Health and Nutrition Program Manager - Tanzania

Location: On-site, Dodoma, Dodoma Region, Tanzania

Employment Type: Full time

Overview

Action Against Hunger-USA is a vital part of the Action Against Hunger International network, dedicated to delivering integrated humanitarian and development programming in nearly 50 countries. Our work spans critical sectors including nutrition, health, water/sanitation, food security & livelihood, and protection. Action Against Hunger-USA currently oversees operations in 8 countries: South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Haiti. With a program budget exceeding $110 million and approximately 2500 staff, our operations are managed from various country offices, with our Head Quarter in Washington DC and an Operational Centre in Nairobi. We anticipate continued growth.

About the Country Program in Tanzania

Action Against Hunger implements integrated, multi-sectoral programming in the Dodoma and Singida clusters, closely aligned with national priorities. This includes the Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP V), the National Plan for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health & Nutrition (2021/2022–2025/2026), the National Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan (NMNAP), the National Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children (NPA–VAWC II), the National Accelerated Action and Investment Agenda for Adolescent Health and Wellbeing (NAIA-AHW), the Agriculture Sector Development Programme II (ASDP II), the Tanzania Climate-Smart Agriculture Programme, and the National Adaptation Plan, alongside local government development plans.

Since 2015, we have delivered integrated Nutrition & Health, WASH (including construction), Food Security and Livelihoods, MEAL, and Gender & Protection interventions, with a strong focus on underserved communities. Our strategy aims to reduce chronic malnutrition and maternal, neonatal, and child mortality through nutrition-centered, multi-sectoral approaches that strengthen health systems, improve service delivery, and promote climate resilience.

Action Against Hunger also maintains the capacity to respond to climate shocks and disease outbreaks while contributing to national coordination mechanisms and sectoral reforms to advance sustainable health, nutrition, and resilient outcomes.

I. Summary of Position

The Program Manager will provide strategic and operational leadership for an integrated multi-sectoral project across the Dodoma and Singida regions, based in Dodoma. This role is crucial for ensuring high-quality implementation, compliance, financial oversight, and coordination across Nutrition & Health, FSL, WASH (including infrastructure construction), MEAL, and Gender & Protection components.

The Program Manager is accountable for technical quality, grant compliance, partner management, financial performance, and synergy across all project interventions, while maintaining strong coordination with Regional and Council (LGA) authorities.

Purpose:

To ensure effective, compliant, and high-quality implementation of integrated donor-funded projects, delivering measurable results on time, on scope, and within budget while strengthening local systems and partner capacity.

Engagement:

The Program Manager will engage with Regional Administrative Secretaries, Regional Medical Officers, District Executive Directors, and sectoral departments to ensure alignment with government priorities and coordinated implementation. The role will work directly with Finance & Administration, MEAL, Communications, and Technical Specialists to ensure accurate forecasting, reporting, compliance, and performance monitoring. The Program Manager will also manage partnerships with local NGOs, including sub-grants and seed grants.

Delivery:

The Program Manager will deliver integrated, multi-sectoral project implementation on time and within budget, ensuring high-quality narrative and financial reporting, strong budget forecasting, compliance, risk management, and effective partner oversight.

II. Key Responsibilities

1. Multi-sectoral Program Leadership & Flawless Execution

• Drive the flawless execution of integrated programming across Nutrition & Health, FSL, WASH, Gender & Protection, Advocacy (including construction), MEAL, and Gender & Protection, ensuring all activities are delivered on scope, on time, and within budget.
• Institutionalize the Action Against Hunger USA strategy, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and Technical Framework across all field operations to ensure global brand consistency and the highest standards of technical quality.
• Direct the development of evidence-based implementation plans and sector-specific Capacity Statements (Nutrition, WASH, FSL) that leverage field successes to position the organization for future resource mobilization.
• Institutionalize the Hunger Smart approach, ensuring every intervention, whether WASH or FSL, contributes directly to nutrition outcomes (Nutrition-Sensing).
• Ensure a culture of "Data-Driven Performance" by integrating DHIS2, BFU, and APR reviews into monthly status discussions to proactively identify and resolve implementation gaps.
• Enforce the PQMT (Program Quality Management Tool) User Guidance as the primary benchmark for field execution, ensuring compliance with internal quality standards and donor regulations.
• Lead the integration of resilience-building and climate-smart approaches across all sectors, fostering high-level collaboration between technical teams to deliver holistic community outcomes.
• Exercise rigorous oversight of WASH construction and infrastructure projects, managing contractor coordination, quality assurance, and asset verification from startup to close-out.
• Embed systematic MEAL processes and child safeguarding principles into the project lifecycle to promote adaptive management, continuous learning, and culturally sustainable program designs.
• Provide strategic implementation analysis and high-level technical updates to the PDQ Director to inform country-level decision-making and strategy refinement.
• Champion the innovation and research implementation approach by ensuring coordination between different ministries, local universities initiatives, and private sectors within the Dodoma and Singida clusters.

