Job Vacancy at Jhpiego: Senior Project Director – AFGHS-Jhpiego Tanzania | October 2026

Job Overview

Organization: Jhpiego
Position: Senior Project Director – AFGHS-Jhpiego Tanzania
Duty Station: Tanzania (Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar)
Job Type: Full-Time
Job ID: 2026-8235
Application Deadline: October 15, 2026
Project: AFGHS-Jhpiego Tanzania
Funding Agency: U.S. Department of State (DoS)

About Jhpiego and the AFGHS-Jhpiego Project

The AFGHS-Jhpiego project is funded by the U.S. Department of State (DoS) to support the delivery of lifesaving, comprehensive maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and malaria services across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. The project aims to improve service and data quality, strengthen health-system integration and resilience, facilitate effective transition, and promote local ownership and accountability for sustained health outcomes.

Jhpiego works closely with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the Reproductive and Child Health Section (RCHS), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme (ZAMEP), and Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) structures. These partnerships help align implementation with national priorities, strengthen government leadership and locally led implementation, and support sustainable transition and oversight.

Position Summary

The Senior Project Director – AFGHS-Jhpiego Tanzania provides overall strategic leadership, direction, and management for the AFGHS-Jhpiego project in Tanzania. The role is accountable for achieving the project’s programmatic, technical, financial, operational, and contractual results across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

The Senior Project Director ensures that project resources and implementation are aligned with the approved scope, quality standards, costs, timelines, milestones, and payment-linked deliverables. The position also ensures that interventions are technically sound, evidence-based, responsive to national priorities, and informed by routine performance data and adaptive management.

The role has overall accountability for project quality and integrity, compliance with U.S. Department of State requirements, Jhpiego policies, and applicable national regulations. It also requires proactive identification and mitigation of programmatic, operational, financial, fiduciary, and compliance risks.

The Senior Project Director serves as the project’s primary senior-level point of contact with the U.S. Department of State and leads engagement with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, PMO-RALG, NMCP, ZAMEP, and other government, implementing, research, private-sector, civil society, and development partners.

The position leads the Senior Management Team to coordinate comprehensive MNCH and malaria interventions across technical teams, field implementation, monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL), finance, operations, grants, and partnership functions.

The successful candidate must have demonstrated technical expertise in either malaria or maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH). The Senior Project Director will provide senior technical leadership in their area of expertise and work closely with the Sustainability and Transition Director, who provides complementary technical leadership in the other program area.

The role also leads the project’s sustainability and transition strategy, ensuring that government leadership, ownership, institutional capacity, and sustainable financing are integrated into implementation. This includes progressively institutionalizing project-supported interventions within government policies, plans, budgets, workforce, service delivery, data and accountability, and community systems.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership and Program Direction

• Provide overall strategic, programmatic, technical, operational, and financial leadership to achieve project goals, objectives, results, milestones, and contractual requirements.
• Lead the Senior Management Team in setting priorities, implementation strategies, resource allocations, and management actions.
• Ensure technically sound, evidence-based, integrated MNCH and malaria interventions aligned with national policies, strategies, guidelines, and government priorities.
• Align project resources with approved scope, quality, costs, timelines, work plans, and payment-linked milestones.
• Promote data-driven planning, adaptive management, innovation, and timely course correction across project functions and implementation areas.
• Make timely strategic decisions and resolve implementation bottlenecks affecting performance, milestone achievement, service continuity, or sustainability.
• Coordinate with the Country Director and Jhpiego global and home office teams to align project activities with country, project, and organizational priorities.

2. Milestone Achievement, Tracking, Verification, and Payments

• Ensure achievement of approved project milestones and payment-linked deliverables by aligning activities, technical assistance, resources, budgets, and timelines with milestone requirements.
• Establish and oversee an integrated milestone management process covering requirements, responsible teams, implementation progress, documentation, verification, submission, approval, invoicing, and payment.
• Hold technical, field implementation, MERL, finance, and operations leads accountable for their contributions to milestone achievement.
• Conduct routine progress reviews, identify milestones at risk, and direct corrective actions, technical support, management attention, or resource adjustments.
• Ensure milestone results are supported by complete, accurate, timely, and verifiable programmatic and financial documentation that meets DoS requirements.
• Coordinate technical, MERL, finance, and program teams in preparing and submitting milestone verification packages and payment documentation.
• Monitor milestone submissions, verification status, approvals, invoices, payments received, outstanding payments, and implications for project cash flow and implementation.
• Review performance, expenditure, timelines, milestone achievement, and payment status through project management and performance monitoring systems.

