We are hiring: Deputy Director to Maternity Foundation
Do you want to help lead a global team in solving one of the world’s most pressing problems? Maternity Foundation is an international non-profit that works to ensure a safer childbirth for women and newborns through innovative programs and digital solutions. We are looking for a Deputy Director to help lead and support our growing global team and expanding portfolio of work.
Application deadline: June 15th.
Every year, 300,000 mothers and 2.4 million newborns die during and around the time of childbirth. The vast majority of these deaths occur in low-resource settings and are preventable if attended by skilled birth attendants. However, the world is facing both a shortage in the number of skilled birth attendants, and a gap in the quality of the existing workforce, with more than half of all maternal and newborn deaths now due to poor quality of care – a situation exacerbated by the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Maternity Foundation is an international non-profit that works to ensure a safer childbirth for women and newborns, everywhere. We use innovative solutions to provide high-quality, competency-based, digital education and services to health workers that need them the most together with partners in more than 15 countries across Africa and Asia.
Over the past 10 years we have grown from a smaller Danish NGO working on the ground in Ethiopia to a global player within digital training and learning for health care workers. Our digital solution, SafeDelivery, is implemented across multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asiaand is reaching more than 200.000 health workers including in some of the world’s more remote and fragile settings.
We work with partners such as UNFPA, UNICEF, Ministries of Health, Plan International, Red Cross and Save the Children. Our work is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck for Mothers, Novo Nordisk Foundation, among others. HRH Crown Princess Mary has been our patron since 2009. Together, we work from a shared vision that it should never cost life to give life.
Position summary
Our team of roughly 40 diverse staff span Ethiopia, Denmark, India, and the US. We come from various backgrounds – global health, midwifery, anthropology, IT, business – and take pride in an entrepreneurial spirit and a can-do attitude. Together, we are an ambitious and driven team working in a warm and informal atmosphere.
We are looking for a Deputy Director to help lead and support our growing global team and expanding portfolio of work. As a Deputy Director you will be working closely with the CEO to lead and implement strategy, management, and operational tasks. The Deputy Director is a senior leadership position, partnering with the CEO and other senior staff on strategy execution, while supporting a strong and growing team and furthering our transformation to an international non-profit organisation. The Deputy Director will have a strong internal operational focus freeing up the CEO to focus on external matters. The Deputy Director will be a part of our Management Team and have a strong cross-cutting role across the organisation.
The ideal candidate may have a background in non-profit or business including a minimum ten years in a senior management position overseeing human resources, finances, operations, and strategy.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Lead and implement cross-cutting organisational strategy
- Under the supervision of the CEO, play a leading role in compiling various inputs and perspectives to create and update the organisational strategy
- Keep abreast of trends and new developments in the digital/ maternal/ newborn health sector.
- Work closely with the CTO and rest of the management team on ensuring the future digital roadmap
- Support development, tracking and reporting on organisation and KPIs
- Connect the dots between all initiatives and workstreams – understand and optimise entire value chain across Maternity Foundation
- Serve as the backbone of key strategic initiative
- Facilitate and participate in the organisation’s Management and Board Meetings
2. Head of Administration and Human Resources
- Oversee day-to-day operations and administrative support on HR, finance, and legal organisational work
- Lead a team of 3-5 staff
- Develop and implement organisational policies
- Support financial reporting in collaboration with Finance Manager
- Manage staffing, HR, and recruitment processes
- Support CTO in cross-cutting alignment and planning
- Facilitate internal communication
We envision you have:
- A relevant academic background in public health, nonprofit management, business, or similar field with an advanced degree (MA, MPH, MBA).
- Strong understanding and track record of successful organisational management, highly proficient operational and strategic acumen.
- Outstanding leadership and organisational skills, including ability to manage multiple complex, collaborative projects simultaneously.
- A self-driven, pro-active approach with the ability to work independently while being a team-player.
- Strong people skills, ideally with experience in working with multi-cultural, multi-country teams.
- An asset if you also have experience in international development, and maybe even a background and/or experience in sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent (global) health (SRMNCHA).
- Excellent communication, writing and presentation skills.
- Fluency in English.
Terms and conditions
The position is based at Maternity Foundation’s headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Starting date August/September 2021.
Please send application or inquiries to tara@maternity.dk no later than June 15th.
