Programme Lead at Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with governments, businesses and civil society, we aim to transform food systems so that they deliver healthier diets for all people, especially the most vulnerable. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, GAIN has offices in countries with high levels of malnutrition: Bangladesh, Benin, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. To support work in those countries, we have representative offices in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Programme Lead

Location: Abuja
Classification: Grade 6
Travel required: 40 %

Overall Purpose

• The Programme Lead provides strategic, technical, and portfolio-level leadership for the programme, ensuring the programme delivers large-scale, inclusive, and sustainable impact.
• The role is directly accountable for shaping the programme’s direction, steering consortium performance, and ensuring delivery of measurable outcomes in dignified work creation, productivity, market access, and system transformation.
• While retaining ultimate accountability for results, the Programme Lead focuses on maintaining strategic oversight, optimising effectiveness, ensuring operational efficiency, value for money, and long-term sustainability, enabling high-quality delivery through empowered leadership across zonal, technical, and operational teams, ensuring high-quality outcomes at every stage.
• As GAIN’s senior representative for the programme, the Programme Lead will oversee a high-performing, cross-functional programme team composed of technical experts, project coordinators, and operational staff, drawing on diverse skills and expertise to achieve programme success.
• The Programme Lead will anchor and strengthen strategic partnerships, ensures cohesion across technical teams, partners, and state structures, and positions GAIN as the lead organisation within the consortium.

Tasks and Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership and Programme Direction:

• Deliver strategic leadership in the design, evolution, and implementation of the programme in line with GAIN’s organisational strategy, country priorities, and donor expectations.
• Define and drive the programme’s strategic scope, objectives, and delivery model, ensuring alignment with GAIN programme frameworks and portfolio priorities.
• Foster and lead on championing the programme Theory of Change and results pathways, ensuring coherence between programme design, implementation approaches, and activities are fully aligned to achieve intended impact.
• Monitor contextual dynamics (policy, market, climate, and socio-economic) and guide adaptive strategic responses to maintain relevance and effectiveness.
• Identify strategic risks, opportunities, and innovations to strengthen programme impact, scalability, and sustainability.

Technical Project Management and Oversight:

• Provide oversight and strategic leadership to zonal coordination teams and partner organizations, ensuring harmonized delivery, consistent technical quality, and operational efficiency across states.
• Oversee project implementation and provide strategic consultation and guidance on any change requests or course corrections, ensuring alignment with programme goals, stakeholder expectations and organisational policies.
• Identify, track and resolve project issues proactively, escalating to senior leadership and external stakeholders when broader intervention is required.
• Lead risk management, safeguarding and environmental compliance, developing robust contingency plans and ensuring integration across all partners and field operations.
• Champion systems thinking and cross-functional integration across value-chain interventions, embedding gender equality, inclusion, and climate resilience in programme design and delivery to achieve sustainable outcomes.
• Ensure rigorous and effective quality assurance, programme learning, and evidence-based decision-making through strategic partnership with the Programme Monitoring and Improvement, and Programme Quality teams.
• Collaborate closely with Project Sponsors, QUADs, and the Programme Oversight Committee (POC) to manage and deliver effective, compliant, and results-driven projects.

People and Team Management:

• Lead and inspire a high-performing, cross-functional programme team aligning technical experts, project coordinators, and operational staff, bringing together the skills, experience, and competencies required for successful programme delivery.
• Cultivate a positive, inclusive culture of excellence and accountability, and high trust working environment that enables staff to perform effectively and reflects GAIN’s values of integrity, collaboration, and innovation.
• Oversee recruitment, onboarding, and performance management for respective programme staff, setting clear expectations and ensuring accountability for results, ensuring alignment with GAIN’s HR policies and supporting ongoing professional development.
• Coach and mentor team members, fostering continuous leadership growth, innovation, and a culture of continuous improvement across the programme.
• Champion capacity development of staff and partners, encouraging shared learning, adaptive problem-solving, and cross-project collaboration ensuring programme success and stakeholder engagement.
• Ensure adherence to GAIN’s Code of Conduct, ethical standards, HR principles, and safeguarding policies, promoting equity, inclusion, and staff well-being at all levels.

