Director Water Sanitation WASH

Background

iDE  is an international nonprofit dedicated to combating poverty in the developing world by helping rural households access the tools and knowledge they need to increase their income. We are committed to creating sustainable and inclusive markets that deliver much-needed products and services to rural households. When we told people that we planned to sell latrines, water filters, and handwashing devices to poor customers rather than just give them away, they didn’t believe it would work. But we’ve proven that it does work: since we began building markets for WASH, and through our innovative programming including the world’s first WASH development impact bond (DIB), over 8 million individuals now have access to clean drinking water, improved toilets, and more knowledge about how to improve the health of their families.

To accomplish this, iDE draws on teams of diverse, business-minded, and highly adaptive leaders and experts across the organization. This team is focused on driving game-changing scale, significant impact, and competitive return on investment. iDE’s Global WASH team provides leadership to the organization as a whole by increasing Coherence, bridging Capacity, cultivating Connection, and encouraging Projection to key external partners.

In this vein, we are looking for the Director of iDE’s Global WASH team in our international headquarters. The person selected for this position will inherit a platform for impact that has been built over the last 25 years by our exemplary team of WASH and market-based development experts around the globe. The Director has the opportunity to provide leadership and inspiration to this team to continue delivering impact in new ways and in new technical and geographic areas. The ideal candidate will:

• Enhance the Coherence of our core approaches and strategies in WASH programming, and Deliver high impact results across the WASH portfolio. At the center of everything we do is our belief that building markets and powering entrepreneurs is the most effective way to drive lasting impact. Through our human-centered design methodology, we connect to customers who let us know exactly what they need in order to invest in a toilet for their families. We then help local entrepreneurs to build and deliver these solutions. In seven countries—Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nepal, Ethiopia, and Ghana—we’re seeing a common trend: this model drives impact at scale and allows us to reach customers in a cost-effective manner.
• Bridge Capacity of our team members around the world, and grow our Connections within and outside tof iDE to foster collaborative innovation in WASH. We are looking for someone who can walk the line between being an expert in the WASH sector who applies hard-won skills to really big questions, and having the humility to continually learn and adapt to unpredictable circumstances. iDE is an organization that values human-centered dialogue with internal and external stakeholders, and we want leaders that will actively contribute to the skills and capabilities of their colleagues across the organization in WASH programming, at any level. Our ideal candidate will also be highly proactive in strengthening channels for our colleagues to collaborate, learn, and adapt across WASH programming and impact strategies.
• Drive the Projection of iDE’s experiences, learnings, challenges, failures, and opportunities with stakeholders in the public, private, and nonprofit segments of the international development and social impact sectors. Our ideal Global WASH Director candidate will be obsessed with enabling their colleagues across iDE to tell compelling and irresistable stories of iDE’s strategies and impacts in WASH, including an honest, humble understanding of where we fail, learn, and grow along the way. Our next WASH Director won’t rest until our approach is known universally.

We do not offer indoor slides, juice bars or use of a private jet (nor business class travel for that matter). However, we do offer the opportunity to work with a diverse group of incredibly talented and creative people who are tackling wickedly hard problems that keep millions of people in poverty. And you will have the intense satisfaction of enabling a diverse, dynamic global team around the world to create impact and put the power of economic choice and agency in WASH to our household clients and microentrepreneur networks.

If the description above sounds just like you (or somewhat like you!), and you have the technical skills and the passion we need, you may be just the person we are searching for. Go here to submit your CV and a brief cover letter. We want to know why we need you on our team and why a challenge of this nature excites you - inspire us by describing why this is just the opportunity you are looking for.

The pay range for this position is $75,000 - $95,000 for the Director position, commensurate with experience. iDE offers an excellent benefits package which includes a generous leave policy, medical, dental, vision and life insurance as well as short-term disability, long-term disability, travel insurance, and 6% straight contribution to retirement. The Global WASH team is primarily based in Denver. However, we will consider remote placement for the right candidate.

