Senior Program Manager, Violence Prevention, Women and Children´s Health & Public Health Systems

About Vital Strategies

Vital Strategies is a global public health organization. Our programs strengthen public health systems and address the world’s leading causes of illness, injury and death. We currently work in more than 80 countries, supporting data-driven decision-making in government, advancing evidence-based public health policies, and mounting strategic communication campaigns. Vital Strategies’ priorities are driven by the greatest potential to improve and save lives. They include noncommunicable disease prevention, tobacco control, road safety, alcohol policy, food policy, overdose prevention, environmental health, and data for health. Our programs are primarily concentrated in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific; the Overdose Prevention Program is our first initiative in the U.S. Please visit our website at www.vitalstrategies.org  to find out more about our work.

The Vital Strategies office in Brazil supports municipal, state, and federal governments in addressing the main causes of preventable illness and death. We have worked with the cities of Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza, Goiânia, Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo, Recife, and Campinas; the states of Ceará, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Norte, and Rio Grande do Sul; the Ministry of Health; state and municipal health secretariat consortia (respectively Conass and Conasems); the National Front of Mayors; and civil society partners.

Vital Strategies is committed to promoting equal opportunity and fostering the inclusion of groups historically underrepresented in the workforce. As part of our commitment to advancing racial equity in Brazil, this recruitment process is an affirmative action initiative open exclusively to Black candidates (pretos and pardos).

Applications must be submitted in English to be considered. This position will remain open until April 21.

Job Purpose

The Senior Program Manager provides strategic and operational leadership for Vital Strategies Brazil’s portfolio at the intersection of violence prevention, women and children´s health and public health systems. The role ensures technical rigor, program coherence, and results delivery, while strengthening partnerships with government and key stakeholders, supporting donor engagement, and enabling portfolio growth through high-quality proposals and institutional products.

In close partnership with the Country Director, the Senior Program Manager will help ensure continuity and quality of priority program functions, such as coordinating reporting cycles, quality-assuring key deliverables, and managing strategic stakeholders, consistent with internal governance.

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic and Portfolio Management

• Support the planning and execution of an integrated portfolio of projects and grants, ensuring alignment with Vital Strategies’ strategy and relevant public policies.

• Translate strategic priorities into annual workplans, delivery roadmaps, resourcing plans, and governance routines. 

• Ensure methodological consistency, quality assurance, and appropriate risk mitigation across projects through adaptive management.

• Coordinate program performance reviews and implement corrective actions to protect outcomes, timelines, and quality.

• Collaborate with national and international teams to ensure strategic coherence across the Brazil office and Vital Strategies’ global initiatives.

Program Delivery, Technical Oversight & Results-Based Management

• Collaborate with and support multidisciplinary teams, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performance work environment.

• Manage end-to-end project delivery, including launch, implementation, monitoring, and close-out, ensuring outputs/outcomes meet agreed standards.

• Strengthen results-based management, by definition of indicators, monitoring frameworks, data quality routines, and learning loops.

• Shape and refine program approaches by aligning data-driven insights, technology tool development opportunities, and public policy needs to strategically guide delivery, adaptation, and result

• Commission/guide analyses and syntheses (secondary data and program intelligence) that inform decision-making and evidence-based practice.

• Drive knowledge management through documentation of lessons learned, and dissemination of products (technical briefs, presentations, guidance notes) in close collaboration  with the Communication team.

• Contribute to performance management processes, including evaluations and individual development plans.

Government Engagement, Partnerships & Technical Representation

• Represent Vital Strategies Brazil, by delegation of the Country Director, in  strategic meetings, policy dialogues, and national and international forums.

• Serve as a technical representative of the portfolio and ensure consistent institutional positioning

• Build and maintain  effective collaboration with government counterparts, implementing partners, academic institutions , and international organizations, supporting coordination, visibility, and accountability of GBV/violence prevention initiatives.

• Support the development  and management of cooperation agreements (MoUs, workplans, ensuring clarity of roles and responsibilities.

Team Leadership & People Development

• Supervise and support a small team, providing guidance and oversight in day-to-day operations.

• Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor to support effective program delivery and organizational objectives.

• Provide technical guidance, mentorship and training team members, supporting professional growth and capacity development.

Donor Engagement, Proposals & Institutional Products

• Contribute to resource mobilization through  concepts development , drafting/quality  proposals, and supporting donor cultivation (including structured conversations and follow-up).

• Lead or coordinate donor reports and institutional products ensuring data integrity and compliance. Partner with communications functions to improve visibility and positioning of program achievements.

Operations, Financial Stewardship, Risk & Compliance

• Oversee budget tracking, forecasting inputs, and burn-rate monitoring in coordination with finance/operations; ensure timely corrective actions.

• Ensure compliance with internal procedures and donor rules for contracting, procurement, expense tracking, and documentation.

• Assist in managing program operations, including project launch, logistics, contracting, expense and activity tracking, and procurement, in close collaboration with administrative, finance, and operations staff. Proactively manage program risks (delivery, reputational, partner, data/privacy as applicable) and escalate issue with mitigation options.

Qualifications

Education and degree

• Master’s degree in public health, public policy, governmental studies, epidemiology, and public administration is preferred or related field or equivalent experience in related area of work.

Skills & abilities

• Proficiency with software such as MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and regular communications channels (Teams, Zoom, email) required.

• Strategic thinking with strong execution discipline (delivery orientation).

• Strong collaborative mindset; ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary and cross-functional teams.

• Excellent written and oral communication in Portuguese and English.

• Stakeholder management and negotiation; ability to navigate complex political/institutional environments.

• Strong analytical capacity; comfort with data, dashboards, and performance narratives.

• Project management fluency (workplans, risk logs, issue resolution, decision-making routines).

• High integrity, attention to detail, and strong organizational skills.

Experience

Required:

• At least  eight to ten years of relevant   experience in program/portfolio management in an NGO/INGO, philanthropy-linked implementer, or comparable environment.

• Demonstrated experience working with government stakeholders and multi-actor partnerships.

• Proven track record in proposal development, donor reporting, and management of deliverables across multiple funding streams (grant management).

• Strong experience in monitoring and evaluation, including analysis and interpretation of quantitative data to inform program decisions (health information systems or comparable datasets is an asset).

• People management experience (direct reports and/or supervision of consultants/vendors).

Preferred:

• Substantive experience in violence prevention, injury prevention, and/or public health systems strengthening.

• Experience in integrating violence prevention with public health agendas (portfolio integration, cross-sector coordination).

• Proven experience engaging directly or indirectly with public health systems and/or subnational and/or national government institutions in Brazil.

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

• This position  is based in São Paulo, Brazil, under a hybrid work arrangement.

• Full-time position under the Brazilian Labor Law (Consolidation of Labor Laws) framework.

• Expectation of 20% of the time travelling.

   

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