Amref Health Africa was founded in 1957 and has since grown to become the largest African-based international health development organisation; currently implementing more than 180 programmes, reaching more than 40 million people across 35 African countries; and a staff complement of over 2,000. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref Health Africa has offices in ten countries in Africa – Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Guinea (Conakry), Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. An additional eleven advocacy and fundraising offices are located in Europe and North America.

Amref Health Africa is driven by its vision of ‘Lasting health change in Africa’ and its mission ‘To catalyse and drive community-led and people-centred health systems while addressing social determinants of health’. We believe that the power to transform Africa's health lies within its communities, and therefore strive to ensure that health systems are not only functional but that communities are empowered to hold these systems accountable for the delivery of quality and affordable health care.

About the Project

The Programme Director will lead the shaping and execution of the Future4Binti (F4B) programme, which sits within the Programmes Division at the Amref headquarters. This is a 5-year programme in partnership with Plan International and select Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) that will be implemented in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Practices like female genital cutting and child marriage harm hundreds of millions of girls and women worldwide, violating their rights and limiting their health and future. In East Africa - especially Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia - these practices remain common because of deep-rooted traditions, poverty, and weak laws, made worse by gender inequality and crises like conflict and climate shocks. Despite efforts to end them, progress is slow due to systemic challenges and regional differences.

To address these challenges, the Future4Binti (F4B) programme seeks to protect girls from harmful practices like female genital cutting and child marriage by challenging harmful social norms, promoting positive behaviour change, and improving care for those affected. Its goal is to create safer communities where girls can enjoy better health and reach their full potential.

Reporting to the RMNCAH Technical Director, the Programme Director will provide overall strategic and leadership support for effective programme delivery and sustainable impact, ensuring that the commitments made in the grant are attained and surpassed in line with the organisation’s strategy and goals.

You are a people person who understands the importance and power of building strong relationships to drive a common and ambitious goal. You inspire cross-cultural teams that are either direct or indirect reports, or partners, towards a common mission and goal, driving them to deliver impactful results.

You are strategic and innovative, and you are able to connect dots and communicate clearly with a diverse range of audiences. You are a problem solver, looking at each challenge as an opportunity to find innovation in the way of doing things. You are highly organised and have great attention to detail. You are committed to achieving stellar results and success, and can delegate responsibility to an empowered team. However, you are not afraid to get your hands dirty and get involved when needed.

Stakeholder and partner engagement and management are skill sets that you pride yourself in. You thrive under pressure, can prioritise, are resilient and have a high level of EQ. You are a great communicator and a leader who can inspire your team. You are confident, and can communicate directions and solutions clearly to both technical and non-technical staff. You’re a team player, who’s pragmatic and driven, and ultimately has a passion to deliver impact!

Principal Responsibilities

Leadership

• Provide strategic leadership to the programme, articulating a clear vision, and fostering confidence and team spirit among programme staff, partners and stakeholders.
• Actively participate in and/or lead the programme’s governance structures, including the Steering Committee and the Programme Implementation Team (PIT), ensuring effective decision-making and implementation.
• Steward strategic partnerships and relationships.

Programme Management

• Oversee and manage the design, development, and timely programme execution, including setting annual budgets, goals and targets
• Provide quality assurance and technical oversight to the implementing teams to foster continuous improvement in quality, programmatic and financial performance.
• Ensure programme operational tools such as programme charter, programme reports, M&E frameworks, budgets, and work plans are in place for effective implementation.
• Embed data-driven, adaptive implementation approaches to sustain relevance and facilitate continuous improvement and timely course correction.
• Ensure programme alignment with the funder and Amref’s corporate strategies, policies, operational guidelines, and protocols, as applicable.

Talent Management

• Foster the development of the programme team, line manage direct reports, and build a culture of high performance and resilience in line with Amref’s values of ubuntu, integrity and quality.
• Identify staff development needs and provide coaching and mentorship, as well as link to training and development opportunities, to spur performance.
• Support the building of cross-country and cross-entity effectiveness and efficiencies, making strong operational and strategic linkages for the programme in the organisation.

Evidence and Learning

• Drive the programme's learning agenda, including documentation of promising practices.
• Provide oversight for all donor reports, evaluation reports, and other reports emanating from the programme to ensure timeliness and quality.
• Effectively manage the generation and dissemination of strategic information to staff, partners and stakeholders.
• Establish a conducive environment for learning across the programme's implementing countries and entities.
• Provide thought leadership to advance the health and livelihoods agenda in the region and beyond.

Partnership Management, Advocacy and Networking

• Provide leadership in identifying relevant policy issues and supporting policy advocacy actions and processes.
• Contribute to and facilitate team participation in relevant external technical working groups and committees to inform the health agenda in the region.
• Manage internal and external relations with public and private sector players, including funding partners, implementing partners, and collaborators that are stakeholders in the programme.

Business Development

• Cultivate, maintain and deepen relationships with the funding partner, and partner entities to facilitate programme growth.
• Work closely with the corporate business development team to identify, pursue and secure funding opportunities for leverage and extension of the programme.

Education and Experience

• Master's and professional qualifications in relevant areas such as business administration, public health, or international development.
• A minimum of eight (08) years implementing complex multi-country programmes in health and/or international development, including at least three (03) years in a senior leadership role.
• Demonstrable experience managing multi-layered and socially complex programmes.
• Solid track record of achievement in partnership management and programme delivery.

Skills and Competencies:

• Strategic Leadership: Ability to rally teams behind ambitious goals and create compelling programme strategies.
• Programme Management: Proven success in overseeing large-scale, multi-year, multi-country, multi-partner programmes.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: Skilled in using data and evidence to drive programme performance and sustainable impact.
• Partnership Building: Strong networking skills and experience managing multi-partner governance structures.
• Team Leadership: Ability to inspire, motivate, and guide diverse, geographically dispersed teams.
• Communication: Excellent public speaking and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Established experience working with multicultural teams and stakeholders across Africa, including Euro-Africa relations.

Please include a cover letter that highlights why you believe you are an ideal candidate for this role, along with your CV showcasing your relevant skills and experience. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with the application deadline being January 23rd 2026.

Amref Health Africa does not require applicants to pay any money at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process and has not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. Although Amref may use different job boards from time to time to further spread its reach for applicants, all open vacancies are published on our website under the Vacancies page and on our official social media pages. Kindly also note that official emails from Amref Health Africa will arrive from an @amref.org address.

Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is is dedicated to diversity and is an equal-opportunity employer with a non-smoking environment policy.