Senior Global Programs Director

ROLE OVERVIEW The Senior Global Programs Director (SGPD) provides strategic leadership, oversight, and support to Spark’s Country Directors, ensuring high-quality, nationally scalable, and financially sustainable program delivery across all countries of operation. As a key member of the Global Programs Team, the SGPD strengthens program excellence, fosters cross-country learning, ensures strong operational performance, and aligns country strategies with Spark’s global vision and growth plans. This role requires a seasoned leader with deep experience in international development, government relations, scaling programs, multi-country program oversight, team leadership, and operational management. RESPONSIBILITIES Programmatic strategy - Lead national-scale programs via policy adoption, financing, and program roll-out across Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana, Uganda, and potentially other countries. - Maintain and cultivate top-level national government relationships in support of the national program adoption, financing, and execution. - Establish in-country financing via the Government, the World Bank, bilateral partners, and co-financing. - Develop and implement programmatic strategy in alignment with Spark MicroGrants’ mission and goals. - Oversee the design and execution of all programmatic activities to ensure high-quality, impactful, and scalable initiatives. - Provide strategic direction and support to Country Directors to enhance country-specific strategies and operations. Leadership management - Direct line management of and support to Country Directors, the Partnership and Systems Manager, and additional senior staff to lead their teams successfully. - Overall responsibility for program expansion, timelines, and budget management in line with annual and multi-year organizational strategies while maintaining quality. - Recruit, mentor, and support senior program staff, promoting professional growth and development. - Oversee Program implementation risk mitigation - Oversee quality assurance and surge support to partner selection, onboarding, and ongoing management. Update partner management system and procedures as required. - Ensure program compliance with safeguarding policy and best practice Program design and innovation - Support the Program Design team to test and streamline program innovations. - Facilitate the integration of learnings into design conversations. - Oversee the implementation of the Program Design Standard Operating Procedures Financial Oversight - Manage program budgets to ensure consistency with strategic priorities, donor commitments, and available funding. - Ensure the program team makes cost-effective use of resources and adheres to financial policies and procedures. - Review program expenditure with an eye towards streamlined costing across programs and optimizing for program ROI. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Qualifications, experience & skills: - Minimum 12 years of relevant experience, such as in partnership management, people management and program implementation; - 5+ years managing senior leaders (e.g., Country Directors or equivalent) - Proven track record of government engagement and policy influencing; - Demonstrated experience in leading organisations; - Strong understanding of monitoring and evaluation, finance and operations and grant management; - Masters Degree in the field of International Development, Social Sciences, Economics, Management or related fields; - Excellent track record in designing and managing rural development programs; - Strong project management skills and attention to detail are required; - Proven track record of leading successful resource mobilization - Excellent English written and oral communication Other information Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda; Lilongwe, Malawi; Accra, Ghana ( other remote location within East and Southern Arica may be considered) Application Closing Date: Rolling Basis Follow the link to apply: https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/166