Plan International was founded over 75 years ago with a mission to promote and protect the rights of children. The organisation was set up by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge in 1937, with the original aim to provide food, accommodation and education to children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil W...

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Director of Program

Job Type

Full Time

Qualification

MBA/MSc/MA

Experience

12 years

Location

Nairobi

Job Field

Project Management

The Director of Program shall provide strategic leadership and oversight to the program portfolio, ensuring the design, implementation and evaluation of high-quality, gender-transformative programs that advance children’s rights and equality for girls in line with the Country Strategy. The position leads the program team and steers all programmatic functions—including technical leadership, influencing and advocacy, monitoring, evaluation, research and learning, partnerships, sponsorship, youth engagement and business development support—to ensure excellence, accountability and impact. The role holder oversees program planning, delivery, risk management and budget execution in coordination with functional, technical, Program and Project leads, and ensures the integration of safeguarding standards and organizational policies across all interventions. As a member of the Country Management Team, the role contributes to development of the country strategic plan, strategic decision-making, strengthens program quality and operational effectiveness, and upholds Plan International’s values, standards and commitments to ending child poverty and achieving equality for girls.

ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN WORK ACTIVITIES

Program strategy Development (20%)

• Provides leadership in strategy formulation, implementation planning, execution, and monitoring to ensure alignment with global Plan international guidance, regional strategy, country context, priorities and requirements of donors and other Plan International frameworks
• Develop and review technically sound sector approaches and strategies that will enable the Plan Kenya to respond to humanitarian emergency and sustainable development needs of the operational areas of Plan International.
• Develop the Country Strategy Programmes in line with the global procedures and the core components and requirements within Plan’s thematic areas
• Develop and implement a clear plan to strengthen programme quality in all areas to a high standard.
• Oversee the development of communication, awareness-raising and resource mobilisation strategies and plans and support progress as appropriate
• Develop, implement and monitor to the highest quality standards PIK’s programme implementation budgets.
• Develop an effective and efficient sponsorship and program alignment strategy including new sponsorship products
• Appropriately implement global gender and inclusion policies according to a well-articulated strategy adapted to local realities.
• Establish clear disaster risk reduction, mitigation and response strategies at the national level and integrate them into long-term programmes where appropriate.
• Ensure that information flow with other countries, GH and NO meets operational needs and promotes cooperation, teamwork and mission planning

Programme Implementation (20%)

• Lead the annual operational planning and oversee the implementation and monitoring of programmes towards achieving the objectives of the country strategy
• Ensure that all projects are designed, planned and implemented as per Country Strategy but also in alignment with the Project Management manual and Project management best practice
• Manage a team of functional leads and support them in all steps of the program and project cycles ensuring support is provided to teams in the field as required.
• Develop high performance measurement criteria for project and programmes in line with the PM manual and the Programme and Influence Quality Policy (PIQP)
• Support Plan International's program implementation partners and ensure they receive project management technical support and are trained in accordance with their capacity building plans.
• Promote program quality and effectiveness, support knowledge management and learning through robust monitoring and evaluation
• Lead the implementation of standards related to the Child Protection Policy and fulfill Plan's Child Protection Policy at all times to ensure children are protected from all forms of abuse.
• Maintain horizontal working links with other functional heads/leads
• Coordinate knowledge sharing processes and initiatives between projects on quality implementation aspects by supporting the use of synergy initiatives and pooling of resources and skills.
• Support the implementation of sponsorship commitments

New Business Development and Resource Mobilization (10%)

• In collaboration with the Business Development Manager, ensure relevant resource mobilization strategies and plans are in place to support the delivery of the CS.
• Based on Portfolio and Pipeline Analysis, review and position for opportunities that will drive the CSP.
• In consultation with the Country Director and National Offices, ensure technical engagement with donors to pre-position and prepare for opportunities, and engage in strategic positioning work directly as appropriate.
• Ensure relevant program staff provide technical inputs and coordinate with the BDU to develop high quality concept notes, proposals, capacity statements etc. to meet the Country Program grant acquisition targets.
• Oversee the development of high-quality proposals and concept notes, providing strategic guidance to ensure technical soundness, gender-transformative approaches, strong Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning frameworks, and clear alignment to donor requirements.
• Lead ideation and concept development aligned to the Country Strategy and program priorities, generating high-quality program and project ideas that inform and strengthen the business development team’s funding opportunities and pipeline.

Knowledge Management and MERL (10%)

• Establish and promote an effective knowledge management system/approach for learning, sharing, scaling up and innovation.
• Develop Monitoring and evaluation plans and framework to support the implementation of the Country Strategy and the programmes’ quality.
• Monitor and review programme and projects reports and develop appropriate strategies to ensure the achievement of project/programme objectives
• Develop and implement an intra- and inter- project control mechanisms to build synergies and minimise the risk of duplication and waste of resources.
• Annually review progress toward achieving Country Strategy, make determination whether or not PIK is on track to achieve CSP objectives and target, identify challenges and make recommendation accordingly.

