Director, CIFF Programs

Ipas is a global reproductive justice organization working to ensure that all people can exercise their right to bodily autonomy and access quality abortion and contraception services. We work hand in hand with governments, civil society, health systems, and communities. Ipas advances sustainable abortion ecosystems that expand access, reduce stigma, improve quality of care, and strengthen supportive policy and financing environments to make care possible, permanently.

This is a remote position. Compensation for this position will be determined by the prevailing market rate in the employee's country in addition to Ipas's own pay philosophy and other factors, such as the employee's experience level and expertise.

Candidates based in the following countries are eligible to apply: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya/Alliance locations, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, and Zambia.

This role is grounded in and informs the Ipas strategy and evidence/measurement of impact. It sits at the heart of the Audacious Project at Ipas- a seven-year, $350 million initiative to prevent 16.3 million unsafe abortions across 10 countries. The project focuses on strengthening systems that enable women and girls to access safe, quality reproductive health services, including through integrated approaches that address barriers linked to unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, stigma, restrictive norms, weak referral systems, and fragmented health financing. It is one of the most ambitious reproductive health programs globally and this role will steward the CIFF portfolio which is critical to achieving the Audacious outcomes and amplifying our organizational impact.

The Director will provide strategic technical leadership, coordination, and relationship management for Ipas’s engagement with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and other key donors, as needed. You will lead a high-impact, multi-country portfolio that sits at the intersection of technical excellence, organizational strategy and movement building.

This isn’t a coordination role. It’s a leadership role — for someone who can hold the strategic vision, build trust and partnership with funders, partners, governments and movements, mobilise country teams, and translate complex implementation into insight and narrative that drives organizational learning and continued investment. You will work closely with Ipas’s most senior leaders and be a visible external presence for the organisation.

Primary responsibilities:

Lead the Strategic Portfolio

• Own the strategic coordination and technical excellence of the CIFF portfolio including the Audacious Project and standalone programs, ensuring alignment and integrating learning with the organizational strategy
• Support the design of integrated approaches that expand abortion and contraception access through health systems strengthening policy engagement, financing, community support, and stigma reduction.
• Drive alignment between organizational strategy, donor priorities and country implementation, identifying opportunities for scale, learning and innovation, financing and systems change
• Contribute to country and regional project design, ensure coherence across the Ipas global portfolio

Lead the Ipas relationship with CIFF

• Serve as a primary relationship manager for CIFF engagement in collaboration with senior Ipas leadership.
• Lead donor communications, updates, learning engagements, and strategic discussions-ensuring Ipas is always responsive, credible and forward looking
• Ensure internal communication and understanding of emerging shifts and decisions
• Ensure high-quality donor stewardship, responsiveness, and confidence.
• Produce high-quality, evidence-driven strategic briefs, presentations, reports, and donor-facing materials that reflect both ambition and rigorous delivery
• Coordinate donor visits, learning exchanges, and portfolio reviews.

Ensure Excellent Technical and Program Delivery

• Work closely with technical and country teams to ensure quality implementation and adaptive management across the portfolio.
• Facilitate cross-country learning and embed emerging evidence into programming in real time.
• Facilitate collaboration across clinical, community, policy, financing, evidence, and advocacy workstreams.
• Support development of impact measurement, implementation frameworks, partnership models, and systems-level approaches that strengthen sustainable abortion ecosystems.
• Ensure the needs of women and girls, including adolescents, remain central, addressed through practical, rights-based approaches.

Strengthen the Ecosystem Around the Work

• Cultivate strategic relationships with governments, civil society organizations, youth-led groups, philanthropic actors, multilateral agencies, and research institutions.
• Position Ipas as a thought leader in abortion and contraception access, reproductive justice, and sustainable abortion ecosystem approaches.
• Support convenings, external engagement opportunities, and collaborative partnerships.
• Identify co-funding and partnership opportunities aligned with the portfolio.

Drive Evidence, Learning, and Adaption

• Support learning agendas, portfolio reviews, and evidence generation efforts, working with MEL and technical teams to strengthen outcome tracking and systems-level measurement.
• Translate implementation learning into strategic insights for internal and external audiences.
• Champion adaptive management across country portfolios, building a culture of continuous improvement.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum requirements:

• Advanced degree in public health, international development, gender studies, social sciences, public policy, or related field.
• 10–15+ years of progressively senior experience in international development, SRHR, gender equality, adolescent health, philanthropy, or systems strengthening.
• Experienced with impact measurement, evidence-driven adaptive programming and communicating results
• Deep understanding of abortion access, contraception, reproductive justice, SRHR, strengthening health systems policy advocacy, and gender equality-including the political landscape that shapes this work
• Demonstrated experience managing complex multi country donor portfolios, particularly with large philanthropic funders.
• Strong political acumen and the ability to navigate sensitive, multi-stakeholder environments with confidence and care.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and presentation skills- you can distill complex evidence into a compelling narrative for any audience.
• Experience supporting ecosystem or systems-change approaches, particularly in low- and middle-income countries
• A collaborative, adaptive leadership style — you bring people together across functions and geographies and build trust quickly.

Competencies:

What We’re Looking For

You’re a senior leader with deep SRHR or global health experience who thrives at the intersection of strategy, evidence, relationships, and delivery. You’re comfortable with ambiguity, energised by complexity, and genuinely committed to reproductive justice.

This role requires a highly strategic leader with strong political acumen, partnership management skills, methodological rigor, systems thinking capability, and experience navigating complex, multi-stakeholder reproductive health and development initiatives.

• Organizational‑level strategic thinking and results stewardship.
• Decisive, values‑grounded risk management.
• Feminist leadership and shared power practice.
• Complex stakeholder and donor relationship management.
• Systems integration, learning, and adaptive leadership.
• Clear, credible communication in high‑ambiguity environments.

Working environment:

• This position is fully remote, subject to change based on business need.  
• Flexibility to meet virtually in different time zones required.
• Ability to travel internationally up to 30%

Why This Role, Why Now

Unsafe abortion kills more than 20,000 women every year — nearly all in low- and middle-income countries, and nearly all preventable. Ipas exists to change that. The Audacious Project represents the most significant scale-up in our 50-year history, and this role is central to delivering it.

At a moment when reproductive rights face unprecedented political pressure globally, this is a rare opportunity to work at the frontier of the field — with the resources, partnerships, and institutional credibility to drive change that reaches millions of women.

Ipas is a globally networked organization committed to shared leadership and local ownership. 67% of our leadership are women, and our teams are grounded in local expertise and lived experience. Equity is not an add-on — it drives how we design programs and how we work as an organization.

Ipas is strongly committed to providing a work environment that is free from all forms of harassment, discrimination, and inequity.  We recruit, employ, train, promote, and compensate our personnel without regard to race, age, sex, religion, national origin, color, creed, ancestry, citizenship, caste, ethnicity, regional identity, tribal identity, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, or any other personal characteristic protected by law or outlined by Ipas policy. Ipas acknowledges that these personal characteristics may differ in different contexts.