Program Manager, Global Programs

Position description

Location:United States (Remote with Required In-Country and International Travel)

Reports To:Executive Director

Organization Overview

The Elba Hope Foundation is a nonprofit organization. At the heart of our mission lies a steadfast commitment to sustainable progress and better futures for Africans and the African Diaspora through the interconnected tools of agriculture, conservation, food security, education, youth advocacy, and social justice.

Our mission is to drive transformative change by fostering innovation, empowering communities, and forming strategic partnerships that will have a lasting impact on these sectors, both today and for future generations.

Program Overview

Elba Hope Foundation designs, operates, and supports a growing portfolio of direct programs and grantee-led initiatives across multiple geographies. Our current work spans infrastructure projects (water, power, and connectivity), institutional partnerships, and community-based programs focused on education and employability. We are primarily concentrated in the UK and Sierra Leone, with a growing presence and engagement in the US.

As the organization scales, we need strong program governance, execution discipline, and grantee accountability, while maintaining deep community trust and local relevance.

Position Overview

The US Program Manager is a hands-on execution role responsible for organizing and overseeing programs and grantees across the US, UK, and Africa, with primary accountability for program quality, coordination, and performance.

This role is focused on making programs work in practice by translating strategy into execution, ensuring partners deliver, surfacing risks early, and equipping leadership with clear, actionable insights.

You will collaborate with leadership, operations, and regional program leads, including the UK Program Manager.

Key Responsibilities

Global Program & Grantee Oversight

• Oversee a portfolio of direct programs and external grantees across multiple regions.
• Ensure programs are progressing against approved scopes, timelines, budgets, and outcomes.
• Serve as a primary point of accountability for grantee performance, including:
  • Review of workplans, budgets, and deliverables
  • Ongoing monitoring, check-ins, and issue escalation
  • Supportive course correction when programs are off-track
• Partner with Operations to ensure grants and programs are operationally compliant and well-documented.

Program Planning, Execution & Governance

• Support the scoping, design, and launch of new programs and pilots.
• Translate high-level strategy into executable plans with milestones, outputs, and outcomes.
• Track program progress and risks; flag issues early and propose solutions.
• Ensure alignment with Elba Hope Foundation’s mission, strategic priorities, and capacity.
• Contribute to the development of program standards, templates, and playbooks as the organization matures.

Cross-Functional & Regional Coordination

• Work in close partnership with:
  • Executive Director on priorities, decision-making, and external relationships
  • Director of Operations on budgeting, compliance, contracts, and reporting
  • Regional Program Managers to ensure alignment across geographies and avoid duplication
• Act as a bridge between strategy and execution, ensuring leadership decisions are implemented cleanly on the ground.

Community & Stakeholder Engagement

• Support community-centered program design by incorporating local insights and needs assessments.
• Establish trusted relationships with community leaders, implementing partners, NGOs and institutional collaborators, donors, vendors, technical partners,and government stakeholders.
• Facilitate inclusive community engagement processes that surface priorities, concerns, and feedback.
• Ensure community input meaningfully informs program design and implementation.
• Represent Elba Hope Foundation professionally with senior stakeholders, funders, and key opinion leaders.
• Coordinate across internal and external partners to ensure alignment and accountability.

Measurement, Learning, & Reporting

• Support the development and use of measurement frameworks for programs and grants.
• Ensure programs collect appropriate data to track outputs, outcomes, and early indicators of impact.
• Contribute to internal and external reporting with clear, honest assessments of progress and challenges.
• Track program progress against milestones, budgets, and impact indicators.
• Prepare concise, decision-ready updates and reports for senior leadership.
• Contribute to learning agendas and continuously improve program design based on evidence and feedback.

Regulatory Awareness & Risk Management

• Coordinate with leadership and partners to understand regulatory and compliance considerations relevant to programs (particularly in water, energy, and infrastructure contexts).
• Identify operational, reputational, or delivery risks and escalate appropriately.
• Support due diligence on new partners and initiatives.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in program management, grant oversight, or community development, preferably in nonprofit, international development, or social impact settings.
• Demonstrated experience leading programs independently—not just supporting them.
• Strong execution skills: you can manage complexity, follow through, and hold partners accountable.
• Comfort working across cultures, time zones, and organizational contexts.
• Excellent written and verbal communication that is clear, direct, and professional.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously.
• Experience working with or overseeing international partners or grantees and interacting with donors.
• Familiarity with infrastructure-adjacent programs (water, energy, connectivity, education, health).
• Exposure to regulatory or compliance considerations in low-resource or international contexts.
• Fluency in English required; additional languages are a plus.
• Execution-oriented and comfortable working with limited structure.
• Prior experience working in Sierra Leone or West Africa is a plus.

Application instructions

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