3. Technical Leadership and Integrated Implementation

• Provide senior technical leadership and strategic guidance in either malaria or MNCH, based on the successful candidate’s expertise.
• Work with the Sustainability and Transition Director to ensure complementary senior technical leadership across malaria and MNCH.
• Oversee technical quality across MNCH, malaria, community health, health systems strengthening, and related interventions.
• Coordinate with Technical Directors and senior technical leads to ensure approaches are integrated, evidence-based, and aligned with national policies, standards, and priorities.
• Ensure technical assistance responds to national, regional, council, facility, and community priorities and addresses service delivery and health-system performance gaps.
• Ensure technical and field teams receive the technical, operational, financial, and management support needed to achieve approved results and milestones.
• Maintain current knowledge of national and global evidence, policies, standards, and emerging practices in the relevant technical area.
• Translate relevant evidence into project strategy and implementation.
• Integrate project-supported interventions into routine government service delivery, supervision, workforce development, data, planning, budgeting, and accountability systems.
• Ensure scale-up approaches consider government capacity, affordability, institutionalization, transition, and sustainability from the outset.

4. Government, Donor, and Partner Engagement

• Serve as the primary senior-level project contact for DoS on strategic, programmatic, contractual, performance, and routine matters.
• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, RALG, NMCP, ZAMEP, regional and council authorities, and other government institutions.
• Collaborate with government counterparts to ensure technical assistance and implementation respond to national and subnational priorities.
• Maintain productive relationships with implementing partners, research institutions, civil society organizations, private-sector partners, professional bodies, and other stakeholders.
• Represent project progress, achievements, challenges, lessons learned, milestone performance, and strategic priorities in high-level government, donor, technical, and partner forums.
• Promote coordination among DoS implementing partners and other stakeholders to reduce duplication, leverage resources, address implementation gaps, and support coordinated transition.
• Ensure government counterparts participate meaningfully in project planning, implementation, performance reviews, decision-making, and transition.
• Promote partnership, mutual accountability, and timely resolution of issues involving partners, sub-recipients, and collaborating organizations.

5. Sustainability and Transition

• Lead the development, implementation, and monitoring of the project’s sustainability and transition strategy and related national and subnational transition plans.
• Work with the Sustainability and Transition Director to integrate sustainability and transition across all technical and operational areas.
• Embed sustainability and transition in project planning, budgeting, technical assistance, milestone management, performance monitoring, partnership management, and implementation.
• Work with government counterparts to assess and address sustainability priorities and barriers relating to governance, workforce, financing, service delivery, data and accountability, and community ownership.
• Establish and monitor transition milestones, benchmarks, and readiness criteria for progressively transferring project-supported leadership, implementation, technical assistance, supervision, and monitoring functions to government structures.
• Ensure project-supported approaches are institutionalized within government policies, plans, budgets, workforce structures, technical guidance, service delivery, supervision, data systems, and accountability mechanisms.
• Strengthen existing government structures, systems, tools, and processes while minimizing parallel project systems.
• Work with government, finance, and technical teams to identify costs, financing gaps, and opportunities to incorporate priority MNCH and malaria interventions into government plans and budgets.
• Strengthen government and local partner capacity to plan, finance, implement, supervise, monitor, and sustain priority interventions.
• Assess transition readiness, progress, and risks regularly and direct corrective action where gaps threaten sustainability.
• Ensure transition decisions are evidence-based and protect continuity, quality, and equitable access to essential MNCH and malaria services.
• Hold technical and operational leaders accountable for sustainability and transition milestones in their respective areas.

6. Performance Management, MERL, Learning, and Reporting

• Ensure robust systems monitor project performance, service quality, milestone achievement, sustainability, transition, and implementation progress.
• Work with MERL leadership to ensure the timely availability, quality, analysis, and use of program data for management decisions and accountability.
• Analyze programmatic and financial data and translate findings into actionable insights for adaptive management and course correction.
• Lead regular project performance and milestone reviews with the Senior Management Team and ensure agreed actions are assigned, tracked, and completed.
• Oversee the preparation, quality review, and timely submission of donor reports, milestone documentation, work plans, performance reports, and other deliverables.
• Provide timely, clear, accurate, and evidence-based responses to DoS requests for information.
• Document and disseminate achievements, implementation experiences, lessons learned, promising practices, and evidence through reports, presentations, technical products, abstracts, and publications.
• Use project learning to improve implementation, inform scale-up, strengthen sustainability, and guide transition decisions.

