Senior Program Manager, Maximum Impact Incubator

Position Overview

The Maximum Impact Incubator (MII) aims to utilize econometrics and epidemiology to incubate programs across CHAI's entire portfolio that generate significant health impact through highly cost-effective programming. The Maximum Impact Incubator team has the exciting and challenging aim of working with CHAI’s country and program teams to develop the most cost-effective and scalable opportunities for new programs aligned with the Effective Altruism (EA) philosophy of maximizing the benefit of available resources.

As a Senior Program Manager on the MII team, you will play a key role in ensuring the programs graduated from the incubator run smoothly and deliver on agreed implementation, research, and learning objectives, including supporting program launch, implementation, coordination, and donor management. After the MII team completes its investigation of new programs, which includes assessing a program’s cost-effectiveness, potential research objectives and learning objectives, and programs receive grant funding from EA-aligned donors, these programs “graduate” from the incubator. During the implementation phase, graduated grants are owned and implemented by the relevant CHAI program and country team (e.g., a program delivering Zinc/ORS to treat childhood diarrhoea in Nigeria would be owned by CHAI’s Child Health and Nigeria teams during implementation); the incubator’s role is to manage the donor relationship and to serve as the institutional memory of the original vision that was agreed between the donor, MII and the program and country teams during the MII-led investigation.

The Senior Program Manager will be the steward of that intent: (1) supporting the handover and launch of newly graduating projects to the implementation teams, (2) ensuring implementing teams have a shared understanding of the cost-effectiveness evidence base of the program, delivery expectations and the tools needed to track delivery, (3) providing a critical technical advisory role to teams on the appropriate monitoring processes, study designs and research concepts to address questions in the donor’s monitoring and learning frameworks and to conduct impact evaluations or other evaluation methods required by the donor, and (4) monitoring implementation to ensure it remains aligned with the original concept, and acting as a bridge between implementation reality and grant commitments, flagging early if work plans shift, and keeping the donor accurately and proactively informed.

This role may require ~20% travel internationally and domestically. The Senior Program Manager is expected to have a reasonable ability to travel.

Preparing and transitioning newly graduated projects (15%)

• Before a project graduates, confirm that MII, program and country teams and donors are fully aligned on the concept and delivery expectations, and teams are ready to deliver so that any gaps are resolved before implementation
• Ensure the implementing team has a strong understanding of the back-of-the-envelope calculation (BOTEC) cost-effectiveness model and the evidence behind it
• Support the transition of newly graduated projects from investigation to implementation, including co-leading internal project kickoff (roles and responsibilities, work plan, budget, and M&E plan)
• Work with the implementing team ahead of graduation to make sure the BOTEC, budget, and work plan are aligned, and that key risks and government dependencies are identified up front
• Contribute to developing and testing MII SOPs, tools, and templates for launching and supporting graduated projects, including clear roles and responsibilities between MII, program and country teams
• Support implementing teams to set up monitoring and evaluation processes as to address donor’s monitoring and learning frameworks and conduct impact evaluations or other evaluation methods required by the donor

Donor management and stewardship of graduated projects (85%)

• Once projects have graduated, coordinate donor requests and internal workstreams on graduated programs, including but not limited to deliverable reviews, preparations for and follow up from meetings including documenting key decisions and requests from the donor, and contract reviews, serving as a quality check to ensure they are accurate, clear, consistent with one another (e.g., BOTEC, budget, and work plan), faithful to what was agreed, and acting as the primary point of contact between the donor and the implementing teams
• Set up the systems and serve as the institutional memory for each graduated grant:
  • Maintain a clear record of what the donor funded and why (concept, BOTEC assumptions, key commitments, and decisions made along the way)
  • Bring that context to implementing teams, particularly through staff transitions
• Convene a regular coordination forum that brings together MII, global program, and country teams
• Track progress against the workplan, budget, and critical milestones agreed with the donor, compare implementation with the original design and donor expectations, and raise discrepancies, delays, or changes to the agreed design promptly with program leadership so they can be resolved and communicated to the donor in a timely way
• Track implementation dependencies outside CHAI’s control (e.g., national or global guideline changes, government endorsement of new products, subnational approvals) against check-in milestones, and ensure the donor is proactively updated when key assumptions change
• Advise on technical aspects of graduated programs, particularly impact evaluations and other research and learning processes, in collaboration with CHAI’s Analytics and Implementation Research (AIR) team

• Masters or higher degree in economics, public health, epidemiology, nursing, or a related field
• Minimum of eight years work experience in global health or related fields, including significant experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder programs or donor portfolios
• Experience managing or coordinating the implementation of multi-stakeholder projects in resource constrained environments, including work plans, budgets, and milestone tracking
• Experience and knowledge with quantitative research techniques
• Experience working with and analysing large surveys and administrative datasets
• Experience in designing and implementing impact evaluations including randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental methods
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to present complex quantitative findings to diverse audiences; proficiency in one or more languages spoken in CHAI countries is a plus
• Experience collaborating on a wide variety of programs and/or working with partners (government or non-profit) in at least one CHAI program country
• Demonstrated ability to manage senior internal and external stakeholder relationships, including influencing program and country leadership without direct authority

Advantages

• Experience conducting cost-effectiveness research in key health areas, such as maternal and child health, nutrition, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), or infectious diseases
• Direct experience collaborating with donors in the global health and development space
• Project management training or experience setting up project management tools and processes for a program or portfolio
• Familiarity with cost-effectiveness analysis and the evidence standards used by cost-effectiveness focused funders
• Experience supporting program implementation alongside government or country teams in high-burden settings

Attributes

We are seeking exceptional and highly motivated individuals with a desire to maximize global health outcomes. An ideal candidate will be described as:

• Effective leader – You are able to drive work forward across teams you do not own or manage, influencing without formal authority and keeping colleagues aligned with agreed plans and timelines while building trust. Where you manage others, you find a balance between delegation and control, giving more junior team members opportunities to learn and grow whilst ensuring high-quality team output
• Insightful – You draw cogent conclusions from large amounts of analysis, sharing what is relevant for real-world challenges the Incubator team is trying to address
• Practical – You demonstrate judgment in how you allocate your efforts when balancing multiple priorities, focusing on the most decision-critical aspects, and dynamically changing these priorities in response to changing circumstances
• Communicative – You can respectfully and effectively navigate varied and sensitive stakeholder environments, including in-country teams to senior donor executives, and you are comfortable giving direct, constructive feedback and escalating concerns through the right channels
• Rigorous – You take pride in your work and have high standards for what you produce, creating analysis that can stand up to the scrutiny of internal and external parties. You have meticulous attention to detail and make sure materials are accurate and internally consistent
• Transparent and proactive – You raise problems early and openly, even when the news is uncomfortable, bring a sense of urgency when a project needs attention, and help create an environment where others feel safe doing the same

This role is a unique opportunity to contribute to the launch, donor management, and implementation of large programs. You will have the chance to work across CHAI’s diverse health programs, interact with policymakers, and directly influence how resources are allocated to save lives at scale.

There is no ‘perfect’ candidate for this role. We are seeking dedicated and passionate individuals who want to make a difference in global health outcomes. If you have a passion for evidence-driven decision-making, a strong background in quantitative methods, and an eagerness to engage with CHAI’s country programs to drive impact, we encourage you to apply.

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