2. Grant, Financial & Risk Management

• Mastermind the comprehensive grant management of donor-funded projects, ensuring seamless synchronization between field implementation milestones and financial performance.
• Drive financial accountability by rigorously monitoring burn rates and budget follow-ups (BFUs), ensuring financial forecasting is accurate and aligned with the Annual Operational Plan (AOP).
• Optimize resource mobilization by leveraging high-quality field data to demonstrate "Value for Money" (VfM), actively positioning the program to attract both traditional and non-traditional donor investments.
• Ensure "Audit-Ready" compliance by enforcing strict adherence to internal policies and diverse donor regulations (including USAID, EU, FCDO, and GAC) across all project components.
• Champion proactive risk mitigation by maintaining dynamic project risk registers and institutionalizing corrective actions to safeguard organizational assets and reputation.
• Lead the strategic oversight of project lifecycle transitions, including high-efficiency startup, asset management, co-funding reconciliation, and compliant close-out processes.

3. Partner & Sub-Grant Management

• Transform local NGO engagements into strategic alliances, co-designing initiatives that leverage local presence for joint policy advocacy and long-term sustainability.
• Direct the full lifecycle of sub-grants and seed grants, ensuring flawless compliance, rigorous financial accountability, and alignment with the project’s strategic objectives.
• Institutionalize a robust partner oversight mechanism by reviewing narrative and financial reports against field reality, implementing swift corrective actions to mitigate implementation risks.
• Drive partner excellence by providing structured mentorship on Program Quality Management (PQMT), results-based management, and the Action Against Hunger Technical Framework.
• Foster technical harmonization across the consortium, ensuring all local partners adopt standardized data collection tools (DHIS2/APR) and child safeguarding protocols for unified impact reporting.
• Lead the strategic capacity-building of local partners to enhance their readiness for direct donor funding, positioning Action Against Hunger as a preferred mentor and lead technical agency.

4. Reporting, Learning & Compliance

• Lead the transition from outputs to impact tracking by utilizing the PQMT to measure long-term behavioral changes (SBC) and social norm shifts.
• Ensure accurate and timely narrative and financial reporting.
• Utilize Annual Operational Plan (AOP) implementation progress data to facilitate adaptive management and pivot strategies when field contexts shift.
• Direct the documentation of at least two high-quality project "Case Stories" per quarter and organize internal webinars to share lessons learned with the wider organization.
• Maintain strong documentation systems to ensure audit readiness.
• Promote the documentation of best practices to inform future programming and proposal development.
• Institutionalize Feedback and Accountability Mechanisms (FAM), ensuring that community voices directly influence the quarterly adaptation of the AOP.

5. Stakeholder Coordination & External Relations

• Actively contribute to the Coordination and "Sun Movement" (Scaling Up Nutrition) platforms at the regional level to align project outcomes with the National Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan (NMNAP).
• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with Regional and Council (LGA) authorities.
• Maintain a high-profile presence in sub-national thematic meetings and whenever required represent National Technical Working Groups to ensure Action Against Hunger’s field data influences national policy.
• Leverage presence in regional and national forums (e.g., UN ESARO, IGAD, AU) to attract strategic partnerships and influence sector-specific policy shifts.
• Ensure alignment of project activities with government and national priorities (HSSP V, One Plan III, NMNAP, etc.).
• Represent Action Against Hunger in joint advocacy efforts to increase domestic resource mobilization for nutrition within the Local Government Authority (LGA) budgets.
• Ensure active participation of communities and local authorities throughout the project cycle.

6. Team Leadership & Capacity Development

• Provide direct supervision to project staff across Nutrition/Health, WASH, FSL, Gender & Protection, and MEAL technical teams.
• Lead mentorship and structured coaching for project staff on using the PQMT tool and technical frameworks to ensure high-performance execution.
• Set objectives, conduct performance reviews, and foster a collaborative, accountable, and results-oriented team culture.
• Support staff and partner capacity development initiatives.

