Ipas
Program Support Director – Francophone and Lusophone Africa
300 Market St, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-0447
Full-time
First seen by offpeak October 4, 2026
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The Program Support Director (PSD) is a senior leadership position within Ipas’s Global Program Support Team. The PSD serves as strategic thought partner to the Regional Directors (RDs), Country Directors (CDs) and other leaders across the Ipas network, helping strengthen organizational effectiveness, program quality, risk management and leadership capacity. The PSD provides strategic leadership, technical guidance, and operational oversight to 4–5 regional or country programs. This role supervises 3-5 direct reports which include CDs and RDs as well as Senior Program Managers (SPMs), who are part of the global Program Support Team. Reporting to the Deputy Chief Operating Officer (DCOO), the PSD ensures alignment with Ipas strategy and quality standards, donor and award compliance, and risk mitigation. The PSD serves as a bridge between Ipas global teams and regional / country offices, promoting cross learning and providing supportive supervision and thought partnership to country team leaders.
The PSD will bring significant team and program leadership experience, cross cultural knowledge, relevant language skills, a focus on user-centered approaches, and a dedication to shared leadership. The job responsibilities include working collaboratively with country program staff to ensure strong program results and strong project and risk management. The PSD provides high level stewardship and serve an “internal control” function with assigned regional and country programs, to ensure compliance with Ipas’s quality standards and as a steward of the Ipas’s global reputation. The position contributes significantly to addressing programmatic challenges and problem solving; ensuring we achieve desired goals, donor satisfaction and compliance with award terms and conditions, strengthening systems to improve value for money, organizational learning; and promoting a positive and empowering work culture.
The PSD has a strong commitment to reproductive justice and Ipas’s mission. Demonstrates a strong commitment to the individuals and communities we serve, acting with a sense of urgency and providing candid timely support and guidance to their team and peers.
Primary Responsibilities:
Strategic Leadership
- Partner with regional and country leadership to advance organizational priorities, strengthen strategic decision-making, and promote alignment with Ipas's mission, values, strategic framework, global standards, policies and shared leadership practices.
- Support leaders in monitoring organizational, programmatic, and financial performance and in addressing emerging challenges, risks, and opportunities
- Participate in global strategic initiatives and other organizational development efforts to strengthen the Ipas Network, such as global strategic planning, expanding implementation of shared leadership practices and risk management.
- Represent Ipas on national or regional Boards of Directors, as needed.
- Support and provide thought leadership to regional and country leadership in translating organizational strategy into high-quality, contextually relevant program strategies.
Program Quality, Stewardship and Support
- Provide high-level strategic inputs and assistance in project and program management with a focus on addressing challenges and problem solving with assigned regional and country teams.
- Facilitate periodic reviews with country and regional leaders to strengthen compliance, program quality, organizational learning, and accountability towards Ipas policies and quality standards, donor requirements, local laws and regulations, and standard accounting and business practices.
- Lead or support special assessments or learning initiatives, as needed.
Regional and Country Program Support
- Serve as a trusted advisor to RDs and CDs, supporting leadership effectiveness, adaptive management, and cross-organizational collaboration
- Provide supportive supervision and thought partnership with RDs and CDs.
- Promote strong communication, collaboration, and cross learning among Ipas network technical and support units, and other country programs to strengthen programmatic and operational results.
- Support RDs, CDs and SPMs in addressing implementation challenges, risk management, and adaptive programming.
- Contribute to developing/updating and implementing strong regional/country strategic plans as requested, ensuring alignment with the Ipas mission and strategic framework.
- Provide coaching and support to RDs and CDs in recruiting and developing a high functioning team that practices shared leadership and maintains a positive and effective work culture.
- Provide strategic input on annual work plans, annual operating budgets, reports, and high-priority deliverables, as requested and needed.
- Oversee the strengthening of a variety of mechanisms to support a positive and effective work culture, organizational learning, sharing, and peer support across teams.
- Support start-up, scale-up, and close-out of country programs.
Staff Management & Capacity Strengthening
- Foster a culture of shared leadership, accountability, learning, trust, and inclusion by empowering staff to contribute expertise, exercise leadership, and make informed decisions appropriate to their roles.
