Jhpiego is seeking a Technical Director for its Maternal and Newborn Child Health (MNCH) program. This role provides overall technical direction and oversight for MNCH interventions, ensuring alignment with national policies, project objectives, and global evidence. The position requires leadership across various MNCH technical areas and a strong focus on quality improvement and capacity strengthening within government health systems.

Responsibilities or duties

Key responsibilities include providing technical leadership in maternal and newborn health, child health, nutrition, immunization, and integrated service delivery. This involves contributing to the design, planning, implementation, and scale-up of MNCH activities, leading the implementation of evidence-based quality improvement approaches, and providing strategic technical guidance for high-impact interventions across the continuum of care. The role also involves ensuring appropriate integration of MNCH services with other health areas, leading capacity strengthening initiatives for the MNCH workforce, and strengthening government-led systems. Engagement with government counterparts and stakeholders, data use for performance monitoring, and ensuring sustainability and institutionalization of interventions are also critical aspects of the role. The Technical Director will also be responsible for milestone achievement, project performance, documentation, research, learning, knowledge sharing, and technical team leadership and management.

Qualifications or requirements 

An advanced degree in medicine, nursing, midwifery, public health, maternal and child health, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, nutrition, or another relevant clinical or public health field is required.

Experience needed

At least 9–10 years of progressively responsible experience in MNCH programming, including substantial experience providing senior technical leadership for large-scale health programmes. Demonstrated technical expertise in maternal, newborn and/or child health, with a strong understanding of integrated MNCH programming. Experience in immunization and/or nutrition is highly desirable. Strong experience in quality improvement, clinical capacity strengthening, competency-based training, mentorship, supportive supervision, and/or health workforce development. Demonstrated experience working with Government of Tanzania institutions and technical programmes at national and subnational levels. Strong understanding of government health systems and experience institutionalizing technical approaches within government policies, plans, budgets, service delivery, workforce, supervision, and data systems. Demonstrated experience supporting the sustainability, institutionalization, and transition of donor-supported health interventions to government leadership. Experience using routine service delivery and quality data to identify performance gaps, guide technical assistance, and support adaptive management. Experience with U.S. Government or other major donor-funded health programmes and an understanding of donor performance, reporting, and compliance requirements. Experience managing project milestones, technical deliverables, and performance-linked results is highly preferred. Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor multidisciplinary technical teams and work effectively across technical, programmatic, MERL, finance, and operational functions. Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with senior government officials, technical working groups, professional bodies, implementing partners, donors, academic institutions, and other stakeholders.

Any other provided details (e.g., benefits, work environment, team info, or additional notes)

Fluency in English is required; proficiency in Kiswahili is strongly preferred. Strong leadership, strategic thinking, negotiation, communication, relationship management, and problem-solving skills. Strong technical writing, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills. Ability and willingness to travel regularly across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package.

