Program Officer

Role Description

The Program Officer (PO) provides holistic support to global health projects, enabling projects to successfully achieve results and maintain MSH’s strong reputation with donors and stakeholders. The PO is a member of the Global Programs and Operations (GPO), Project Planning and Management (PP&M) team and will be assigned to multiple projects. The PO conceptualizes and executes project management support strategies throughout the entire project management lifecycle and is responsible for the efficient organization and functioning of project support processes. The PO also assists in technical coordination and work related to technical areas where assigned. The PO works primarily under the guidance of and provides assistance to program management staff, with mentorship from the PP&M Senior Project Officer.

The main duties and responsibilities include:

• Project Technical Implementation and Management Support (80%)
  • Serve as a primary point of contact for the project director and program management team to connect with for day-to-day support from PP&M and MSH global business units (e.g. finance, contracts, procurement, communications, HR).
  • Serve as “first responder” for all issues related to operations and administrative support needs of the project management team, tapping into expertise of content area experts as needed.
  • Plan and coordinate processes, activities, and deliverables including setting up templates, process flow charts, and production calendars to manage workflow (e.g. for workplans, reports, calendars, contacts, consultants, subcontractors, procurement, travel).
  • Assist in tracking and documenting project deliverables.
  • Collaborate with and provide guidance and oversight to other project support colleagues to ensure all processes are completed on time, accurate, and compliant.
  • Assist in ensuring project SharePoint site is used appropriately by project team.
  • Be familiar with project objectives, technical strategies, and deliverables and reporting requirements to ensure timely and high-quality submissions.
  • Support the development, drafting, editing, and formatting of deliverables and communications products, including work plans, progress reports, articles, abstracts, and other technical or contractual deliverables, to strengthen communication of results, including data visualization.
  • Manage consultants, including recruitment, contracting, and administration.
  • Serve as the administrative contact and manage consultant tasks in Workday.
  • In coordination with finance, project management, and contracts staff, manage subaward and subcontract administration processes, such as invoice processing, deliverable review, and subaward modifications.
  • In collaboration with project management and finance staff, review budget monitoring reports, submit purchase requests and create purchase orders, review invoices prior to project and finance management approval, and collaborate with project staff to ensure close financial management.
  • Support project start-up or close-out processes, tailoring the MSH start-up or close-out toolkit to the project.
  • Develop and maintain project pending lists and/or dashboards and meeting agendas. Schedule, connect, attend, and document regular and ad hoc project team meetings.
  • Follow up on action items between meetings.
  • Other project management tasks needed for successful implementation of the project.
• Business Development (10%)
  • Serve as management or technical contributor on bids as assigned.
  • Contribute to prepositioning research and documentation as requested.
  • Coordinate proposal development processes as assigned, including monitoring of proposal calendar and coordination with proposed partners.
• Team Effectiveness (10%)
  • Support GPO or cross-department initiatives, as assigned, such as development or improvement of systems, tools, processes, and compliance with quality management systems.
  • Participate in annual corporate work planning, budgeting, and quarterly forecasts.
  • Responsible for data entry and quality into corporate systems; ensure effective use of internal systems (SharePoint, Costpoint, Workday, Salesforce, etc.).

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or its international equivalent in public health or a related field.
• 3-5 years of demonstrated relevant experience providing project operational support for public health or international development programs in LMIC countries.
• Strong analytical, organizational and project management skills.
• Able to assess priorities and solve problems using innovative, evidence-based solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve high performance goals and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment with attention to detail, including strong conceptualization, facilitation, and planning skills.
• Familiarity with financial management of international projects.
• Experience writing, editing, and formatting high-quality communications, reports, and presentations, including professional communications for important stakeholders and donors.
• Proficiency with advanced functionality of Microsoft Office products including Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
• Workday, Costpoint, and Salesforce experience is helpful.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently as well as within and across multiple teams.
• Strong interpersonal skills, written, and oral presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability in consensus building.
• Excellent cross-cultural communication, diplomacy, and active listening skills.
• Must be able to read, write, and speak fluent English and French.
• Flexibility to work across multiple time zones.

Requirements

• Systems Thinking: Ability to understand, affect, connect, and leverage various parts of a system while maintaining sight of the whole system.
• Assessing / Managing Work: Ability to set clear objectives, coordinate resources, people, and processes, and manage feedback loops to adjust approaches as necessary.
• Communication: Able to write clearly and succinctly in a variety of communication settings and styles. Can get messages across that have the desired effect.
• Learning: Ability to learn new technical skills and knowledge quickly.

Benefits

• Comprehensive set of competitive benefits including substantial vacation, sick and holiday policies.
• Training and development programs.
• Competitive insurance coverage for health, vision, dental, life, short-term and long-term disability.
• 401k plan.
• Flexible Spending Account, among others.