Senior Health Manager

Job Title: Senior Health Manager
Band / Level / Grade:  PROFESSIONAL – 7A
Department: Health
Location: Aden, Yemen – with frequent visits to field sites across Yemen

BACKGROUND: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC responds to people’s acute and longer-term needs with integrated programs that improve health and safety, prioritize children’s education, foster economic wellbeing, and empower communities to regain control over their lives. Our work gives rise to some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary humanitarian action, including questions of access, conflict sensitivity, coordination, and impact.

The IRC began its programs in Yemen in October 2012. Following the war that broke out in Yemen in March of 2015 and its impacts on the humanitarian situation, the IRC launched an emergency response program in the southern governorates of Aden, Lahj, Abyan, Shabwah and Al Dhale, later expanding to Sana’a and Hodeidah in the North. Today IRC Yemen is operating in eight governorates, directly and with local partners, across Health; WASH; Nutrition; Economic Recovery & Development; Education; and Protection (Child Protection, Protection & Rule of Law, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment). Our work spans emergency preparedness and response, recovery and systems strengthening interventions at community, facility, subnational, and national levels. 

SCOPE OF WORK:

Under the supervision of the Health Coordinator, the Senior Health Manager provides technical and managerial oversight for IRC Yemen’s health portfolio country wide. The portfolio covers primary health care, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC), mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), mobile health teams, supported health facilities and partner-implemented health activities. The Senior Health Manager is responsible for the quality, coherence and timely delivery of this programming across all locations, ensuring that services meet IRC clinical standards, national guidelines and donor requirements.
The Senior Health Manager provides direct line management and technical direction to the Reproductive Health Manager, the MHPSS Manager and field health staff. The role ensures that RH, MHPSS and primary health care services are integrated, evidence-based and aligned with the IRC Outcome and Evidence Framework (OEF) and IRC Yemen’s country strategy. It oversees work planning, budget tracking, quality monitoring, data and reporting.

WORKING RELATIONS:

• Reports to: Health Coordinator
• Direct supervisors: Reproductive Health Manager, MHPSS Manager and field health staff (including field-based health managers, officers and mobile health team leaders)
• Internally works with: Senior Nutrition Manager and Senior Environmental Health Manager (integrated programming and joint planning), Protection teams, health promotion team, pharmacy staff, MEAL/data management team, Grants, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, and field office coordination staff
• Externally works with: MoPHP counterparts and local health authorities, implementing and local partners, Health Cluster and technical working groups, UN agencies (e.g., WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA), donors, peer NGOs, community leaders and community health volunteers

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategy and Program Management:

• Provide technical and managerial oversight for IRC Yemen’s health programming across all governorates, ensuring coherence between RH, MHPSS, primary health care and other health interventions.
• Work closely with and support the Health Coordinator in the implementation of the IRC Yemen health strategy in line with the IRC Outcome and Evidence Framework (OEF) and IRC Yemen Strategy Action Plan (SAP), national health guidelines and donor requirements.
• Actively manage and regularly review project outputs, indicators, activities and budgets across all health grants to ensure smooth, timely and high-quality implementation.
• Based on assessment findings, data analysis and program learning, lead coordinated work-planning with clear roles and responsibilities across the RH, MHPSS and field health teams.
• Identify gaps, risks and opportunities in the health portfolio, and adjust program priorities in response to evolving needs of target communities.
• Participating in and, where required, lead rapid needs assessments with other IRC sectors and external agencies.

Technical Oversight and Program Quality:

• Provide technical guidance and quality oversight for all IRC-supported health facilities, mobile health teams and supported EmONC facilities, ensuring compliance with protocols and guidelines prescribed by the MoPHP, WHO and UNICEF.
• Ensure SRH services are delivered in line with MISP, and that mental health is integrated into primary health care in line with WHO mhGAP-HIG and IASC MHPSS guidelines, through the RH Manager and MHPSS Manager.
• Oversee the development and roll-out of clinical SOPs, referral pathways and integration with Protection programming, including clinical management of rape and MHPSS referrals.
• Lead the establishment of data collection, M&E and quality control measures (e.g., supervision checklists, clinical audits, client satisfaction measures and training reports) across all health services.
• Ensure appropriate follow-up and decision-making based on program data, HMIS reporting and quality findings.
• Conduct regular field visits across program locations to monitor and support health activities and provide feedback and mentorship to field teams.
• Ensure availability and rational use of essential medicines, medical supplies and reproductive health kits in supported facilities, in coordination with country pharmacist and Supply Chain teams.

Integration and Multi-sector Coordination:

• Work closely with the Senior Nutrition Manager and the Senior Environmental Health Manager to plan and deliver integrated health, nutrition and environmental health interventions, including joint assessments, targeting, referrals and shared learning.
• Coordinate health programming with Protection teams to strengthen integrated service delivery and referral pathways.
• Ensure health programming is implemented in alignment with IRC Yemen’s integrated program approach and country strategic plan.

Budget, Grants and Supply Chain:

• Assist the Health Coordinator in developing health project budgets, proposals, logical frameworks and grant start-up and close-out documents, ensuring interventions are technically sound and sufficiently resourced.
• Ensure that health programs are implemented according to schedule and budget, including budget forecasting, development of spending plans, review of budget-versus-actuals (BvA) and recommendations for adjustments.
• Track procurement plans, staffing plans and work plans with Supply Chain, Finance and HR to ensure that personnel, facilities and supplies are available to meet grant deliverables.
• Ensure timely initiation of project procurement and staff recruitment across all health grants.

