Project Development & Performance Manager – HBGI Africa portfolio
Home-based within Kenya, ideally Nairobi. You must have the right to live and work in Kenya.
KES 6 million per annum FTE , plus benefits
The Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) www.hbgi.org, transforms and builds high-performing mental health services and systems that maximize outcomes for individuals and their communities.
We work globally to drive positive mental health outcomes by partnering with funders, payers, and service providers to optimize and expand mental health programs through performance management, program innovation and outcomes-based contracting.
We are not a frontline provider. We provide hands-on technical support across sectors to make mental health programs achieve more for their] users, and in doing so shift focus from medicalized, siloed services towards achieving outcomes as identified by users themselves.
We are currently mobilizing resources to expand our work within Kenya and East Africa, bringing the very best minds to improving the way mental health is delivered, measured and funded. Working with HBGI’s partners and clients, we are exploring how paying for the outcomes achieved by individual service users and stronger performance data could increase impact for everyone.
We are seeking a talented individual to support this team, working closely with the Managing Director, Africa and our Contract & Performance Director.
Successful candidates will have experience of working with services, targeting vulnerable communities, ideally mental health (or related). You will also have experience in navigating change.
HBGI’s approach is new to many of our partners and you will play a key role in ensuring success.
We are looking for candidates who have:
- An understanding of what performance means on a program targeting the most vulnerable groups, and what drives it. You put the needs, goals and potential of service users at the heart of delivery and can look at the big picture.
- Flexibility – we are a young, small organization and staff will need to step into needs as they arise
- Strong analytical skills, including understanding the relationship between operating budgets and program performance and confidence in interrogating data- qualitative and quantitative.
- The ability to develop programs and lead change with sensitivity and humility. You are a wonderful relationship builder and can bring your stakeholders on the journey with you.
- Strong communication. You have the ability to write punchy, accessible prose, compelling story-tell and visualize data to get points across.
This is a varied and exciting role, across a number of working projects within our current and potential Africa portfolio. Work may include report writing, desktop reviews, Excel modelling (performance data, financial models), writing bid documents, working alongside service providers, organizing events and meetings, and drawing on your stakeholder network to develop projects. You will need to be proactive, agile and willing to lead elements of projects, stewarding relationships with HBGI’s partners.
HBGI is a performance-focused organization, because we want to deliver as many meaningful outcomes for as many people as possible. We approach this challenge collaboratively and with humility, respecting everyone around us and their wellbeing. We actively seek out diversity because it makes us – and our performance – stronger. Many of our current team and Board have lived experience of mental health conditions and our Lived Experience Council is an integral part of the organization.
For full details of the role and how to reply, please see the full job specification below.
Applications close on 13 th Jan, at 5pm EAT. Start dates will depend on HBGI securing funding for Kenyan activities, which is expected in the coming months.
Full Job Specification
Reporting to: Managing Director, Africa.
Location: Home-based within Kenya, ideally Nairobi, with weekly (or more) in person meetings or co- working within the Westlands / Lavington area. You must have the right to live and work in Kenya.
Salary: KES 6 million per annum FTE (plus health insurance, and 33 days of leave growing to 38).
Please note these roles are contingent on HBGI securing contracts and/or alternative funding to undertake this work. We are looking to identify the ideal team so that we can formally offer jobs, onboard and mobilize as soon as this is confirmed, which we hope will be in the coming months.
Candidate profile HBGI is looking for the following background, experience, skills and personal culture:
- A strong academic background, including undergraduate degree.
- A strong, punchy writing style that can persuade readers and convey points succinctly.
- A solid working understanding ‘performance’ in the context of mental health or related
services, from either voluntary or paid work, with experience in identifying and remedying areas of under-performance. Ideally experience at the community level in Kenya.
- Strong analytical skills. Can understand and interpret programmatic data, and relate that to continuous program improvement. Excellent in Excel.
- A flair for data visualization – telling stories through the numbers in ways that may not be immediately obvious and able to confidently communicate analysis to different audiences.
- Creative and flexible, not bureaucratic or limited to following processes, but able to develop innovations that will deliver higher performance.
- Strong organizational skills, able to project manage and manage a varying workload with limited supervision.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, able to build the necessary relationships, supporting and challenging as required.
- Experience of identifying funding opportunities and drafting bids.
- Experience in organizing team and external events.
- Experience engaging and learning from a wide variety of stakeholders including service users
and their families, peers, advocates and community partners.
- Intellectual curiosity, not convinced that you have all the answers and open to learn more about outcomes contracting and performance management.
We don’t expect you to be the finished article; we will support your development journey, guiding your learning and growth. But we do want you to have high levels of energy and drive.
We are looking to change millions of life chances, and in the process, show the world that there is a better way to fund and manage programs like this. We love what we do and we have lots of fun
together doing it, but everything we do is about maximizing performance and we set the bar very high.
Terms of Employment
Salary, pension & health insurance: KES 6 million per annum FTE. HBGI will contribute up to 10% to a pension, matched against your contribution. We also pay for health insurance.
Work life: To make sure you can participate actively in our largely virtual business, you will need to organize your own technology, including a laptop, internet connection and telephone.
Our normal full-time working week is 40 hours. You can plan these hours to suit you within the working week (Monday-Friday) but must take business needs into account, i.e. be available for meetings when needed. You must inform your team and line manager of your plans.
At HBGI, we care about your wellbeing and want you to take time for yourself. It’s important to switch off at the end of the day and over the weekend to recharge your batteries. That’s why we keep Fridays free of internal meetings, so you can end your week on a positive note, with your to-do list clear. You are expected to reflect this with your team.
The full-time paid, annual holiday allowance is 33 days, inclusive of all public holidays. After the first year, this then increases by a day a year until it reaches 38 (including national holidays).
We are committed to recruiting the best, most diverse HBGI team. We do not tolerate any form of negative discrimination, abuse, office politics or bullying.
How to apply
Please send: a) an up-to-date resume (no more than 3 pages), explaining any gaps, and; b) a covering letter, no more than two pages which addresses the following:
- What motivates you and why do you want this role?
- Give us a specific example of when you carried out and communicated complex analysis that led to change and performance improvement.
- Give us an example of when you have had to engage with stakeholders to overcome a barrier to project delivery.
- What, in your opinion, is the main driver of poor mental health in Kenya?
- What do you think successful outcomes look like for young people with mental health concerns in Kenya?
Please email your application to opportunities@hbgi.org with Kenya Analyst in the subject line. Please ensure you have provided all the detail outlined above in order for us to consider your application.
The closing date is 13 th January at 5pm East Africa Time. Given the very high volume of applications, we greatly regret that we cannot provide individual feedback and will only follow-up with short-listed candidates.
