Project Director - Open Society Institute–New York

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people.

We seek to strengthen the rule of law; respect for human rights, minorities, and a diversity of opinions; democratically elected governments; and a civil society that helps keep government power in check.

We help to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights.

We implement initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media.

We build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information.

Working in every part of the world, the Open Society Foundations place a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of people in marginalized communities.

The Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program (PHP) aims to promote health policies based on scientific evidence, social inclusion, human rights, and justice. Broadly, the program works with civil society organizations within two fields: promoting the participation of socially marginalized groups in public health policy and fostering greater government accountability and transparency through civil society monitoring efforts. Program areas focus on addressing the human rights and health needs of marginalized groups, facilitating citizen access to health information, and advocating for a strong civil society role in public health policy and practice. 

Visit our website for further information on the Public Health Program.

SHARP promotes human rights-based approaches to advancing the health of sex workers and transgender individuals. This is achieved through grant-making, capacity building, direct advocacy, and fund leveraging. SHARP often aims to develop, pilot, and disseminate information on innovative approaches to improving the health of sex workers and transgender individuals in order to integrate these approaches into wide-scale health programs and plans. Underpinning all of SHARP’s work is the belief that those most affected by policies and programs should be the ones driving their design, implementation and evaluation.

SHARP’s geographic focus is Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Eastern and Southern Africa. Funding outside of those regions is driven by a specific policy or advocacy objective.

The Open Society Foundations (OSF) seeks a full-time project director in their New York office to lead the Sexual Health and Rights Project (SHARP) of the Public Health Program (PHP).

Purpose of Position

The project director (PD) will provide overall direction to SHARP, overseeing its strategy, budget, programs, and staff and representing the Project both within OSF and externally. The PD will lead a dynamic team of program and administrative staff collaborating closely with the Public Health Program’s other projects and national level OSF Foundations to advance the health and human rights of sex workers and transgender individuals. Work is carried out independently.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. OSF may add, change, or remove essential and other duties at any time.

Strategy Development and Implementation:

• Oversee implementation of the current SHARP Strategic Plan (2011-2014);
• Work with staff to sustain existing activities and develop new initiatives that further SHARP’s strategic goals;
• Devise and implement ways to monitor and evaluate progress against the Strategic Plan and to provide opportunities for continuous learning and reflection; 
• Approve SHARP’s annual Activity Plan;
• At the end of the Strategic Period, design a process to evaluate SHARP’s progress toward its Strategic Plan and use input from the evaluation to guide development of the next SHARP Strategy;
• Work with SHARP staff to maintain and seek advice from experts in health and human rights from around the world on areas of implementation and conceptualization;
• Advise staff on the development of new partnerships and collaborations within the PHP, OSF and broader donor community to advance SHARP’s strategic goals;
• Provide ongoing strategic advice to other PHP Projects on integrating into their portfolios innovative approaches to addressing the health and human rights issues facing sex worker and transgender communities.

Personnel Management:

• Supervise a team of program and administrative staff, which currently consists of one senior program officer, one program officer co-supervised by the Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) and one administrative assistant;
• Conduct regular supervision meetings, staff meetings and performance reviews;
• Provide staff with ongoing strategic and operational advice and accompany them in the field as appropriate; 
• Work with staff to design and meet their professional development goals and to create opportunities for team-building and continuous learning; 
• Work with staff to support their counterparts at National and Regional Foundations in the Open Society Foundations Network who are implementing shared portfolios locally.

Project Management:

• Responsible for the development and expenditure of the annual SHARP budget (currently US$2.1 million);
• Review and provide Project-level approval of grants and program expenses;
• Oversee technical assistance provision designed by Program Officers; 
• Work with staff to negotiate matched/co-funding of projects by other parts of the PHP, OSF and national and regional foundations; 
• Work with staff to develop and implement administrative processes to support project work, such as the annual budget review, expenditure tracking, funding procedures, activity database, electronic filing, and contacts; 
• Implement specific areas of SHARP’s portfolio including but not limited to fund leveraging and access to health for transgender individuals.

PHP and OSF-Wide Representation:

• Serve as a member of the PHP Directors and Deputies (DnD) team;
• Work closely with SHARP staff to develop and maintain relationships with national and regional foundations and OSF network programs;
• Participate, when requested, in PHP and/or Foundation-wide learning initiatives.

External representation:

• Represent SHARP outside the PHP and OSF;
• Communicate to diverse audiences about SHARP’s work, by participating in staff and advisory committee meetings, traveling to conferences, guest lecturing, publishing articles about SHARP’s work as time and strategy permit, and helping to organize PHP and OSF events; 
• Identify and advocate directly to key SHARP stakeholders when OSF is uniquely positioned to do so;
• Support SHARP program staff to work with grantees, partners, and the PHP’s Senior Communications Officer and Health Media Initiative to communicate to broader audiences about the impact of their work.

Other:

• Travel is required;
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Education / Experience

Advanced degree and at least ten years of relevant experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• At least 10 years of experience in the field of health, gender and sexual rights;
• At least 5 years of leadership and management experience;
• Experience working with civil society and grassroots organizations;
• Experience working abroad, knowledge of Russian or Spanish a plus;
• Experience with grant-making and capacity-building;
• Significant experience with budgets and financial oversight.

Skills Required

• Demonstrated management skills in not-for-profit organizations, foundations or government agencies, particularly in matrixed organizations;
• Leadership expertise in identifying best practices and improving internal systems;
• Flexibility and willingness to work simultaneously on a wide range of tasks and projects;
• Experience in managing multiple priorities under pressure and accomplishing short- and long-term deadlines with a heavy workload;
• Demonstrated strategic, budgetary, technical, human resource and financial management acumen;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with a wide array of people with diverse backgrounds throughout a complex organization;
• Team spirit, collegial and respectful working and decision-making style, and ability to listen and communicate clearly and effectively with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds;
• Commitment to the SHARP mission and to deploying grant-making and capacity-building to advance health and human rights of sex workers and transgender communities;
• Track record delivering superior results, commanding respect and assuming a leadership role;
• Professionally competent to make administrative and procedural decisions and judgments on sensitive, confidential issues;
• Interpersonal skills necessary in order to interact effectively with staff, all levels of management in identifying and resolving complex issues; and dealing with sensitive problems and situations;
• Polished professional with ability to represent a global organization with sophisticated international colleagues;
• Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated expertise in handling all personnel related issues and information in a confidential manner;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Ability to work efficiently under pressure and on a wide range of tasks;
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

Work Environment and Physical Demands

Essential functions are typically performed in an office setting with a low level of noise. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Compensation

Commensurate with experience. Excellent benefits package.

Application Instructions

Please email resume and cover letter with salary requirements to:humanresources@opensocietyfoundations.org. Include job code in subject line: PD-SHARP

Application Deadline:

December 31, 2012