Regional Director, Program Delivery Africa

About Splash

Splash is a global nonprofit organization founded in 2007, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA. Since 2007, we have completed more than 2,500 projects that serve over 1.2 million children each day. Currently focused on cities in East Africa, Splash delivers the clean water, clean toilets, and dignified menstrual health resources that every child deserves through comprehensive water, sanitation, hygiene, and menstrual health (WASH-M) services and behavior change programs across 100% of a city’s public schools.

Our distinctive model transforms entire cities, starting at the school water fountain, by shifting systems, infrastructure, and behaviors in partnership with local governments and communities. We start by building relationships with the local stakeholders responsible for education, health, and water management, and we negotiate financial commitments that support a full transition of operations and maintenance to local leadership.

Our vision is global impact without Splash, made possible through partnerships with national governments, co-creation with local communities, and replication far beyond our day-to-day involvement.

In 2019, we began testing and refining Project WISE (WASH in Schools for Everyone), a cost-effective and replicable blueprint designed to reach 100% of public schools in fast-growing, complex cities in partnership with local governments and community leaders. In five years, we achieved our goals in Ethiopia and India, and we began our next phase of expansion in East Africa in 2025.

Our core values guide everything we do, including every hiring decision we make. They are:

People – People first. People second. People third.

Quality – Beautiful products that function and last.

Honesty – No drama, no surprises, no BS.

Joy – Kids at heart, seeing potential everywhere.

Mistakes – Make them, don’t repeat them.

Splash values the unique skills and experiences everyone brings to the organization, and we are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment. To learn more, please visit splash.org.

The Job

Job title:                              Regional Director, Program Delivery Africa

Line Manager:                    Executive Director, Splash Africa

Location:                             Africa Based or our Regional HQ with quarterly in office time with the regional team

Position Overview

The Regional Director, Program Delivery Africa provides strategic and operational leadership to ensure high quality, on time, and on budget delivery of Project WISE II across Splash’s African countries. This role translates global program strategy into country specific delivery plans, supports Country Directors in overcoming operational challenges, and ensures that infrastructure, behavior change, and systems strengthening components are delivered as an integrated, high quality package.

This is both a strategic and hands-on leadership role, ensuring fidelity to the Splash model, strengthening cross-country program systems, and stewarding a unified approach across multiple implementation contexts.

The Regional Director does not serve as the primary government facing lead (this sits with Country Directors and the Executive Director, Splash Africa), but instead ensures that regional delivery systems enable those partnerships to succeed.

Serves as the primary regional owner of delivery timelines, cost, and quality, and is accountable for meeting agreed government and donor commitments. This role is measured first and foremost by whether infrastructure, behavior change, and O&M systems are delivered, commissioned, and functioning to standard, on schedule, and within agreed budgets.

Stakeholder Ecosystem

The Regional Director operates within a sophisticated collaborative framework:

Roles & Responsibilities

Regional Program Leadership & Strategy Execution

·       Translate Splash’s global WISE II framework into practical, sequenced regional and country specific delivery plans.

·       Ensure alignment across infrastructure, behavior change, and systems to strengthen components.

·       Sets and enforces delivery expectations with in-country program and infrastructure managers, leads formal milestone reviews, and intervenes directly when execution is at risk.

·       Leads formal recovery plans when milestones are missed and holds responsible teams accountable for corrective action.

·       Identify operational bottlenecks and work with Country Directors to resolve issues rapidly.

·       Promote a culture of data driven delivery, accountability, and continuous improvement.

·       Ensure milestones and quality standards are met consistently across all countries.

Program Quality, Impact & Accountability

·       Owns unit-cost performance, cost variance, and capital efficiency across all deployments, and drives corrective action when projects drift.

·       Maintains clear regional cost benchmarks and enforces corrective action when projects exceed approved thresholds.

·       Lead regional review cycles to monitor progress, risks, and impact indicators.

·       Ensure program delivery is on time, on budget, and aligned with donor commitments and MOUs.

·       Strengthen quality assurance frameworks across infrastructure, behavior change, and O&M readiness.

·       Maintain high standards of safeguarding, inclusivity, and child protection across all program activities.

Infrastructure Delivery Oversight & Governance

·       Provide regional oversight of WASH infrastructure delivery and ensure adherence to Splash standards.

·       Support country teams in contractor management, QA/QC systems, HSE compliance, and site level issue resolution.

·       Ensure O&M planning is integrated from the outset and supported by national and subnational partners.

·       Work closely with the Global Infrastructure Director to maintain engineering consistency and cost efficient standards.

