Senior Operational Excellence and Quality Manager

APPLICATION CLOSING DATE 9th August 2026 CONTEXT OF ROLE   * The role brings together and connects all MA facing work within a Region to ensure optimal support and services to MAs/CPs  * It provides an enabling environment to support free flow of information and the mechanisms to enable knowledge sharing and direct access between MAs/CPs in Region and other parts of the Federation  * It promotes MAs/CPs as the centres of excellence and technical expertise  * The role works as part of the Regional Senior Leadership Team to promote, develop and grow the work of the Federation in its geography  * The successful candidate will work as part of the Global Secretariat team and the Global Membership Support & Development Community of Practice to deliver the global agenda    ROLE PURPOSE This is a very crucial role that serves as a close ally to the Regional Director in supporting and developing Member Associations (MAs) and Collaborative Partners (CPs) across the Africa Region. The purpose of the role is to lead the integrated support, growth and development of MAs and CPs in the region collaborating pro-actively with other Regions and Global functions to leverage Federation wide impact. DELIVERABLES    * Lead on all MA-centric and MA-facing work in the African Regional Office.  * Create a framework that builds a greater understanding and integrates MA/CP growth into delivery of the Federation Strategic Framework to widen access, expand choice, innovate and share knowledge and act with youth, advance digital and self-care.  * Conduct an MA health check capturing an overall picture of MA/CP capabilities, capacities, governance issues, country contexts, audiences and competition from country and MA/CP profiles to strategically connect organisations, activities and information, and update it on an annual basis.  * Devise an integrated plan of activities driven by MAs/CPs to achieve tangible outcomes, capacity building, stronger governance, shared learning and connection facilitation across the Federation.  * Create an MA/CP service delivery platform that provides funding and resource support that meets Federation programmatic requirements, leverages opportunities and achieves ‘burn rates’. Assess quality controls for data integrity used to inform decision-making.  * Facilitate the design and delivery of integrated programming and resource allocation, leveraging or building technical capacity in MAs  * Galvanise and leverage business development opportunities for MAs/CPs through proposals and donor reporting.  * Build, lead and mentor a diverse team with complementary technical expertise, skills, drive and determination into a seamless functional unit where people can perform at their best. Role model safeguarding, anti-racism and IPPF’s code of conduct in everything they do.  * Escalate MA and CP issues to the Regional Director at appropriate times. * Identify and target new partners in priority countries and walk with them on the path to membership. * Point of contact for IPPF Safe Report incident management.  ESSENTIAL SKILLS * Successfully led the effective design and delivery of multi-country/regional SRHR Programmes in international development  * Track record of co-constructing and implementing multi-faced business plans/budgets in diverse geographic/cultural settings with good financial understanding and budget management skills  * Significant experience in effective resourcing and monitoring performance to ensure delivery of objectives  * Understands political, economic, social, legal and environmental contexts in the Region and Globally affecting our Sector  * Understands the workings of MAs and how to encourage, influence, incentivize engagement  * Ability to scan the horizon to spot issues, leverage opportunities, mitigate risks and build a learning environment with organisational resilience and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances with agility  * Evidence of good judgment and decision-making in dealing with challenging situations and management of escalated issues  * Open to new/others ideas, strongly collaborative with good influencing skills  * Excellent written/verbal communication in English & French (knowledge of other languages spoken in the Region such Portuguese/Spanish/Arabic is a plus)  * Excellent team leader and developer with strong planning, organising and knowledge sharing skills  * Strong monitoring and evaluation skills  * Ability and willingness to work in and lead a diverse and multicultural environment that role models respect of all cultures, inclusion and no discrimination  * Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to safeguarding in a local and international context.  * Demonstrates ability and willingness to work in a diverse, multicultural, multilingual and intergenerational environment that is anti-racist and respectful of others  * An intersectional (pro) feminist passionate about sexual reproductive health care rights + justice, including safe abortion  * Supportive of people’s rights regardless of sexuality.

