National Program Manager

The National Program Manager exists to lead, integrate, and assure the quality, effectiveness, and accountability of Ipas Nigeria’s program portfolio, ensuring strong alignment with country, node, and global Ipas strategies. As a member of the Country Senior Leadership Team, the role drives program excellence, partner accountability, donor confidence, and strategic growth, while enabling program teams to deliver results with autonomy, innovation, and integrity. The National Program Manager models shared leadership approaches and plays a critical role in strengthening institutional governance, enhancing program and project management systems, and cultivating new business opportunities and partnerships to expand Ipas Nigeria’s brand and impact.

Primary Responsibilities

1. Program Strategy, Leadership & Culture

• Develop, maintain, and annually review a comprehensive program roadmap aligned with country and global strategy.
• Ensure full alignment of all program activities with Ipas strategic priorities.
• Foster a high-performing, collaborative, shared leadership and values-driven team culture with strong staff engagement and cohesion.
• Promote program visibility through internal and external knowledge‑sharing events (e.g., webinars).
• Drive innovation and continuous learning by implementing improvement initiatives across programs.

2. Program Performance, Implementation & Quality Assurance

• Oversee delivery of all programs to ensure they meet agreed scope, timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
• Strengthen project execution processes to minimize delays and missed milestones.
• Lead quarterly program performance reviews and ensure proper documentation of outcomes.
• Ensure all projects maintain accurate, up‑to‑date documentation and reporting systems.
• Guarantee full compliance with donor and organizational requirements across all projects.

3. Financial Oversight, Resource Use & Risk Management

• Ensure effective financial planning, monitoring, and control to maintain projects within approved budgets.
• Conduct regular financial reviews and improve forecasting accuracy across the program portfolio.
• Optimize resource allocation to maximize program impact and efficiency.
• Identify, document, and actively manage program risks with clear mitigation strategies.
• Drive high budget utilization in line with donor objectives and funding requirements.

4. Donor Stewardship, Fundraising & Portfolio Growth

• Actively contribute to fundraising, proposal development, and donor engagement initiatives.
• Provide strong programmatic input to ensure proposals are competitive and compliant.
• Identify and support new funding opportunities and program scale‑up initiatives.
• Ensure timely, high-quality donor reporting that meets all compliance standards.

5. Stakeholder Engagement & Communications

• Lead stakeholder mapping and maintain up‑to‑date engagement strategies.
• Build and sustain relationships with government, partners, and advocacy networks.
• Facilitate regular engagement with key stakeholders, including government officials.
• Ensure consistent communication of program progress, milestones, and risks to stakeholders.
• Integrate stakeholder feedback into program design and implementation improvements.

6. Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Adaptation

• Establish and oversee monitoring frameworks and KPIs for all programs.
• Ensure regular program reviews, reflection sessions, and learning processes are conducted.
• Promote evidence‑based decision‑making and implement program improvements based on data insights.
• Lead the development and dissemination of annual program impact reports.
• Develop and monitor cost-efficiency metrics to improve program delivery value.

• Performs any other assigned tasks.

SUCCESS MEASURES

Performance will be assessed against agreed performance focus areas, with associated annual targets defined, reviewed, and evaluated through the organization’s performance management process. Performance in this role will be demonstrated through:

• Consistent delivery of high‑quality, compliant programs
• Strong donor confidence in program management and reporting
• Improved program efficiency, learning, and scale
• High team engagement and accountability across the portfolio

Minimum Requirements

• Master’s degree in a relevant field
• Minimum 8 years’ experience, including at least 4 years in SRHR programming
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multi‑theme programs
• Proven fundraising and proposal development success
• Strong budget oversight and performance analysis skills (including Power BI)
• 10% availability to travel for national and international activities/events

Professional Capabilities

• Program strategy and portfolio management
• People and partner leadership
• Financial and risk oversight
• Stakeholder and donor engagement
• Adaptive management and learning leadership

Competencies

• Communicates with clarity, purpose, and influence
• Steward resources responsibly
• Delivers results through accountability and empowerment
• Builds collaborative, learning‑oriented teams
• Continuously improves systems and program impact

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.