms, and standards to ensure consistent, high-quality program implementation across all sites.
• Provide Program Managers with thought-partnership and coaching in technical and program management skills, including data use and operational problem-solving.
• Train team members, implementation partners, ministry staff, district officials on adopting and using the standardised systems that enable us to manage programs efficiently and effectively at scale.
• Support the Director of Programs in the documentation of program implementation lessons, best practices, and innovations emerging from ISP implementation.
• Support the design and facilitation of training sessions, reflection workshops, and performance review meetings to enhance program effectiveness and scalability.

Requirements

Education and Work Experience

The successful candidate will possess the following competencies, experiences, and qualities: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field (development or social studies).
• Minimum of 7-10 years of proven work experience in program management of development programs, with at least 3-5 years in a senior or leadership role managing teams and implementation partners
• Proven track record in managing multi-site, multi-partner program implementation in complex environments

Ideal Candidate Profile

Exceptional project management skills and proven experience that includes: 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Chichewa 
• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills 
• Ability to work effectively in multicultural environments and teams 
• Strong organization skills and superior attention to detail 
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines 
• Ability to proactively manage and resolve conflicts
• Good knowledge of computer hardware and software 
• Experience in managing multi-site and multi partner projects 
• Ability to positively influence partners decisions and actions 
• Proven facilitation and training skills with diverse audiences 
• Ability to prioritize and display a high level of adaptability/flexibility while handling job responsibility
• Ability to design and coordinate implementation of MEAL systems
• Excellent skills in MS Excel and other tools for organizing, performing calculations, analyzing and presenting data
• Proven understanding of systematic knowledge management within development organizations and a capacity to promote organizational learning
• Proven understanding of evaluation methodologies, analysis, and presentation of key findings to inform decision making and facilitate adaptive programming
• Strong communication skills and ability to write clear and concise reports

Additional Skills 

• Passion for Imagine’s mission and vision
• Demonstrated commitment to equity in educational access and outcomes
• Strong writing and communications skills
• Relationship builder with the flexibility and finesse to ‘manage by influence’
• Team-oriented, collaborative, flexible, adaptable, and comfortable working in an inclusive, low-ego, matrix-management environment
• Self-starter, able to work independently, and enjoys creating and implementing new initiatives.
• Collaborative team player; clear and proactive communicator
• High integrity, conscientious and willing to take responsibility

Qualities

•  Passion for Imagine’s mission and vision 
•  Demonstrated commitment to equity in educational access and outcomes
• Passion for project management
• Demonstrated ability to think independently and solve problems
• Collaborative team player; clear and proactive communicator
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to work in a fast-paced, changing environment

 

Compensation & Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience.

 

Location

The Senior Program Manager must be based in Lilongwe, Malawi.

 

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Imagine Worldwide is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.