7. Financial, Operational, and Contractual Management

• Ensure programmatic and financial integrity and direct project resources toward approved priorities, milestones, and results.
• Work with finance and operations leadership to develop, monitor, and adjust budgets, forecasts, expenditure plans, and resource allocations.
• Ensure budgets and expenditures align with approved work plans, milestone requirements, implementation timelines, and payment-linked deliverables.
• Monitor financial performance, burn rates, pipeline, milestone-linked payments, operational performance, and other key management indicators.
• Oversee sub-awards, subcontracts, partners, consultants, vendors, and other project resources.
• Ensure compliance with DoS contractual requirements, Jhpiego and Johns Hopkins University policies and procedures, and applicable Tanzanian laws and regulations.
• Coordinate with Jhpiego home office teams on contractual management, funding obligations, approvals, financial management, technical support, and award requirements.
• Identify, assess, mitigate, and escalate programmatic, operational, financial, fiduciary, compliance, and reputational risks.
• Maintain project systems that are ready for donor reviews, milestone verification, financial reviews, audits, and other accountability requirements.

8. Team Leadership and Capacity Strengthening

• Lead, supervise, mentor, and support a high-performing multidisciplinary senior project team.
• Establish clear accountability for performance and results.
• Align technical, field implementation, MERL, finance, operations, grants, and partnership teams around common priorities, milestones, and transition objectives.
• Set clear performance expectations and provide regular feedback, coaching, mentorship, and support to direct reports.
• Ensure project leadership and management structures promote communication, collaboration, timely decision-making, problem-solving, and accountability.
• Promote integrity, inclusion, learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Strengthen project, government, and partner leadership and management capacity to support sustained implementation and progressive transition.
• Promote the transfer of knowledge, competencies, systems, and responsibilities needed for government ownership and sustainability.

9. Knowledge Sharing, Strategic Growth, and Representation

• Promote collaboration with government, implementing partners, civil society, research institutions, the private sector, and other stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to leverage complementary resources, partnerships, government investments, and other financing to strengthen MNCH and malaria outcomes and support sustainable transition.
• Represent Jhpiego and the project at relevant national, regional, and international technical, donor, and scientific forums.
• Oversee documentation and dissemination of project achievements, success stories, best practices, study findings, abstracts, and publications.
• Contribute to strategic growth, resource mobilization, and business development opportunities aligned with Jhpiego Tanzania priorities.
• Promote knowledge sharing across AFGHS, Jhpiego global technical teams, government counterparts, and other relevant platforms.

Required Qualifications and Experience

Applicants must meet the following requirements:

• A Master’s degree in public health, medicine, nursing, health systems management, public administration, project management, or another relevant advanced field.
• At least 10–15 years of progressively responsible experience leading and managing large, complex health programs, including substantial experience with U.S. Government-funded programs.
• Demonstrated senior-level technical expertise and substantial programming experience in either malaria or maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH).
• Experience designing, implementing, monitoring, and improving large-scale malaria or MNCH programs and translating national and global technical guidance into effective implementation approaches.
• Strong understanding of integrated health programming and the ability to provide overall leadership across a multidisciplinary portfolio covering both MNCH and malaria.
• Senior leadership experience in health systems strengthening and large-scale public health programming.
• Experience managing complex projects across multiple locations, including strategic planning, technical oversight, budgeting, financial management, field implementation, MERL, risk management, and reporting.
• Proven experience working with the Government of Tanzania at national and subnational levels, including Ministries of Health, national programs, regional and council authorities, and other government institutions.
• Experience engaging government technical leadership, national programs, technical working groups, senior donor representatives, implementing partners, research institutions, civil society, and private-sector stakeholders.
• Experience in sustainability, institutionalization, localization, health systems strengthening, and/or transitioning donor-supported programs to government leadership.
• Strong understanding of performance-based project management, including milestones, payment-linked deliverables, verification requirements, budgets, and implementation timelines.
• Ability to analyze programmatic and financial performance, identify risks and implementation bottlenecks, and lead timely corrective action.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and coordinating complex technical, operational, financial, and implementation functions.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Preferred Qualifications

• Fluency in English is required; proficiency in Kiswahili is strongly preferred.
• Strong leadership, strategic thinking, negotiation, communication, relationship management, and problem-solving skills.
• Professional certification in project management, such as PMP or PMD Pro, is desirable.

Salary and Benefits

Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package.

Application Instructions

Interested and qualified candidates should submit one document containing all three of the following:

1. Cover letter.
2. Resume/CV.
3. References.

Application deadline: October 15, 2026.

How to Apply

Submit your application through the official Jhpiego recruitment portal using the link below:

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

For more information about Jhpiego, visit the official website: https://www.jhpiego.org/

Important Information for Applicants

• The successful candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation.
• Jhpiego is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
• Jhpiego does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics.
• Jhpiego promotes affirmative action for minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and veterans.

Recruitment Scams and Fraud Warning

Jhpiego warns applicants about fraudulent job offers and recruitment scams.

• Recruiters will never ask applicants to pay a fee at any stage of recruitment.
• Active vacancies are advertised on the official Jhpiego careers page.
• Official Jhpiego emails use the @jhpiego.org domain.

Applicants should verify recruitment communications and avoid making payments in connection with a job application.