• Provide overall technical direction and oversight for MNCH interventions, ensuring alignment with national policies, project objectives, and global evidence.
• Provide technical leadership across maternal and newborn health, child health, nutrition, immunization, and integrated service delivery approaches.
• Contribute to the design, planning, implementation, and scale-up of MNCH activities to ensure effectiveness, quality, consistency, and responsiveness to national and subnational priorities.
• Lead the implementation and institutionalization of evidence-based quality improvement approaches across project-supported MNCH services.
• Provide technical leadership for high-impact maternal and newborn interventions across the continuum of care, including antenatal care, intrapartum care, emergency obstetric and newborn care, prevention and management of postpartum hemorrhage, essential newborn care, care for small and sick newborns, postnatal care, and referral systems.
• Provide strategic technical guidance for child health, nutrition, and immunization interventions, including integrated management of childhood illness, emergency triage and treatment, routine and intensified immunization, growth monitoring, infant and young child feeding, and management of acute malnutrition.
• Ensure appropriate integration of MNCH services with malaria, HIV, community health, and other relevant service areas.
• Lead assessments of MNCH workforce and clinical capacity needs and develop evidence-based approaches to address identified gaps.
• Strengthen government-led clinical training, mentorship, supportive supervision, and quality improvement systems at national, regional, council, and facility levels.
• Support the development of government trainers, mentors, and clinical champions across priority MNCH technical areas.
• Ensure the use of evidence-based national training materials, clinical standards, competency-based approaches, mentorship systems, simulation and skills-development approaches, and assessment tools.
• Provide technical oversight for pre-service and in-service capacity-strengthening approaches, as appropriate.
• Promote alignment between health workforce competencies and service delivery requirements.
• Work with government counterparts to institutionalize effective training, mentorship, supportive supervision, and quality improvement functions within routine government systems.
• Serve as a senior technical resource to relevant Ministry of Health technical units, PMORALG structures, regional and council health teams, and other government counterparts on MNCH programming.
• Maintain strong technical relationships with government institutions, professional bodies, academic and training institutions, implementing partners, and other MNCH stakeholders.
• Represent the project in relevant national technical working groups, task forces, guideline-development processes, and other MNCH coordination forums.
• Provide technical input into national strategies, guidelines, standards, training materials, implementation approaches, and other technical products in collaboration with government counterparts.
• Coordinate with U.S. Department of State implementing partners and other stakeholders to promote technical complementarity, address implementation gaps, leverage resources, and avoid duplication.
• Promote joint planning, implementation, performance review, and problem-solving with government counterparts to strengthen government leadership and ownership.
• Work closely with MERL staff to strengthen the collection, analysis, interpretation, and use of routine MNCH service delivery and quality data.
• Monitor technical performance against approved targets, milestones, and quality standards, identifying areas requiring technical support or corrective action.
• Support government counterparts in using routine data for planning, performance reviews, quality improvement, targeting technical assistance, and evidence-based decision-making.
• Facilitate routine technical performance reviews with national, regional, council, and project teams to identify gaps, analyze underlying causes, and agree on corrective actions.
• Strengthen government-led data review and performance monitoring processes and promote the use of existing national information systems rather than parallel project systems.
• Use performance data and implementation learning to adapt technical approaches and improve quality, coverage, and outcomes.
• Provide technical leadership for the institutionalization and sustainable scale-up of effective MNCH interventions within routine government systems.
• Work closely with the Sustainability and Transition Director and government counterparts to identify technical, workforce, financing, service delivery, data and accountability, and community-level barriers to sustained MNCH implementation.
• Integrate sustainability and transition considerations into MNCH technical strategies, annual work plans, budgets, capacity strengthening, quality improvement, supervision, and scale-up approaches.
• Support the incorporation of priority MNCH interventions and associated resource requirements into national, regional, council, facility, and other relevant government plans and budgets.
• Strengthen government capacity to progressively lead technical planning, implementation, clinical training, mentorship, supervision, quality improvement, performance monitoring, and scale-up of priority MNCH interventions.
• Promote the use and strengthening of existing government structures, systems, tools, and processes while avoiding parallel technical systems.
• Support the implementation and monitoring of agreed transition milestones and readiness criteria, identifying technical gaps that could affect service continuity or quality.
• Ensure transition and scale-up approaches protect continuity, quality, and equitable access to lifesaving MNCH services.
• Align MNCH technical activities, technical assistance, resources, and implementation timelines with approved project milestones and payment-linked deliverables.
• Work with the Senior Project Director, MERL, Finance, Sustainability and Transition Director, and field teams to monitor progress against MNCH-related milestones and identify deliverables at risk.
• Lead technical corrective actions where service quality, implementation performance, government capacity, or other technical gaps threaten milestone achievement.
• Ensure MNCH results are supported by complete, accurate, timely, and technically sound evidence and documentation required for milestone verification.
• Contribute to the preparation and technical review of milestone verification packages and the timely resolution of technical questions or verification requirements.
• Ensure MNCH teams understand their contributions to project milestones and remain accountable for agreed technical deliverables and timelines.
• Document implementation experiences, technical adaptations, challenges, results, and lessons learned across MNCH interventions.
• Identify and disseminate effective tools, approaches, best practices, and innovations that can strengthen quality, scale, institutionalization, and sustainability.
• Promote implementation research, operational learning, and evidence generation to address priority MNCH implementation questions.
• Contribute high-quality technical inputs to project reports, presentations, learning briefs, success stories, and other donor and government deliverables.
• Author or co-author abstracts, presentations, technical products, and peer-reviewed publications in collaboration with government, in-country, and global colleagues.
• Facilitate the dissemination and use of MNCH evidence and learning through national technical forums, professional networks, communities of practice, and other appropriate platforms.
• Provide technical leadership, supervision, mentorship, and guidance to MNCH Technical Advisors, Specialists, Technical Officers, and other assigned technical staff.
• Establish clear technical priorities, expectations, and accountability for quality, performance, milestone achievement, sustainability, and transition.
• Work with Field Team Leads and regional technical staff to ensure technical assistance responds to regional and council needs and is implemented consistently across project locations.
• Promote collaboration and integration across MNCH, malaria, CBHS, MERL, and other project technical and operational functions.
• Support the development of annual work plans, budgets, technical assistance plans, and other implementation documents related to the MNCH portfolio.
• Ensure compliance with national clinical standards, U.S. Department of State requirements, and Jhpiego operational and technical policies.
• Support strategic growth, partnerships, and other project priorities as assigned.

• Leadership
• Strategic thinking
• Negotiation
• Communication
• Relationship management
• Problem-solving
• Technical writing
• Presentation
• Facilitation

• Advanced degree in medicine, nursing, midwifery, public health, maternal and child health, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, nutrition, or another relevant clinical or public health field.
• At least 9–10 years of progressively responsible experience in MNCH programming, including substantial experience providing senior technical leadership for large-scale health programmes.
• Demonstrated technical expertise in maternal, newborn and/or child health, with a strong understanding of integrated MNCH programming. Experience in immunization and/or nutrition is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, monitoring, and scaling evidence-based MNCH interventions within government health systems.
• Strong experience in quality improvement, clinical capacity strengthening, competency-based training, mentorship, supportive supervision, and/or health workforce development.
• Demonstrated experience working with Government of Tanzania institutions and technical programmes at national and subnational levels.
• Strong understanding of government health systems and experience institutionalizing technical approaches within government policies, plans, budgets, service delivery, workforce, supervision, and data systems.
• Demonstrated experience supporting the sustainability, institutionalization, and transition of donor-supported health interventions to government leadership.
• Experience using routine service delivery and quality data to identify performance gaps, guide technical assistance, and support adaptive management.
• Experience with U.S. Government or other major donor-funded health programmes and an understanding of donor performance, reporting, and compliance requirements.
• Experience managing project milestones, technical deliverables, and performance-linked results is highly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor multidisciplinary technical teams and work effectively across technical, programmatic, MERL, finance, and operational functions.
• Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with senior government officials, technical working groups, professional bodies, implementing partners, donors, academic institutions, and other stakeholders.