Director, Program and Sponsorship

Job Details

Position title: Director, Program & Sponsorship

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Manager/Supervisor title: Country Director

Position type: Full-time regular

Work environment: On-site

About ChildFund

ChildFund is a child-focused international development organization that connects children with the people, resources and institutions they need to grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe, no matter where they are. We work directly in 23 countries, with extended reach to more than 60 countries through our global partnership network.

ChildFund’s Values

We aspire for every person in our organization—program, participants, supporters, staff, and volunteers alike—to feel free, safe, and confident to be themselves. In our culture of connection, you will have ample opportunity to grow, learn, and lead while contributing your talents and innovations to our inspiring mission.

ChildFund’s Commitment

ChildFund International has a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) and all other forms of harm by its staff, partners, and other representatives in the delivery of its mission and services for children. ChildFund is committed to creating a safe environment in the workplace as well as in the communities where it delivers programs and services. ChildFund expects every staff member, partner, and representative to adhere to this commitment and to ensure all organizational policies and standards are followed. This position is subject to a range of vetting checks, including a criminal records check and/or disclosure to ensure program participants are safeguarded.

About This Role

The Program and Sponsorship Director provides strategic leadership and oversight for the design, development, and implementation of high-quality programs that deliver measurable and lasting impact. This role is pivotal in driving ChildFund’s unified program approach and resource mobilization, ensuring program excellence, and fostering innovation to achieve ChildFund’s mission and goals.

Required Experience And Education

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s preferred.
• At least 10 years of demonstrated work experience in program management within INGOs or development organizations.
• Demonstrated management experience, including direct supervision of professional and support staff and evaluation of staff performance and deliverables.
• Good understanding of sponsorship operations and workflows, sponsorship programming, sponsorship policies and standards preferred.
• Experience leading innovation and adaptive programming preferred.
• Proven track record in business development and successful grant acquisition, execution and engagement (EU, USG, FCDO, UN agencies, Foundations, Corporates, Embassies) preferred.
• Experience developing strategic partnerships, including consortia, networks, and local partner capacity strengthening preferred.

Primary Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership & Program Design (25%)

• Lead the design of innovative, evidence-based programs aligned with the organizational country strategic plan (CSP) and donor priorities.
• Ensure programs are responsive to community needs, culturally appropriate, and sustainable.
• Proactively lead in the identification of key partners and opportunities for collaboration (technical, operational and institutional) and promote strategic alliances that can improve the impact, coverage and sustainability of programs.
• Ensure active and visible participation of ChildFund in development coordination mechanisms at the strategic and operational levels (sectoral groups, coordination platforms, NGO forums, donor mechanisms) and help guide sectoral priorities where relevant.

• Business Development (35%)

• Drive resource mobilization efforts by identifying funding opportunities and cultivating donor relationships.
• Lead proposal development processes, ensuring competitive, high-quality submissions.
• Represent the organization in donor meetings, partnerships, and external forums to enhance visibility and credibility.
• Coordinate closely with regional and global Business Development teams to ensure alignment of priorities, share intelligence on funding landscapes, and leverage organizational BD resources and expertise

• Program Implementation, Impact Measurement & Quality Assurance (35%)

• Provide oversight and guidance to Local Implementing Partners (LPs) and Country Office project managers to ensure timely, effective, and compliant delivery of projects/programs.
• Establish and monitor program quality standards, ensuring adherence to donor requirements and organizational policies.
• Promote adaptive management practices, ensuring programs remain relevant and impactful in dynamic contexts.
• Oversee a monitoring system that provides timely and accurate program/project results by embedding MEAL across program implementation through the development of log frames, indicators, implementation plans, quality benchmarks, monitoring and evaluation frameworks and related tools
• Lead program quality improvements by monitoring and improving Program KPI performance, including resourcing and conducting high-quality evaluations to demonstrate outcomes and impact and ensuring that accountability mechanisms are in place for all projects so that identified actions are resolved, with critical issues escalated to senior management in time.
• Define programmatic sponsorship criteria, including enrollment criteria, determine quota levels for LPs, oversee LP capacity building for enrollment processes, exercise quality control on enrollments, and seek global support as needed on system updates.
• Ensure the research, evaluation and policy work of the Country Office contributes to generation of evidence for development and improvement of Common Approaches, sound decision making and policy influencing internally and externally.
• Establish effective program learning and knowledge management systems to support adaptive programing and innovation that improves outcomes for children and communities.
• Work with the Uganda SMT on risk identification, management, and mitigation.
• Lead the development of robust Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) frameworks.
• Ensure programs generate credible evidence of impact and contribute to organizational learning.

• Team Leadership & Capacity Building (5%)

• Supervise and mentor program staff, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and accountability.
• Build staff capacity in program design, business development, and impact measurement.
• Promote cross-functional collaboration for knowledge sharing and to strengthen integration between program, operations, business development, and MEAL teams.
• Champion equity and inclusion within program teams.

Child Safeguarding:

Remain alert and responsive to any child safeguarding risks, acquire relevant knowledge and skills which will enable you to promote strong safeguarding practices, understand the child safeguarding policy and procedures, and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the Child Safeguarding Policy

Required Competencies

• ChildFund’s Leadership Competencies
• Strategic Leadership (applies vision; explores multiple paths; invests time in planning to effectively execute strategy)
• People Leadership (inspires, influences, coaches, and empowers others to be at their best; values individual differences and seeks the inclusion of others)
• Partnership (develops strong networks; works across divisions; creates trusting and productive relationships that contribute to positive outcomes)
• Change Management (adjust thinking and behaviors to remain relevant, resilient, and responsive to internal and external conditions)
• Design Thinking (designs solutions with end user experience in mind; empathizes, defines, ideates, prototypes, and tests)
• Strong training facilitation, coordination and networking skills.

Other Required Competencies

• The ability to read, write, and speak fluently in English.
• Good presentation skills and the demonstrated ability to conduct effective capacity building and training in virtual and face-to-face settings.
• Strong networking and relationship-building skills.
• Excellent proposal writing skills: concise, clear, and appealing writing style that complies with donor requirements.
• Demonstrated knowledge of program design; grant acquisition and management; providing oversight and accountability for large, funded programs; resource stewardship, and cross functional coordination.
• Demonstrated high-level interpersonal and cross-cultural skills including the ability to build collaborative relationships internally and externally with sensitivity to cultural, ethnic, social and political issues.
• Conflict management and ability to pragmatically solve problems, plan a course of action using analytical, conceptual, strategic and forward-thinking abilities to achieve an effective resolution.
• Computer proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (i.e. Word, Excel, Outlook).