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ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS

Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has worked in 800+ villages in 6 countries and has pioneered a community-driven development model in sub-Saharan Africa. Spark works with NGO and Government partners to scale the model's adoption and impact on rural communities - on their own terms. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyse local action and institution building. Read more about our Approach,
Impact and Values on our website.

Spark seeks an experienced Program Development Manager: Global to lead the process of designing new programs across Spark’s portfolio, from initial concept to launch. The role will oversee high-quality, collaborative program design processes that are grounded in co-design principles, adapted to local contexts, and deliver results aligned with objectives. The PDM will lead on strengthening and maintaining Spark’s program design systems, tools, and standards to support consistent, high-quality design across the organization.

The PDM Global will report to the Senior Program Design Director and work closely with other units within the Program Design department, as well as a Program Development functional group. They will contribute to Spark’s design standards and cross-portfolio learning. This role is ideal for someone with strong experience and interest in program design and facilitation, passionate about community and local development, and skilled in translating objectives into clear, actionable steps and driving their implementation.

OUR WORK

The foundation of our approach is the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), where rural communities are led through regular facilitated meetings to organize, conceptualize and implement local development projects, which are supported by a microgrant to fund them. The FCAP has been designed to improve local livelihoods, enhance social cohesion, and improve citizen engagement.

Our operating model is based on an international team of functional advisers (e.g. finance team, MEL team, Program Design team) who support country teams. Country teams co-design the FCAP with local partners and government, train partners or directly implement the design, and support quality monitoring and oversight. The size and scope of country teams depend on the needs of our partners and the portfolio size and complexity.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a thoughtful and organized program design professional with experience developing and launching programs in international development. You are comfortable leading collaborative design processes that bring together internal and external stakeholders and are able to translate program objectives into clear, effective program designs. You are a strong facilitator and communicator, equally at ease guiding a workshop, coaching others through a design deliverable, or producing a realistic work plan.

You bring both structure and adaptability to your work: you can manage multiple workstreams, maintain momentum across competing priorities, and navigate ambiguity while ensuring rigor and quality. You are motivated by building systems that deliver high-quality community-driven development programs, and you take initiative in identifying gaps and strengthening processes, tools, and standards over time. The right candidate will not want to do ‘development as usual’ but question how aid works and ensure that Spark is ultimately accountable to the villages we serve.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Responsibility: Lead New Program Design Processes

Duties:

1. Lead new program design processes from inception to program launch for assigned initiatives, ensuring alignment with Spark’s model, standards, and program design procedures
2. Manage cross-functional working groups, including developing budgets and workplans, coordinating inputs, and driving progress toward design deliverables
3. Plan and facilitate workshops and collaborative sessions to guide internal stakeholders, partners, and government counterparts toward defined design objectives
4. Lead the coordination of internal inputs and reviews to ensure all design outputs are consistent with decisions, polished, and responsive to identified objectives
5. Author concept notes, implementation guides, or other required documentations that accompany new program designs

2. Responsibility: Strengthen Program Design Systems and Standards

Duties:

1. Develop and maintain program design documentation, including templates, tools, examples, and standard operating procedures to support consistent and high-quality design processes
2. Lead the development, validation, and updating of assigned "Design Standards" outlining minimum standards and guidance on core elements of the FCAP model
3. Build organizational understanding of program design processes through onboarding, coaching, and ongoing technical support to country and functional teams
4. Identify quality and capacity gaps in program design processes and recommend strategies to address them through systems improvements, tools, or training

3. Responsibility: Cross-Program Learning and Knowledge Management
Duties:

1. 1. Participate in Program Development functional group by sharing lessons and supporting national scale design efforts across Spark’s countries of focus
   2. Lead program development contributions to internal working groups focused on cross-portfolio exchange
   3. Develop external-facing materials that communicate program designs to donors, partners, and other stakeholders
   4. Maintain organized and accessible knowledge management systems for program design materials, including implementation guides, concept notes, budgets, subawards, and curricula

4. Responsibility: Technical Expertise and Team Management

Duties:

1. Provide technical guidance on key program areas (e.g. CDD and designing for national scale) and operational areas (e.g. working with World Bank systems or operations)
2. Oversee technical specialists or consultants to provide needed technical expertise or support
3. Manage cross-departmental collaboration to deliver high-quality program design outputs

REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications, experience & skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field
• Minimum 5 years of experience in international development, including program design, strategy development, or community development
• Demonstrated experience leading or coordinating cross-functional teams or working groups, with the ability to manage inputs and stakeholders and drive implementation of work plans
• Experience facilitating workshops, trainings, or collaborative design sessions with diverse stakeholders, including internal teams, partners, and/or government counterparts
• Technical understanding of community-driven development, rural development, national scale program design, or working within World Bank systems would be an asset
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple priorities across countries or teams

OTHER INFORMATION

Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda; Kampala, Uganda; Lilongwe, Malawi; Accra, Ghana; or Remote, USA

Estimated start date: As soon as possible

Application closing date: On a rolling basis, we reserve the right to close this recruitment process anytime.

How to Apply: https://sparkmicrogrants.bamboohr.com/careers/167

Safeguarding

Our safeguarding follows a do-no-harm principle. All Spark staff are expected to respect and uphold the safeguarding procedures and principles to minimise harm to stakeholders, program participants, and the environment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Spark Microgrants provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions at Spark are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Spark does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by the law. Spark will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.