Helen Keller Intl
Job Announcement
Nutrition Lead, Transforming Lives through Nutrition
Any country where Helen Keller has a presence will be considered; Africa preferred
Guided by the remarkable legacy of its co-founder, Helen Keller, Helen Keller Intl partners
with communities that are striving to overcome longstanding cycles of poverty. By delivering
the essential building blocks of good health, sound nutrition, and clear vision, we help millions
of people create lasting change in their own lives. Working in 20 countries – across Africa,
Asia, Europe, and the United States – and together with a global community of supporters,
we ensure every person has the opportunity – as Helen did – to reach their true potential.
We are seeking a Nutrition Lead with broad public health project implementation experience
to provide specialized technical support to country programs implementing a suite of five
lifesaving health services: supplementing women with essential vitamins and minerals during
pregnancy, supporting optimal breastfeeding, improving diets for infants and young children,
screening children for acute malnutrition and getting treatment to them as early as possible
and, delivering vitamin A, under a multi-faceted program known as Transforming Lives
through Nutrition. The key objectives of the Transforming Lives Program are to:
• enhance the enabling environment for the delivery of an integrated nutrition program;
• strengthen health and food systems towards the delivery of integrated nutrition
programming;
• increase and measure effective coverage of integrated nutrition programming and
understand complementarities across disciplines; and
• ensure the model is sustainable and scalable and that lessons are shared.
The Nutrition Lead will both provide and coordinate nutrition expertise from colleagues within
Helen Keller and the consortium to program teams in implementing country offices as well as
coordinate activities across the full program of three partner organizations.
Functional Relationships
Reporting to the Program Director for the program consortium, the Nutrition Lead will be a
member of Helen Keller’s central Project Management Team (PMT) for Transforming Lives
through Nutrition. They will be co-managed by a Technical Lead for the consortium and will
collaborate with a team of other technical leads (Gender; Food Systems; Health Systems;
MERL; and SBCC), and Program Support Managers to maximize synergies and efficiency in
service of program quality.
The Nutrition Lead and the PMT provide oversight and guidance to country office teams.
They liaise with other subject matter experts (within Helen Keller and the consortium),
Country Directors, and Project Managers and their teams to facilitate the integration of all
facets of the program work with the common goal of ensuring that project objectives are met.
The position will also serve as a co-manager of relevant staff in implementing country offices.
Regular communication and a spirit of teamwork are essential to make this complex structure
thrive.
Helen Keller’s programs also require close relations with governments, partner NGOs, and donors, including UN agencies. The Nutrition Lead will contribute to nurturing and overseeing some of these cooperative relationships and will represent Helen Keller and/or the consortium to donors and the international community, as needed.
Key Responsibilities
Overall Management and Leadership
• As a member of the PMT and the consortium technical leadership team, participate in strategic planning and direction setting and the development of a growth strategy for the multi-country portfolio, lending your unique perspective and expertise to the process.
• Collaborate with relevant colleagues to develop and guide high-quality nutrition program planning, management, execution and analysis, including oversight of country program activities, as assigned.
• Provide regular updates on the nutrition agenda, interventions and learning to the PMT and consortium partners. Make recommendations based on analysis of progress to date and challenges encountered.
• Review and assess status of the nutrition portfolio design, tools, procedures and workflows: identify gaps and/or opportunities to evolve approaches and prioritize improvements.
• Participate in work groups, as assigned, to develop global policies and approaches and/or optimize systems, procedures, global indicators, training modules, etc.
Technical Support
• Provide technical input into the development of detailed work plans, budgets, and monitoring frameworks for nutrition interventions in each country that take safeguarding measures into account.
• Oversee the implementation of nutrition activities, partnering with country program leadership to ensure timely and quality delivery according to the program objectives and donor requirements.
• Identify technical needs of programs. Develop and/or adapt tools, as needed.
• Provide and/or assign technical guidance to program staff and partners (in coordination with relevant colleagues) on program interventions, to align practices across country offices to adhere to best practices and support achievement of program goals.
o Coordinate and follow-up with assigned advisors and/or country programs to ensure guidance is fully integrated into programs and that other subject matter experts are kept informed, as needed.
• Stay up to date on the latest developments, research, and evidence-based practices in the field of nutrition to inform program strategies and approaches.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of tools and guidelines.
