Donate

Senior Regional Technical Director, Africa

Vitamin Angels Alliance, Inc. (VA) is a global non-profit organization with headquarters in Santa Barbara, California, USA. It is working to improve nutrition and health outcomes for underserved women and children worldwide through evidence-based nutrition interventions in 65 countries.

Position: Senior Regional Technical Director, Africa
Company: The Vitamin Angel Alliance, Inc. (VA)
Contract Type: Independent Contractor
Location: Remote, Africa

Role or Purpose of Position

Vitamin Angels (VA) is a public health nonprofit working to improve nutrition and health outcomes in low-resource settings worldwide. We strengthen, extend, and amplify the impact of our partner organizations to reach the most nutritionally vulnerable groups – pregnant women, infants, and children – who are underserved by existing systems. VA uses an implementation science (IS) approach to improve access to proven interventions, optimize implementation outcomes, and promote health equity. VA’s IS approach focuses on: 

  • • Fostering an enabling environment for the implementation of proven nutrition interventions,
  • • Conducting implementation research (IR) to identify barriers to effective implementation and co-design solutions to improve implementation outcomes, and 
  • • Promoting broad utilization of program research findings.

The role of the Senior Regional Technical Director is to help develop, plan, implement, and evaluate special initiatives related to the introduction or strengthening of proven nutrition interventions in the Africa region, using an implementation science approach. The position will be part of VA’s Implementation Science Team, working in close collaboration with regional and country teams in Africa, and will focus on the following four areas: program design and strategy development, translation of research findings to practice, technical representation, and consultant support.

The initial focus of the position will be to support VA’s global program to accelerate the use of multiple micronutrient supplementation (MMS) for pregnant women. Other of VA’s programs will be included over time.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

  1. 1. Program Design and Strategy Development. Provide technical guidance to inform the design and ongoing refinement of VA’s Program strategy in the Africa region.
  • • Assist in developing and refining VA’s IS approach, including technical input to support the creation of resources (e.g., manuals, tools, etc.) to be used across regions/countries.
  • • Provide technical support for national and regional advocacy efforts aimed at ensuring proven nutrition interventions are supported and sufficiently funded.
  • • Design and implement IR studies that improve program implementation and generate evidence for VA programmatic decision-making.
  1. 2. Translating Research Findings to Practice. Apply findings from IS activities to adapt and inform VA’s existing program in the Africa region to support improved implementation outcomes.
  • • Inform the development of educational tools to support learning and behavior change.
  • • Inform the development of an M&E framework that can be applied to the scaled program to measure outputs (e.g., reach) and outcomes (e.g., increased coverage)
  • • Collaborate with VA’s global and regional teams to foster cross-regional and cross-country exchanges of implementation experiences and learnings.
  1. 3. Technical Representation. Serve as a technical resource and representative for VA’s Africa program.
  • • Represent VA to technical stakeholders.
  • • Support dissemination activities, including the publication of VA’s research activities in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at key conferences.
  • • Work with the Senior Vice President for Nutrition to craft proposals for funding agencies.
  1. 4. Consultant Support. Support VA in identifying, onboarding, and managing short-term consultants in the Africa region to support the execution of IS activities.

Level of Decision-Making

Within the bounds of VA’s mission, values and policies, and sound professional practices, the Senior Regional Technical Director, Africa provides day-to-day technical guidance and advice to Program Division staff/operations. They are free to manage their activities in whatever way best serves VA clients, partners, and employees. Specific authorities and implementation procedures will be determined in conjunction with the Senior Program Manager, Implementation Science and will be outlined in an Independent Consultant contract.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Required:

  • • Minimum 8-10 years of technical experience associated with designing and implementing research studies or program evaluations with an international nonprofit
  • • Master’s degree (e.g., in Public Health or Nutritional Science) from an accredited university
  • • Minimum 5-years’ experience working in an LMIC,
  • • Fluency in English,
  • • Computer literacy,
  • • Superior written and oral communications skills,
  • • Superior interpersonal skills, and
  • • Superior organizational skills.

Highly desirable:

  • • Experience in qualitative and quantitative methods,
  • • Doctoral degree (e.g., PhD or doctor of Nutritional Science, Public Health, or related discipline) from an accredited university with 3-5 years of experience managing the introduction and scaling of public health programs informed by implementation science, and
  • • Fluency in a second language.

Challenges of the Position

The special challenges for the Senior Regional Technical Director, Africa are multi-fold. This person must: i) function effectively in an organization under continuing transformation and growth, ii) recognize and thrive in a non-profit organization driven by cause marketing promotions in association with retail products and Corporate Social Responsibility programs, iii) be comfortable with an organization that seeks to apply, as feasible, market and business-oriented solutions to its non-profit work, iv) function within a working environment that demands entrepreneurial orientation, self-initiative, and collaboration among many team members, and v) possess an ability to work effectively/efficiently and thrive in an environment in which many VA team members are situated in multiple time zones and accessible only by phone, email, or videoconferencing software.

Application

To apply, interested persons should submit a cover letter; resume, or curriculum vitae to: programs@vitaminangels.org. Resumes will be accepted until February 28, 2023 or until a qualified applicant is identified.