Relationship Management:

• Serve as the primary GAIN representative within the programme consortium, fostering collaboration with the implementing partners, government agencies, and state-level stakeholders to ensure strategic alignment and shared ownership of results.
• Oversee external partner engagement across programme design, implementation, and review processes working closing with GAIN’s technical teams, including Programme Quality, Programme Monitoring and Improvement (PMI), and technical experts, to ensure that all activities align with relevant standards and frameworks.
• Lead engagement with senior government officials, private-sector leaders, financial institutions, civil society, INGOs and development partners to advance policy coherence, sustainability and collective impact.
• Facilitate and oversee consortium governance mechanisms such as the Steering Committee, Technical Working Groups, and learning platforms to ensure coordinated decision-making and programme learning.
• Represent GAIN and the programme in national and international forums, conferences, and donor engagements, positioning the programme as a leader and sharing evidence, lessons learned, achievements, and innovations from implementation.

Financial and Resource Management:

• Lead financial oversight for the programme, ensuring efficient, transparent, and accountable use of programme resources in compliance with GAIN and donor standards.
• Oversee budget planning, financial tracking, and forecasting across programme components, partners, and zones, ensuring alignment with approved workplans and adherence to budget limits.
• Collaborate with international and national finance teams to maintain accurate budgets, forecasts and cost control across all programme activities.
• Ensure timely preparation and submission of high-quality donor, narrative and financial reports ensuring coherence, accuracy and compliance with GAIN and donor requirements.
• Ensure transparent grant management, procurement and partner accountability mechanisms  are in place, including periodic reviews of sub-grant, suppliers and consultants in line with ethical and procurement standards and guidelines
• Maintain strong internal controls and risk mitigation and audit readiness, collaborating with Finance, Procurement, and Operations teams to strengthen financial compliance, contract management, and reporting efficiency.
• Ensure monthly programme reporting (in line with GAIN’s Project Management Standards) to update management on progress achieved, implementation plans, budget performance, and emerging challenges.

Key Organisational Relationships

• Reports to the Country Director.
• Line management and mentoring of project support staff.
• Close collaboration with the other projects and operational staff.
• Liaises regularly with GAIN Programme Services Team and Knowledge Leadership teams, Government, Donors, NGOs, Private Sector, Academia and others Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

Job Requirements
Educational Qualification:

• Master’s Degree in Agriculture, Agribusiness, Development Studies, Economics, Management, or related field.
• Certification or postgraduate training in Project or Programme Management (desirable).

Experience:

• Extensive experience in senior programme leadership roles within complex, multi-partner or consortium-based development programmes, preferably in agriculture, livelihoods, or market systems with a focus on systemic change and inclusive impact
• Proven experience in project and programme management within complex and diverse environments, ensuring successful delivery across multiple sectors and partners.
• Demonstrated record of delivering projects on time and on budget, applying project management tools and processes including risk management, benefits realization, financial management, and quality assurance.
• Demonstrated people management, including coaching, motivation, performance assessment, conflict prevention, and team building.
• Proven experience overseeing donor contracting, grant oversight, budget management and compliance with a solid understanding of donor compliance and reporting requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to use group facilitation techniques to enable effective multi-stakeholder participation, collaboration, and consensus building.
• Prior experience engaging with government institutions, private sector entities, and donor agencies, including work on multi-state or national-level programmes integrating youth, gender, and climate resilience dimensions.to influence policy and systemic transformation.

Competencies:

• Excellent project and programme management capabilities with a strong ability to lead complex, multi-sectoral initiatives from design through delivery.
• Strong leadership capability, combining strategic vision, sound judgment, and effective people management to motivate and mobilise teams and partners toward shared objectives.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and influencing skills, with proven ability to engage and coordinate effectively across government, private sector, civil society, local partners, and donor stakeholders in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Demonstrated adaptability and resilience, with the ability to respond proactively to uncertainty and complexity while balancing strategic oversight with operational delivery and maintaining programme ethics and objectives.
• Deep understanding of gender, protection, and safeguarding dynamics within humanitarian and development contexts, and ability to integrate these into programme analysis and design.
• Strong analytical and writing skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information and evidence into actionable insights and high-quality reports.
• Financial literacy and familiarity with grant management, budgeting, and compliance procedures.
• Computer literacy with strong proficiency in Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and project management software.
• Commitment to GAIN’s core values of integrity, inclusion, innovation, equity, and accountability.

Other requirements:

• Must be willing and able to travel
• Fluent written and verbal English

What GAIN Offer

• Flexible working hours through hybrid working opportunities
• Friendly working environment
• Professional development opportunities
• The chance to make a lasting contribution to reducing global malnutrition

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note: Please note that job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, and the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties, which are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.