INTRODUCTION TO THE ROLE

The Head of Programme Design and Quality provides strategic and technical leadership to ensure high-quality, evidence-based, and fundable programme design across Girls Not Brides' Country Impact portfolio. Working closely with Regional Heads, the Development team, and other key stakeholders, the role drives programme quality, strengthens design methodologies and systems, and supports the development of donor-ready, high-impact programmes across Africa, Asia, and Latin America & the Caribbean.

The role also leads cross-regional coordination, supports organisational learning and programme excellence, oversees global member engagement, and provides strategic oversight of coalition grant portfolios to ensure alignment, quality, and impact.

ABOUT YOU

You are an experienced programme design and quality professional with a strong track record of developing high-quality, donor-funded international development programmes. You bring expertise in programme design, MEAL, theory of change, proposal development, and programme quality assurance, coupled with experience working across multiple countries or regions.

A collaborative and strategic leader, you excel at translating organisational strategy into fundable programmes, strengthening systems and ways of working, and providing practical technical guidance to diverse teams and partners. You are an effective communicator, relationship builder, and problem solver, committed to driving impact through evidence, learning, and continuous improvement.

Working as a global team, all Girls Not Brides’ team members may from time to time be expected to work outside normal working hours (e.g., early morning or early evening) this is not a regular occurrence and is only to accommodate collaboration of teams across different time zones.

This role may require some international travel, as necessary.

Salary range

Market competitive based on a detailed survey by the Birches Group of comparable national NGO salaries in selected location. Payments will be made in local currency of where it is located.

Contract

This is a fixed term contract for 2 years

The successful candidate must have the legal right to work in either Kenya, India, Mexico, or the UK at the time of application and for the full duration of the initial two-year contract.

KEY RESPONSIBILTIES

Technical Leadership and Programme Quality

• Lead and strengthen programme quality management for our Country Impact work across Africa, Asia and Latin American and the Caribbean.
• Lead the development, harmonisation and application of programme tools, frameworks, and processes across the full project lifecycle (e.g. country analysis, project design, theories of change, grantee selection, etc.).
• Provide guidance and quality assurance to ensure coherent, consistent, and high-impact programmes across Accelerator and Strategic Engagement (SE) countries, aligned with organisational strategy ambition and quality standards.
• Strengthen organisational and team member capacity to manage larger and more complex restricted programmes, enhancing delivery quality across portfolios.
• Coordinate and provide technical support packages (e.g., tools, trainings) to member coalitions, covering project design and management, as well as coalition-level organisational strengthening, to ensure high-quality delivery.
• Work closely with the MEAL team to strengthen theories of change, results frameworks, and results-based designs approaches to guide implementation and reporting.

Program Design and Fundable Programme Development

• Act as the Programme Lead for concept note and proposal development, ensuring high-quality, competitive and strategically aligned submissions to donors working closely with the development team (DOT) and Regional Heads.
• Lead and coordinate programme design across regions, ensuring consistent standards and approaches, while maintaining alignment with organisational strategy and donor priorities.
• Support regional teams to operationalise organisational strategy into clear, fundable programme designs in Accelerator and Strategic Engagement countries.
• Develop and roll out practical programme design tools and facilitate participatory design processes with regional teams, coalitions, partners, and stakeholders where relevant.
• Strengthen organisational and team member capacity to design complex and restricted programs, improving both quality and funding readiness.
• Provide technical guidance on consortium-based approaches within programme design.

Cross-Regional Coordination, Portfolio Alignment and Global Membership

• Ensure learning and evidence are systematically captured and embedded into programme guidance and practice across regions in support of the continuous refinement of Girls Not Brides’ Accelerator and Strategic Engagement country models.
• Strengthen and coordinate cross-regional initiatives and the use of shared methodologies, frameworks and tools, ensuring consistency while allowing for regional contextualisation.
• Responsible for Girls Not Brides’ grant portfolio to coalitions, ensuring alignment with organisational outcomes, timelines, and budgets, and maintaining consistent, high‑quality grant management through guidance, oversight, and line management of the Senior Grants Officer.
• Responsible for the global member engagement offer to the global membership, ensuring value is maximised from tools and learning generated across the organisation and effectively shared with members; and oversee global membership communications, systems and processes, including line management of the Senior Officer for Membership and Partnerships.
• Consolidate and provide strategic coherence and quality assurance across cross‑regional inputs, such as planning, methodologies, and narrative reporting, ensuring alignment and consistency to enable effective decision‑making and onward engagement with relevant teams.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Proven substantial experience in designing high-quality, fundable programmes and projects, including leading and shaping the development of complex concept notes and donor proposals for multi-million-dollar initiatives.
• Proven successful delivery in programme design, management and quality, and the application of harmonised methodologies, frameworks and tools across the full project lifecycle, with the ability to drive their adoption across teams or regions.
• Extensive experience in strengthening organisational systems, processes and ways of working to enhance programme design, quality and implementation at scale.
• Strong experience working across multiple countries or regions, with the ability to lead and coordinate cross-regional processes and ensure consistency and alignment.
• Proven successful expertise and results in supporting programme development for funded initiatives, with a strong understanding of donor requirements, competitive funding environments, and what makes projects fundable.
• Experience working with coalitions, civil society organisations or membership-based networks, including capacity strengthening and support.
• Proven ability to provide senior technical guidance and hands-on support to diverse teams, partners and stakeholders, including operating effectively in a matrix structure without direct line management authority, and influencing decision-making at multiple levels of the organisation.

