Project Director W/M - Inpatient malnutrition care management

Médecins Sans Frontières, an international medical humanitarian association created in 1971, provides medical assistance to populations whose lives are threatened:
mainly in the event of armed conflicts, but also of epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters or exclusion from care. The French section of MSF is present in about thirty countries.

In the context of a project opening, we are looking for a:

Project Director W/M - Inpatient malnutrition care management

For decades, MSF has advanced care for malnourished children under 5, with efforts distributed between outpatient care for children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and inpatient care for children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

In 2023, nearly 150,000 children with SAM were hospitalized in MSF Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centers (ITFCs), where they received stabilizing care and nutritional support. These children are at increased risk of death.

MSF is currently in the early development phase of a project (which name is still to be decided) to improve inpatient malnutritional care outcomes, by enabling global access to a novel therapeutic milk for stabilization care, while also continuing to improve Quality of Care (QoC) in ITFCs.

MSF is currently looking for a Project Director to lead this project development.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Reporting to the Project Sponsor (Deputy Medical Director), your main responsibilities will be linked to the project development and management:

1. Lead project development:
   organize for collective definition of project objectives and requirements, ensure compliance with project development deadlines and budget, organize for collective definition of the full multi-year project plan and timelines, ensure alignment with MSF strategic orientations, promote a person-centered approach at key project planning moments, make tactical decisions about project deliverables.
2. Lead the partnership strategy:
   discuss and seek alignment with and inputs from other nutrition actors, support the Central co-PI in networking with potential research partners.
3. Lead the site(s) assessment:
   coordinate with stakeholders to prepare for site(s) assessment; potentially contribute to the field site assessments.
4. Oversee development of the funding strategy and contribute to discussions with potential donors.
5. Oversee project risk management, oversee contracts development.
6. Lead internal and external communication:
   lead the project Core Team meetings; inform progress/decisions to Project Sponsor; report to the MSF Steering committee and to the project Strategic Committee; socialize the project internally within MSF; coordinate the many multidisciplinary stakeholders.
7. Lead the project team:
   contribute to the recruitment; establish ways of working, governance and operating rules; manage, advise, support, motivate and federate the larger project team; directly supervise the Project Manager and the Product Lead; define, distribute and monitor the workload of the larger project team.

You will also have responsibilities across the project objectives:

1. Development of a novel therapeutic milk:
   support Product Lead and Product development subgroup in developing a procurement strategy.
2. Assessment of the novel milk through a randomized clinical trial in MSF ITFCs:
   support the Central co-PI in Epicentre in leading the trial preparation.
3. QoC improvement:
   lead QoC improvement strategy & roll-out; coordinate contributions from the Medical department, Operations, and others to define QoC standards/minimums.
4. Nutrition policies update and advocacy:
   coordinate discussions with institutional and regulatory stakeholders.

Experience

• 5 years proven experience in successfully leading complex medical projects with multidisciplinary teams - essential
• 3 years experience in working in or with resource-limited health systems - essential
• Proven experience in MSF fields or any other medical organization - essential
• Experience in inpatient acute care - a strong asset
• Experience in MSF HQs - a strong asset
• Background in clinical research or in product development in innovation - an asset

Education

• Medical Doctor or Supervising Nurse with background and in-depth knowledge of Pediatrics or Nutrition - essential
• Knowledge in public health management - a strong asset

Languages

• Fluently spoken and written English (work mainly in English) - C1 essential
• Good level of French - B2 an asset