Behavior Change & Menstrual Health (MH) Leadership

·       Ensure Behavior Change (BC) programming is integrated with infrastructure delivery and aligned with curricula.

·       Support country teams in strengthening teacher engagement, school ownership, and student led hygiene initiatives.

·       Ensure MH programming is culturally appropriate, context specific, and delivered with fidelity.

·       Coordinate with the Global Behavior Change Director to harmonize tools and training.

Government Partnership & Systems Strengthening

·       Support Country Directors in developing, testing, and strengthening systems with implementing partners.

·       Strengthen partner performance management, contract delivery, and quality assurance processes.

·       Facilitate learning exchanges and ensure high value lessons are captured, synthesized, and shared across countries.

·       Promote consistency in how country teams operationalize Splash’s delivery model.

People Leadership & Capacity Building

·       Leads multi-country teams of Infrastructure and Program Managers fostering a culture of high performance.

·       Provides direct support to Country Directors to navigate complex operational bottlenecks and high-stakes decision-making.

·       Identifies regional capacity gaps and drives investments in training, tools, and professional development to ensure the team is future-ready.

Cross-Functional & Matrix Collaboration

·       Operates in a high-touch matrix with Global Directors (Infrastructure and Behavior Change) to ensure regional execution meets global technical excellence and innovation standards.

·       Partners with Regional Finance and Operations to manage complex budgets, multi-country procurement, and compliance.

·       Collaborates with MERL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning) and Fundraising teams to ensure that real-world delivery data informs future proposals and global learning.

·       Establishes clear decision rights and communication protocols between regional headquarters, country offices, and the global leadership team.

Partnership Stewardship & Regional Learning

·       Oversees the selection and management of local implementing partners, ensuring they are not just “contractors” but are fully aligned with Splash’s values and quality standards.

·       Creates a structured way for country teams to share what’s working and what isn’t.

·       Acts as the regional editor for lessons learned. Instead of just sharing every report, the Director identifies the high-impact “nuggets” of wisdom—technical or behavioral—that should be scaled across Project WISE II.

·       Identifies where local partners may be struggling and directs resources or training to help them improve, ensuring the entire “delivery ecosystem” gets stronger over time.

·       Uses the lessons from the field to provide real-world evidence for donor reports and high-level government meetings, proving that our model is both effective and adaptable.

Qualifications

Core Competencies

·       Exceptional ability to lead across a matrix structure, influencing global technical teams and local country directors simultaneously without direct line-authority in every instance.

·       A data-driven mindset. This candidate lives by KPIs and Gantt charts but uses them as tools for adaptive management rather than just static reporting.

·       A high degree of emotional intelligence (EQ) and cultural humility. They must be as comfortable presenting in a Ministry boardroom, collaborating with the local implementing partners as they are conducting a site visit at a rural school.

·       The ability to see “around the corner”—identifying potential supply chain, political, or financial risks before they impact delivery timelines.

Education

·       A master’s degree in international development, Public Health, Engineering, Public Administration, or a related field is expected.

The Ideal Candidate

You are a strategic operator who loves translating vision into practical, sequenced action. You thrive in complex environments, can navigate multi-country delivery systems, and inspire cross functional teams. You bring humility, energy, and a commitment to excellence — along with deep experience implementing large, multisector programs in Africa.

Experience and Background

·       Proven Leadership in Scale: 10–15+ years of progressive leadership experience in international development, specifically overseeing large-scale, multi-country WASH, BC and MH portfolios.

·       Regional Expertise: A deep understanding of the socio-political and operational landscapes of Sub-Saharan Africa.

·       Technical Versatility: While not necessarily a specialized engineer, the candidate must possess the “technical literacy” to lead both high-stakes construction projects and complex behavioral science initiatives.

·       Government & Policy Influence: A track record of engaging with National Ministries and city-level authorities to move programs from “non-profit initiatives” to “government-owned systems.”

Compensation & Benefits

What We Offer

·       21 days of paid leave (increasing by 2 days each year up to 28 days).

·       11 paid public holidays.

·       Wellness Fridays (reduced working hours).

·       Two company-wide breaks (July and December).

·       Medical, dental, and vision coverage.

·       Employer contributions to NAPSA.

·       A joyful, inclusive, and mission-driven culture.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit their CV and cover letter via Rippling, outlining relevant experience and motivation for applying.

If this sounds like you, a bold, collaborative, and values-driven leader ready to make a lasting impact, we’d love to hear from you. Join us in bringing clean water, clean hands, and clean toilets to every child in Ethiopia, Zambia and Malawi 💧