- Provide supportive supervision and manage the performance of direct reports, including RDs, CDs and Program Support Team staff.
- Support capacity strengthening of regional/country teams in program management, donor compliance and risk management.
- Promote organizational training and other capacity strengthening efforts as needed.
Donor Engagement & Compliance
- Support RDs and CDs in managing complex donor-funded portfolios by strengthening systems, decision-making, compliance practices, and cross-node coordination.
- Ensure programs comply with donor requirements and organizational policies.
- Contribute to resource mobilization efforts by contributing to proposal development, donor briefings, and strategic partnerships as requested and needed.
- Work with program leaders to ensure that new business efforts and proposals are aligned with the country/region’s strategic plan, Ipas strategic framework, technical excellence and innovation, good stewardship of funding, and optimal cost recovery.
- Represent Ipas in donor meetings, technical forums, and external engagements as required.
Risk Management & Safeguarding
- Ensure timely identification and mitigation of programmatic, operational, and reputational risks, working with country/regional program leaders.
- Promote safeguarding, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and ethical programming across all supported programs.
- Conduct regular reviews and work with country / regional leaders to ensure adherence with organizational policies on safeguarding, gender equality, and inclusion.
- Guard Ipas interests and reputation through oversight on adherence to policies, performance against the annual operating budget, addressing audit findings and ethical issues, and compliance with donor requirements.
- Work closely with regional and country leaders and other Ipas units to ensure adequate internal controls to reduce the risk of fraud and mismanagement of funds;
- Play an internal control function where needed, such as to reduce perceived or actual conflicts of interest.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Accountability (MEL)
- Promote strong monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning practices across assigned regional and country programs.
- Support the use of data for decision-making, learning, and program improvement.
- Encourage documentation of best practices, innovations, and lessons learned across all projects.
Minimum Requirements:
Essential
- Commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially safe abortion and access to contraception, and an understanding of principles, policies, and best practices related to sexual and reproductive health, and related intersectionalities.
- Knowledge of the issues and context of women's sexual and reproductive health and rights in the Africa region, including demonstrated experience working with NGOs in Africa, preferably having worked in an Ipas implementing country in the West Africa region.
- Demonstrated commitment to shared leadership principles, with experience fostering distributed leadership, collaboration, accountability, and trust across geographically dispersed teams
- Proven ability to lead and motivate teams and create a positive work environment through supportive supervision, strong communication and teamwork, and shared leadership approaches, including demonstrated successes in program management, team leadership, strategic planning and problem solving.
- Proven ability to build and maintain positive working relationships with a variety of partners, including government officials, regional or global donors and partner organizations.
- Ability to work across cultures and manage complex relationships remotely.
Minimum
- At least 15 years of increasing responsibility in non-profit leadership and program management in the international development or NGO-sector.
- Minimum of 7 years of senior program leadership experience overseeing multiple country programs and proven ability to provide strategic and technical leadership across diverse country contexts.
- Strong experience managing donor-funded programs (e.g., bilateral, multilateral, foundations) including budgetary management.
- Demonstrated experience supporting organizational risk management, compliance monitoring, and implementation of internal control systems
- Relevant post-graduate degree (e.g., MBA, MIA, MPH).
- Respect and credibility as an advocate for reproductive health and rights
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
- Fluency in French required. Knowledge of Portuguese will be an added advantage and of other local languages will be an asset.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, SharePoint, etc.
Travel Requirements:
Estimated 20%-25% time travel to regional and country programs and regional/global meetings.
Compensation for this position will be determined by the prevailing market rate in the employee's country and the applicable statutory laws, in addition to Ipas's own pay philosophy and other factors, such as the employee's experience level and expertise.
Ipas is strongly committed to providing a work environment that is free from all forms of harassment, discrimination, and inequity. We recruit, employ, train, promote, and compensate our personnel without regard to race, age, sex, religion, national origin, color, creed, ancestry, citizenship, caste, ethnicity, regional identity, tribal identity, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, or any other personal characteristic protected by law or outlined by Ipas policy. Ipas acknowledges that these personal characteristics may differ in different contexts.