Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Position Summary

Director, African Operations

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement ( is an independent not-for-profit organization that works with health care providers and leaders throughout the world to achieve safe and effective health care. IHI focuses on motivating and building the will for change, identifying and testing new models of care in partnership with both patients and health care professionals, and ensuring the broadest possible adoption of best practices and effective innovations. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, IHI mobilizes teams, organizations, and increasingly nations, through its staff of more than 100 people and partnerships with hundreds of faculty around the world.

Position Summary:

As an integral member of the IHI leadership, the Director, African Operationsoversees work of the Low and Middle Income Countries department (LoMIC) staff and key partners in African countries, provides leadership of evolving and existingAfrican programs, and works closely with the SVP of LoMIC.This position will manage key relationships with funders and partners, ensuring execution of project designs, developingleadership and capacity of in country teams, to deliver quality improvement(QI) based programming, and being accountable for program results. The Director will actively participate in management of the broader LoMICProgram in close collaboration with the operations director andthe SVP.

Position Responsibilities:

  • Oversee and provide direction for the design, redesign,implementation, results and the evaluation of contracted programs in South Africa, Ghana and Malawi, and other countries where IHI may provide close support to in-country teams.
  • Support team building and strengthening of LoMIC staff both in Cambridge and in the field.
  • Provide close mentoring support to develop potential leaders of programs closely supported by IHI.
  • Lead the change package development and refinement for African programming.
  • Provide QI training opportunities, coaching and mentoring for the partner teams supported by IHI.
  • Provide relationship management with the multi laterals, bilaterals and other NGO’s engaged in the IHI African programs.
  • Develop and evaluate the IHI contracted faculty supporting the LoMIC work in Africa.
  • Report to IHI SVP for Developing Countries and the appropriate foundations on the progress and results of the ongoing work with the African programs.
  • Oversee the communications and dissemination of learnings from the African programming.

Position Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

  • Strong relationship management skills and experience.
  • Superior written and oral communication capability.
  • Ability to lead large scale projects by engaging and inspiring teams.
  • Experienceapplyingquality improvement methods in a health care setting.
  • Ability to collaborate with others internally and externally.
  • Ability toprioritize and lead multiple projects.
  • Ability and desire to travel 25 to 30% of the time or as required.

Position Qualifications:

  • Doctorate degree preferred, Master’s degree required.
  • Ten years or more of experience required.
  • Experience leading large scale projects.
  • Experience summarizing and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data.
  • Experience summarizing medical research.
  • Background knowledge of African health care required.
  • Expert knowledge of quality improvement methodologies.