Influencing and Advocacy (10%)

• Design/review/update and implement an influencing/advocacy strategy with an integrated approach in collaboration with staff and partners
• Lead Functions and thematic specialists to identify advocacy issues and take them to the national level
• Conduct in-depth power and policy analysis of country structures, systems and networks to identify opportunities for change in national law, policy, budget and behaviour that will achieve the strategic goals and objectives set by the country office.
• Ensure that programmes and monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) are closely linked to ensure tha

• Provides leadership in strategy formulation, implementation planning, execution, and monitoring to ensure alignment with global Plan international guidance, regional strategy, country context, priorities and requirements of donors and other Plan International frameworks
• Develop and review technically sound sector approaches and strategies that will enable the Plan Kenya to respond to humanitarian emergency and sustainable development needs of the operational areas of Plan International.
• Develop the Country Strategy Programmes in line with the global procedures and the core components and requirements within Plan’s thematic areas
• Develop and implement a clear plan to strengthen programme quality in all areas to a high standard.
• Oversee the development of communication, awareness-raising and resource mobilisation strategies and plans and support progress as appropriate
• Develop, implement and monitor to the highest quality standards PIK’s programme implementation budgets.
• Develop an effective and efficient sponsorship and program alignment strategy including new sponsorship products
• Appropriately implement global gender and inclusion policies according to a well-articulated strategy adapted to local realities.
• Establish clear disaster risk reduction, mitigation and response strategies at the national level and integrate them into long-term programmes where appropriate.
• Ensure that information flow with other countries, GH and NO meets operational needs and promotes cooperation, teamwork and mission planning
• Lead the annual operational planning and oversee the implementation and monitoring of programmes towards achieving the objectives of the country strategy
• Ensure that all projects are designed, planned and implemented as per Country Strategy but also in alignment with the Project Management manual and Project management best practice
• Manage a team of functional leads and support them in all steps of the program and project cycles ensuring support is provided to teams in the field as required.
• Develop high performance measurement criteria for project and programmes in line with the PM manual and the Programme and Influence Quality Policy (PIQP)
• Support Plan International's program implementation partners and ensure they receive project management technical support and are trained in accordance with their capacity building plans.
• Promote program quality and effectiveness, support knowledge management and learning through robust monitoring and evaluation
• Lead the implementation of standards related to the Child Protection Policy and fulfill Plan's Child Protection Policy at all times to ensure children are protected from all forms of abuse.
• Maintain horizontal working links with other functional heads/leads
• Coordinate knowledge sharing processes and initiatives between projects on quality implementation aspects by supporting the use of synergy initiatives and pooling of resources and skills.
• Support the implementation of sponsorship commitments
• In collaboration with the Business Development Manager, ensure relevant resource mobilization strategies and plans are in place to support the delivery of the CS.
• Based on Portfolio and Pipeline Analysis, review and position for opportunities that will drive the CSP.
• In consultation with the Country Director and National Offices, ensure technical engagement with donors to pre-position and prepare for opportunities, and engage in strategic positioning work directly as appropriate.
• Ensure relevant program staff provide technical inputs and coordinate with the BDU to develop high quality concept notes, proposals, capacity statements etc. to meet the Country Program grant acquisition targets.
• Oversee the development of high-quality proposals and concept notes, providing strategic guidance to ensure technical soundness, gender-transformative approaches, strong Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning frameworks, and clear alignment to donor requirements.
• Lead ideation and concept development aligned to the Country Strategy and program priorities, generating high-quality program and project ideas that inform and strengthen the business development team’s funding opportunities and pipeline.
• Establish and promote an effective knowledge management system/approach for learning, sharing, scaling up and innovation.
• Develop Monitoring and evaluation plans and framework to support the implementation of the Country Strategy and the programmes’ quality.
• Monitor and review programme and projects reports and develop appropriate strategies to ensure the achievement of project/programme objectives
• Develop and implement an intra- and inter- project control mechanisms to build synergies and minimise the risk of duplication and waste of resources.
• Annually review progress toward achieving Country Strategy, make determination whether or not PIK is on track to achieve CSP objectives and target, identify challenges and make recommendation accordingly.
• Design/review/update and implement an influencing/advocacy strategy with an integrated approach in collaboration with staff and partners
• Lead Functions and thematic specialists to identify advocacy issues and take them to the national level
• Conduct in-depth power and policy analysis of country structures, systems and networks to identify opportunities for change in national law, policy, budget and behaviour that will achieve the strategic goals and objectives set by the country office.
• Ensure that programmes and monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) are closely linked to ensure tha

• MBA/MSc/MA