APPLICATION CLOSING DATE 26th of July 2026 CONTEXT OF ROLE The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is a global sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service provider and one of the leading advocates for universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all. IPPF is a worldwide movement of 120 national organizations, referred to as Member Associations, working with and for communities and individuals. These member associations are the leading civil society providers of contraception in 89 of 120 countries. And in 64 of those 89 countries, IPPF is the only largescale international provider. Collectively, member associations delivered more than 1 billion cumulative services between 2018 and 2024.       Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, the overarching goal of IPPF Africa Region (IPPFAR) is to increase access to SRHR services to the most vulnerable youth, men, and women in sub-Saharan Africa. To reach this goal, IPPFAR works with local civil-society organizations, governments, the African Union (AU), regional economic commissions (RECs), the United Nations, among others, to expand political and financial commitments to SRHR in Africa. IPPFAR tackles the continent’s growing SRH challenges through a network of Member Associations (MAs), strategic partners and volunteers in 42 countries. For more information, please read our 2024 profile (in English and French) here.   ROLE PURPOSE The Performance, Learning and Impact (PL&I) Advisor will lead all monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) functions for the Strengthening Health Systems for Integrated & Transformative SRHR (SHIFTS) project, a multi-country initiative funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), implemented in Benin, Mozambique, and Nigeria until March 2032. SHIFTS aims to address critical supply gaps in SRHR services—particularly abortion—strengthen demand for SRH services, and promote enabling environments that uphold SRHR through government and stakeholder engagement.    The PL&I Advisor will ensure robust MEL systems, tools, and strategies are co-created and implemented across the consortium, subgrantees, and partners—ensuring alignment with feminist, decolonial, participatory, and accessible approaches. This role demands a strategic thinker with deep experience in feminist MEL and a commitment to collaborative learning. The Advisor will play a key role in generating evidence, fostering mutual learning, and driving project improvement, working closely with technical teams, Member Associations, and the SHIFTS Programme Manager (with a dotted line to the ARO PL&I Senior Advisor).  DELIVERABLES The main deliverables for this role are, but not limited to:    * MEL Framework & Tools : Design, review, and oversee the implementation of a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative MEL framework aligned with project objectives and deliverables. Co-create data collection tools and reporting templates (e.g., Most Significant Change stories, advocacy indicators, human interest stories) and lead training on their use.  * Monitoring & Evaluation Coordination : Lead the development and rollout of monitoring tools, databases, and systems. Support Member Associations and subgrantees in designing tailored MEL frameworks and tools, and ensure consistency across implementation sites.  * Capacity Building : Provide ongoing capacity strengthening for consortium partners and Member Associations on data collection, analysis, and learning approaches, ensuring tools and methodologies are inclusive and accessible.  * Performance Monitoring & Reporting : Regularly generate and analyze monitoring data to guide programme decisions. Coordinate the timely production and submission of all required reports in compliance with donor requirements.  * Learning Agenda & Evaluations : Coordinate the development and implementation of the SHIFTS learning agenda. Lead mid-term and final evaluations from design through dissemination, ensuring participatory and inclusive processes.  * Donor and Partner Engagement : Serve as the main point of contact on MEL for the donor and consortium partners. Facilitate validation and dissemination of evaluation findings, and contribute to strategic decision-making.  * Knowledge Sharing & Communications : Collaborate with the communications team to translate MEL findings into accessible content for external audiences (e.g., social media posts, creative documentation, learning briefs).  * Field Monitoring & Support : Conduct field visits, as needed and agreed upon, to support monitoring efforts and strengthen partners’ MEL capacities on-site.  ESSENTIAL SKILLS The essential requirements are:    * Post-secondary graduate in the fields of social science, human rights, international development, or other relevant fields.   * Have a deep understanding and prior experience in MEL for complex international programs, work plans and budgets.   * Have demonstrated experience (8+ years) of planning and managing feminist research, and MEL.  * Detail oriented and thorough, with an ability to self-motivate and produce high-quality work.   * Experience in and/or willingness to learn and adapt work to online/virtual platforms keeping accessibility needs in mind.   * Have experience in designing accessible research tools and accessible data collection cross disability will be an asset.   * A good understanding of restricted donor funded programmes.    * Experience working in matrix organisations.  * Candidates must have the right to work in Kenya or Benin. DESIRABLE SKILLS Additional skills are:    * Excellent analytical skills, fair judgment, and a proactive, energetic approach to problem solving.   * First rate quantitative and qualitative analytical skills.   * Excellent interpersonal skills.  * Excellent verbal and written communication skills.   * Strong leadership skills including the ability to effectively engage a range of stakeholders.    * Excellent project management skills including experience of reporting to donor agencies.   * Excellent time management skills able to meet tight deadlines.   * Fluent English essential.  French, Portuguese an advantage.   * Excellent IT skills.