7. Emergency Preparedness & Climate Resilience and Strategic Contribution

• Support the development and regular update of "Disaster Risk Reduction" (DRR) plans for the Dodoma and Singida regions, ensuring the project can pivot to emergency response during climate shocks (drought/floods).
• Integrate Early Warning Systems (EWS) into FSL programming, leveraging seasonal data to provide anticipatory action support to vulnerable pastoralist and farming communities.
• Ensure the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) framework is not only a technical component but a core strategy for long-term food sovereignty in the project areas.
• Provide technical "ground-truthing" and field insights to the Program Development team to ensure new funding opportunities are rooted in operational reality.
• Contribute to proposal writing and technical inputs for new funding opportunities.
• Provide contextual analysis and sector insights to support strategy refinement and fundraising positioning.

Supervisory Responsibilities

1. Human resources management and coaching of the technical and program teams: Direct management of the Nutrition and Health, WASH, FSL, Gender and Protection, and MEAL Heads of Departments (5), and the Program Development lead (Associate Director for Business Development). Set job objectives for all direct subordinates, hold monthly regular conversations, organize appraisals, and conduct annual performance reviews. Hold monthly program meetings, coordinate action points, and monitor progress. Ensure program staff are motivated and committed to the Action Against Hunger charter and programs. Direct supervision of project staff across thematic areas. Close coordination with PDQ Director, Finance, HR, MEAL, Communications, and Technical Specialists. Oversight of local NGO partner performance under sub-grants and seed grants.
2. Gender Equality Commitments: Promote a gender-transformative work environment that advances gender equality and ensures equitable access to opportunities, information, and decision-making for women, men, girls, and boys. Integrate gender equality considerations across all project components, addressing systemic barriers, unequal power relations, and gender-based discrimination in program design and implementation. Ensure performance evaluation and promotion processes are merit-based, transparent, and free from discrimination or bias. Uphold the dignity, rights, and inclusion of all beneficiaries regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, race, ethnicity, age, or marital status, with particular attention to vulnerable and marginalized groups. Promote safeguarding, protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and culturally respectful engagement in all interventions. Contribute to measurable gender equality outcomes in line with donor and national policy commitments. Value and respect all cultures.
3. Fiscal Responsibility: Overall coordination of project startup, implementation, financial monitoring, forecasting, asset management, and donor reporting.
4. Physical Demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to sit for long periods and to concentrate on work, including typing, and turn out heavy volumes of work accurately, within short time frames under stressful situations in the context of a moderately noisy office with many interruptions. Must be able to proofread own work accurately so that only minor corrections are needed on an infrequent basis. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
5. Working Conditions, Travel and Environment: The duties of the job require regular job attendance of at least five days per week. Must be available to work outside normal office hours or on weekends as required. Must be able to travel as required for standard domestic business purposes. While performing the duties of this job in the field, expected to perform any duties as assigned by the Line Manager.

Requirements

• Minimum of MSc degree in public health, Human Nutrition, development studies/Behavior Change, Food science & Technology, or a related field.
• Bachelor’s degree in human nutrition, FSL-related studies (e.g., Agriculture General, Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness, Agronomy), Medical Doctor, or a related field.
• Minimum 7–10 years of relevant experience in INGO program management and donor-funded projects.
• Experience of at least 5 years working in multisector and integrated projects, focused on two or more of the following themes: Health, Nutrition, FSL/Climate resilience, and Gender & Protection.
• Experience with institutional donors such as USAID, EU, FCDO; experience with Global Affairs Canada is an advantage.
• Experience managing partner sub-grants is desirable.

Required Skills & Competencies

• Strong cultural awareness and ability to work well with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Strong grant and financial management skills.
• Experience in integrated multi-sectoral programming.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and coordination skills.
• Proven ability to manage complex projects and multiple local partners.
• Strong analytical, reporting, and problem-solving skills.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken).
• Substantial experience and skills in establishing and maintaining external relations with government, community stakeholders, and civil society.
• Fluency in English (business level), both verbal and written.
• Proficiency in computer applications (e.g., MS Word, MS PowerPoint, and Excel).

Benefits

The deadline for submission of the CV and cover letter is March 3, 2026. Shortlisting will be done on a rolling basis.