Desirable

• Experience in ending child marriage, gender equality, girls’ rights or related sectors
• Experience designing large-scale, multi-country programmes with systemic or policy-level impact.
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing high-quality programmes in coalitions, alliances, consortia or other forms of multi-partner programme delivery.
• Experience designing and facilitating participatory programme design processes (e.g. Theory of Change development, programme development workshops).
• Familiarity with using learning, knowledge management, and evidence to inform programme design.

• Lead and strengthen programme quality management for our Country Impact work across Africa, Asia and Latin American and the Caribbean.
• Lead the development, harmonisation and application of programme tools, frameworks, and processes across the full project lifecycle (e.g. country analysis, project design, theories of change, grantee selection, etc.).
• Provide guidance and quality assurance to ensure coherent, consistent, and high-impact programmes across Accelerator and Strategic Engagement (SE) countries, aligned with organisational strategy ambition and quality standards.
• Strengthen organisational and team member capacity to manage larger and more complex restricted programmes, enhancing delivery quality across portfolios.
• Coordinate and provide technical support packages (e.g., tools, trainings) to member coalitions, covering project design and management, as well as coalition-level organisational strengthening, to ensure high-quality delivery.
• Work closely with the MEAL team to strengthen theories of change, results frameworks, and results-based designs approaches to guide implementation and reporting.
• Act as the Programme Lead for concept note and proposal development, ensuring high-quality, competitive and strategically aligned submissions to donors working closely with the development team (DOT) and Regional Heads.
• Lead and coordinate programme design across regions, ensuring consistent standards and approaches, while maintaining alignment with organisational strategy and donor priorities.
• Support regional teams to operationalise organisational strategy into clear, fundable programme designs in Accelerator and Strategic Engagement countries.
• Develop and roll out practical programme design tools and facilitate participatory design processes with regional teams, coalitions, partners, and stakeholders where relevant.
• Strengthen organisational and team member capacity to design complex and restricted programs, improving both quality and funding readiness.
• Provide technical guidance on consortium-based approaches within programme design.
• Ensure learning and evidence are systematically captured and embedded into programme guidance and practice across regions in support of the continuous refinement of Girls Not Brides’ Accelerator and Strategic Engagement country models.
• Strengthen and coordinate cross-regional initiatives and the use of shared methodologies, frameworks and tools, ensuring consistency while allowing for regional contextualisation.
• Responsible for Girls Not Brides’ grant portfolio to coalitions, ensuring alignment with organisational outcomes, timelines, and budgets, and maintaining consistent, high‑quality grant management through guidance, oversight, and line management of the Senior Grants Officer.
• Responsible for the global member engagement offer to the global membership, ensuring value is maximised from tools and learning generated across the organisation and effectively shared with members; and oversee global membership communications, systems and processes, including line management of the Senior Officer for Membership and Partnerships.
• Consolidate and provide strategic coherence and quality assurance across cross‑regional inputs, such as planning, methodologies, and narrative reporting, ensuring alignment and consistency to enable effective decision‑making and onward engagement with relevant teams.

• Programme design
• MEAL
• Theory of change
• Proposal development
• Programme quality assurance
• Cross-country/regional experience
• Strategic leadership
• Communication
• Relationship building
• Problem-solving
• Capacity strengthening
• Grant management
• Knowledge management
• Evidence-based practice

• Proven substantial experience in designing high-quality, fundable programmes and projects, including leading and shaping the development of complex concept notes and donor proposals for multi-million-dollar initiatives.
• Proven successful delivery in programme design, management and quality, and the application of harmonised methodologies, frameworks and tools across the full project lifecycle, with the ability to drive their adoption across teams or regions.
• Extensive experience in strengthening organisational systems, processes and ways of working to enhance programme design, quality and implementation at scale.
• Strong experience working across multiple countries or regions, with the ability to lead and coordinate cross-regional processes and ensure consistency and alignment.
• Proven successful expertise and results in supporting programme development for funded initiatives, with a strong understanding of donor requirements, competitive funding environments, and what makes projects fundable.
• Experience working with coalitions, civil society organisations or membership-based networks, including capacity strengthening and support.
• Proven ability to provide senior technical guidance and hands-on support to diverse teams, partners and stakeholders, including operating effectively in a matrix structure without direct line management authority, and influencing decision-making at multiple levels of the organisation.
• Experience in ending child marriage, gender equality, girls’ rights or related sectors (Desirable)
• Experience designing large-scale, multi-country programmes with systemic or policy-level impact (Desirable)
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing high-quality programmes in coalitions, alliances, consortia or other forms of multi-partner programme delivery (Desirable)
• Experience designing and facilitating participatory programme design processes (e.g. Theory of Change development, programme development workshops) (Desirable)
• Familiarity with using learning, knowledge management, and evidence to inform programme design (Desirable)