Partnerships Management and External Representation:

• In coordination with the Health Coordinator, represent IRC in the Health Cluster, technical working groups and other coordination forums, and maintain effective working relationships with the MoPHP, local health authorities, UN agencies, donors and peer agencies.
• Work with project coordinators and managers to identify implementing partners, co-design interventions, monitor implementation and provide supportive supervision.
• Ensure regular performance monitoring and joint capacity building plans for partner organizations and hold regular meetings with partners to address challenges and barriers to progress.
• Advocate with and advise peer agencies, local health authorities and other stakeholders to promote inclusive, high-quality health service delivery.

Partnership and Localization:

• Provide strategic leadership for health partnerships, working closely with the Partnership Unit to identify, engage and strengthen local civil society partners and other relevant actors (e.g., local NGOs and community-based organizations delivering health services, community health volunteer networks), as well as formal entities (e.g., departments within the MoPHP and local health authorities).
• With the support of the partnership team, assess the technical and organizational capacities of identified health partners, as part of supporting their systems and ensuring sustainability of work beyond the project period.
• Ensure partners are meaningfully involved in assessment, design, implementation, monitoring, learning and strategic decision-making, in line with IRC’s Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results (PEERS) approach.
• Oversee partner performance and program quality while promoting equitable relationships, mutual accountability and appropriate capacity sharing and strengthening.
• Lead strategic engagement with formal and informal health systems, supporting sustainable capacity strengthening, improved referral mechanisms, service coordination and locally lead health responses where appropriate.

Team Management and Capacity Support:

• Directly supervise the Reproductive Health Manager, the MHPSS Manager and field health staff, setting clear objectives and providing regular coaching, feedback and performance reviews.
• Ensure supportive supervision, on-the-job mentoring and continuous capacity building of national health staff and partner staff, based on assessed training needs.
• Lead or support the recruitment of health team members as required, in accordance with IRC Yemen policies and procedures.
• Hold regular health team meetings to review progress against work plans, and share minutes with the Health Coordinator highlighting successes, challenges, course corrections and lessons learned.
• Support team building, professional development and individual development plans for all direct and indirect reports.

Documentation and Reporting:

• Ensure the timely preparation of high-quality internal and external reports, including weekly updates to the Health Coordinator and donor interim and final reports, with age- and gender-disaggregated data as required.
• Oversee collection, analysis and dissemination of health program data, including HMIS reporting and client outcomes, for problem analysis, planning and evaluation.
• Ensure program records and documentation are maintained according to project management minimum standards, including confidentiality and security of client data.
• Promote a culture of learning and documentation so that lessons learned and good practices are shared for institutional memory and advocacy on behalf of targeted communities.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Health Coordinator.

Team Engagement, Safeguarding and Client Responsiveness:

• Promote and actively participate in efforts to build team engagement, inclusion and cohesion in the IRC Yemen Health team.
• Foster ongoing learning, honest dialogue and reflection to strengthen safeguarding and to promote IRC values and adherence to IRC policies.
• Educate and raise awareness among the community and clients about existing feedback mechanisms and response processes.

REQUIREMENTS: (Qualifications, Skills and Abilities):

A.    Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in medicine, Nursing, Midwifery, Public Health or another relevant health-related discipline.
• Master’s degree in public health, Global Health, Health Management or other relevant discipline is an added advantage.

B.    Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant experience in managing health programs in humanitarian or conflict-affected settings, including at least 2 years in a senior management role.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-site, multi-donor health programs, including RMNCAH, primary health care and MHPSS integration.
• Management, supervision and capacity building experience, including line management of technical managers.
• Experience in budget management, including budget forecasting, spending plans and BvA review.
• Experience in coordination with ministries of health, clusters, UN agencies and donors; previous INGO experience is strongly preferred.

C.    Skills and Abilities:

• Strong leadership, organizational, supervisory and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work in different cultural environments.
• Ability to design, implement and analyze health assessments and develop work plans in emergency settings.
• Ability to write clear and concise reports and meet required reporting deadlines.
• Ability to work independently while being a strong team player, and to cope with stressful workloads and limited resources.
• Willingness to travel frequently to field sites across Yemen.

D.    Proficiencies:

• Technical knowledge of primary health care, RMNCAH/EmONC, MHPSS integration (mhGAP) and health systems strengthening in emergencies.
• Competence with Windows and Microsoft Office, especially Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic.

Professional Standards: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, marital status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

IRC strives to build a diverse and inclusive team at all levels who as individuals, and as a group, embody our culture statement creating a working environment characterized by critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity for us to achieve our aspirations as a team and deliver the best possible services to our clients.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

Commitment to Client Responsiveness: By committing to Client-Centered Programming, at the IRC Yemen, we place the people we serve - our clients - at the center of our programming and services. The IRC Yemen Staff have an important role to play in supporting the implementation of client-responsive programming through raising awareness among the community and clients about the existing feedback mechanisms and how to use them including the response processes, access, and eligibility to services, and contribute to building an institutional culture that prompts staff to listen to clients.