The Mastercard Foundation seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper, believing that access to education, financial services, and skills training provides opportunities for success.
The role of the Senior Director, Health Workforce Initiatives, involves providing crucial strategic direction and leadership to the Foundation's health workforce portfolio, ensuring all initiatives align with the broader Higher Education and Communities (HECSI) integrated strategy. This senior leadership position is responsible for translating high-level organizational strategies into actionable plans for developing the health workforce in Africa, contributing to thought leadership, and representing the Foundation in critical regional and global forums related to health workforce, higher education, and system strengthening.
Ways You Can Contribute (Key Responsibilities)
Strategic Leadership & Stewardship
- Provide strategic direction for Health Workforce Initiatives and ensure alignment with the HECSI integrated strategy.
- Translate the Foundation's higher-level strategies into actionable plans for workforce development initiatives.
- Represent the Foundation in regional and global forums on health workforce, higher education, and system strengthening.
- Contribute to thought leadership and strategic positioning through evidence generation, technical insights, and best practices.
- Promote the Foundation's values and support initiatives that expand opportunities for African youth.
Collaborative Management & Partnership Development
- Strengthen and coordinate multidisciplinary collaboratives involving universities, ministries, training institutions, and development partners.
- Support partners in proposal development, program design, and operational planning.
- Establish and facilitate governance structures such as Steering Committees and Technical Working Groups.
- Build and maintain relationships with senior leadership in partner organizations, universities, regional bodies, and civil society.
- Promote cross-country learning and facilitate communities of practice focused on health workforce transformation.
Program Design, Implementation and Innovation
- Oversee the design and rollout of programs that expand competency-based training, applied learning, and workforce readiness.
- Support the development of innovative education and training models that respond to evolving workforce needs.
- Ensure that programs draw from evidence, global guidelines, and relevant frameworks.
- Promote scalable and sustainable approaches to workforce development across countries.
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning
- Develop robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to measure program effectiveness and outcomes.
- Work with the Impact team to align indicators, data systems, and learning processes across the portfolio.
- Produce high-quality evidence and synthesize lessons to inform ongoing program improvement.
- Facilitate learning exchanges between partners, higher education institutions, and government counterparts.
Communications & Public Engagement
- Develop communication strategies that highlight the Foundation's work on workforce initiatives.
- Represent the Foundation with external audiences, including governments, donors, academic institutions, and regional bodies.
- Support the production of technical briefs, case studies, learning reports, and other documentation.
Financial & Operational Oversight
- Support partners in reviewing and managing budgets, ensuring timely adjustments and compliance.
People Leadership
- Lead and mentor program and operations staff within a matrixed environment, ensuring high-quality work and alignment with Foundation values.
- Drive team engagement, collaboration, and inclusivity, fostering a culture of oneness and diversity.
- Support performance management, career development, and capacity building for team members.
Qualifications and Experience (Who You Are)
- Bachelor's degree and Master's degree in a relevant field such as public health, health policy, education, international development, or a related discipline.
- At least fifteen (15) years of progressive experience in health workforce development, health systems strengthening, higher education, or a related field.
- Experience designing and implementing complex, multi-country programs.
- Demonstrated success managing partnerships with governments, universities, regional bodies, and development partners.
- Progressive experience in health workforce development, health systems strengthening, or related areas, including developing roadmaps and executing programs for health workforce development.
- Experience leading multi-stakeholder collaboratives and governance structures.
- Strong understanding of health workforce frameworks, policy environments, and strategic planning processes.
- Proven ability to think in a strategic, transformative way, able to conceptualize initiatives/processes that will drive large-scale change.
- Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
- Experience building communities of practice and supporting knowledge exchange.
- Strong communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills across diverse cultural contexts.
- Experience managing teams and providing leadership in complex organizational environments.
- Familiarity with higher education systems in Africa is an asset.
- French or a local African language is an advantage.
- Knowledge of development, political, and social issues affecting Africa's health and education systems.