• Flag potential problems and bottlenecks regarding program quality, as needed.
• Contribute to the integration of health systems strengthening components in project services and programs.
• Coordinate, guide, edit and/or write and prepare regular progress reports, technical briefs, technical presentations, scientific abstracts, peer-reviewed publications and
other documentation for internal and external stakeholders including donors and partners. • Document and share out lessons learned, best practices and success stories to inform future program design and implementation.
• Provide expert input to new project proposals.
Capacity Building
• Identify capacity gaps among program staff and partners related to nutrition programming and develop and implement capacity-building plans to address these gaps.
• Develop job aids, conduct trainings, workshops, and knowledge-sharing sessions to strengthen the technical skills and knowledge of program staff and partners.
• Lead and organize periodic lessons-learned and capacity building events.
• Participate actively in a dynamic community of practice to learn and to share learning.
Coordination and Collaboration
• Foster strong partnerships and collaborations with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and other stakeholders working in the field of nutrition.
• Coordinate with technical advisors and program teams to integrate cross-cutting themes such as gender, equity, and resilience into nutrition programming.
• Collaborate with country program leadership to build highly effective nutrition teams to carry out projects and serve as a co-manager to relevant professional level staff. Delegate authority, consult with and guide staff to achieve goals and contribute to an atmosphere conducive to professional growth and development.
• Model collaboration for your matrixed team: effectively consult and inform colleagues to maximize efficiency and knowledge sharing; and integrate guidance and direction from subject matter experts in your team and elsewhere in the global organization to maximize performance.
• Ensure accountability to clients, partners, colleagues and donors by providing ongoing feedback in a context of mutual respect.
Required Qualifications/Competencies
• Demonstrated experience:
o designing, implementing and adapting nutrition interventions in at least one of the five lifesaving health services targeted by this program;
o integrating safeguarding measures into program design;
o training, mentoring and/or supervising nutrition program implementation teams in Africa or Asia;
o collaborating with MERL experts to develop and iterate plans and utilize data for continuous program improvement;
o conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis
o undertaking both local and high-level representation and advocacy to strengthen delivery of services within health systems.
• Experience working in Africa and/or Asia, with a deep understanding of the context in which we are implementing programs in at least one of the priority regions.
• Very good oral and written English language skills, including the ability to quickly synthesize complex technical and programmatic issues into concise communications.
• Ability to communicate verbally in French sufficient to provide guidance to country teams.
• Experience translating complex technical material and research findings into dissemination-friendly formats. Track record in publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
• Understanding of the synergy between the programmatic, operational, and financial components of public health initiatives.
• Experience collaborating across departments to integrate all aspects of finance and administration with the work of program teams to meet program outcomes and fulfill objectives established in awards.
o Examples include: providing technical information to inform budgets and procurement plans; continual review of work plans and program and donor deliverables; monitoring budget vs. actuals; and adjusting work plans to adapt to challenges encountered.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including an ability to effectively lead a team in a cross-cultural environment, communicate a vision, make timely and transparent decisions, and manage conflict.
• Highly computer literate including knowledge of Microsoft office suite or equivalent;
• Prior experience developing and delivering trainings strongly preferred, along with demonstrated knowledge of effective adult learning techniques.
• Well-established and practiced organizational and planning skills.
• Ability and willingness to:
o flex schedule to accommodate availability of colleagues in other time zones;
o travel at least 30% to project country offices and/or to meetings and conferences.
NOTE: All staff must be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to travel internationally.
• Collaborative, flexible and solution-oriented. An ability to maintain balance when under stress.
• Demonstrable respect for all persons regardless of religion, ethnicity, class or gender, with a high comfort level working in a diverse environment with a demonstrated commitment to high professional ethical standards.
• Personal commitment to Helen Keller’s mission and the values embodied by our namesake and co-founder: courage, integrity, rigor, and compassion.
Qualifications
• An advanced degree in Public Health, Nutrition (PhD preferred), or a related field, plus
• A minimum of 10 years of experience designing, implementing and providing technical expertise to nutrition programs or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
To Apply
Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and resume to hki.recruitment@hki.org. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
In the spirit of our founder and namesake, Helen Keller is dedicated to building an inclusive workforce where diversity in all its forms is fully valued.