Head of Programs

Relief International (RI), a global non-profit organization dedicated to supporting communities affected by conflict, climate change, and disasters, is seeking a Head of Programs (HoP) for its operations in Pakistan. The HoP will serve as a senior leader responsible for overseeing program strategy, quality, and growth, with a particular focus on mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and protection projects. This role involves close collaboration with multiple internal departments and external partners to ensure programs are evidence-based, community-led, timely, and compliant with donor and government requirements. The position requires strategic leadership to align RI’s country programs with global priorities, government policies, and donor interests, while fostering integrated, inclusive, and climate-aware programming across sectors such as health, education, WASH, and livelihoods.

Key Responsibilities

- Lead the development, implementation, and regular review of RI Pakistan’s country program strategy, ensuring alignment with community needs, government priorities, and donor expectations.
- Oversee the MHPSS and protection project lifecycle, including planning, delivery, budgeting, risk management, reporting, and close-out.
- Ensure community workers receive structured supervision and support, with clear referral pathways and feedback mechanisms.
- Maintain technical oversight of safe protocols addressing urgent mental health concerns, child protection, GBV, and other protection risks, ensuring culturally appropriate and accessible services.
- Coordinate with government bodies, UN agencies, and other stakeholders to strengthen referral systems and avoid duplication.
- Provide technical quality assurance, ensuring compliance with RI, IASC, WHO, and sector standards, and approve MEAL frameworks, evaluations, and learning agendas.
- Monitor program outcomes beyond activity counts, focusing on service quality, supervision, referral completion, and community satisfaction.
- Manage grant implementation plans, budgets, risk registers, and reporting schedules in collaboration with Finance and Grants teams.
- Lead program design and technical inputs for proposals, ensuring feasibility, risk assessment, and value for money.
- Develop strategic partnerships with national and international organizations, academic institutions, and private-sector actors.
- Represent RI Pakistan in donor, government, UN, and sector coordination forums, advocating for program priorities and contributing to sector planning.
- Provide leadership and management to program teams, promoting a culture of accountability, inclusion, and staff wellbeing.
- Uphold RI’s Code of Conduct, safeguarding policies, and humanitarian principles, modeling ethical leadership and ensuring safe reporting mechanisms.

Required Qualifications

- Master’s degree in public health, clinical or counseling psychology, psychiatry, or mental health.
- Minimum eight years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian or development programs, including at least three years in senior program leadership.
- At least five years of substantive experience in MHPSS and/or protection programming, including layered community-based services, psychosocial interventions, safe referrals, and quality assurance.
- Proven ability to manage complex, multi-location programs and multidisciplinary teams, with strong recruitment, coaching, and performance management skills.
- Demonstrated expertise in project cycle management, financial oversight, donor compliance, reporting, and grant close-out.
- Experience developing technical inputs for donor proposals, including theories of change, logframes, and budgets.
- Strong knowledge of safeguarding, PSEA, child protection, GBV risk mitigation, suicide prevention, informed consent, confidentiality, and sensitive data handling.
- Experience in program quality, MEAL, accountability, and evidence-based adaptation.
- Effective coordination and representation skills with government, donors, UN agencies, and partners.
- Fluency in written and spoken English and Urdu.
- Willingness and ability to travel regularly within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Preferred Qualifications

- Familiarity with Pakistan’s Hamdard MHPSS Model, WHO mhGAP, IASC MHPSS guidance, or similar stepped-care systems.
- Experience working with Afghan refugees, returnees, displaced populations, or vulnerable host communities.
- Knowledge of major institutional donors such as Dutch MFA, EU/ECHO, FCDO, USG, UN, or GIZ.
- Working knowledge of Pashto, Dari, or Balochi.
- Experience using digital or low-bandwidth tools for referral, supervision, case follow-up, or program data management.

Relief International values integrity, adaptability, collaboration, inclusivity, and sustainability. The organization is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and encourages applications from qualified candidates of all backgrounds, with particular encouragement for female applicants. This position will remain open on a rolling basis until a suitable candidate is identified.