SUMMARY

iDE has developed a strong global reputation for its work leveraging markets and entrepreneurs to deliver impact in the WASH space. WASH is a strategic space for iDE, where we have the opportunity to build on our past success to expand our effectiveness and influence on the widespread adoption of human centered design and market-based approaches to drive impact at scale.

Reporting to the VP Global Initiatives, the Global WASH Director will build on current momentum to strengthen WASH innovation and results across our country programs, and to strengthen our brand and influence within the sector. As a member of iDE’s Global Initiatives technical programming department within iDE’s global headquarters, the Global WASH Director will lead iDE’s efforts in WASH programming across development and promotion, strategy, leadership, collaboration, capacity development, technical expertise, financial management, and communications.

The person selected for this position will inherit a platform for impact that has been built over the last 25 years by our exemplary team of WASH and market-based development experts around the globe. The Director has the opportunity to provide leadership and inspiration to this team to continue delivering impact in new ways and in new technical and geographic areas.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES  include the following:

DEVELOPMENT & PROMOTION

• Develop, sustain, and build relationships with key funders, corporates, and partner NGOs. The successful candidate should have existing connections with the WASH sector, and especially with funders and partners that prioritize market-based models.
• Play an active role in proposal development for strategic opportunities with bilateral, multilateral, and large foundation funders in the WASH sector
• Partner with iDE’s Global Fund Development team on concept and proposal development for family foundations and individual donors and participate in donor visits
• Development work includes building on existing country WASH programs, as well as developing and executing strategies for expanding iDE’s WASH portfolio to new countries.
• Promote iDE’s thought leadership by communicating findings externally through strategic publications, frequent presentations at conferences/meetings, and industry networking.
• Partner with iDE’s Communications & Marketing team to project iDE’s accomplishments and learning externally

STRATEGY

• Develop and refine strategic vision for iDE’s WASH work for internal direction and to ensure competitive positioning within the sector. This includes building on early successes and learnings to expand iDE’s WASH portfolio in key technical areas like fecal sludge management, climate/resilience, and hygiene, among others.
• Develop and ensure achievement of WASH strategic priorities (annual and against five-year plan)
• Build brand and communications for iDE’s WASH strategy in coordination with the Global Communications and Marketing department. This includes finding and taking advantage of opportunities to tell our story through third-party channels that target our audiences and generate credibility and excitement about our work.
• Provide substantive contributions to iDE’s overall strategic planning and execution processes.
• Support reporting to iDE’s Board of Directors as needed under the CEO’s direction.

LEADERSHIP, COLLABORATION, & CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

• Create and communicate a vision for the future of WASH at iDE to members of the HQ-based Global WASH team, HQ-team, and global team.
• Nurture a global identity, common mission and morale for WASH program staff within the broader iDE culture.
• Ensure WASH visibility within iDE HQ, country offices and the global Board of Directors
• Promote knowledge management within and among WASH country programs so that lessons learned inform and improve our models and impact over time.
• Develop & disseminate training and capacity building solutions for WASH staff across country programs
• Provide coaching and performance management support to WASH sector team members globally across country programs.
• Advise iDE’s Global Executive Team and senior management on issues related to WASH programming.

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

• Work with country programs to support project design at all stages of development, including budget planning, team structure and roles, technical focus and methods, etc.
• Provide technical oversight to WASH proposal and project design.
• Manage delivery of all headquarters billable work related to WASH across country- and/or global-level projects and/or consulting assignments.
• Work with country teams to monitor progress against strategic and project-specific WASH targets.
• Work with country offices to ensure donor reporting consistently meets quality and messaging standards.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

• Annual planning of Global WASH HQ budget
• Approval of expenses by WASH team
• Monthly, quarterly, and annual budget oversight (e.g. budget variance analysis, cash flow)

COMMUNICATIONS & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

• Disseminate relevant WASH programming information to staff through regular briefing notes and updates (with links to more detailed sources).
• Make all WASH impact results, reports, and knowledge products readily accessible to staff through iDE’s Salesforce communities sites, technical summaries (called Infinite Sector & Tactic Profiles) and the Global KPI Application.
• Support iDE’s Communications & Marketing department on products related to WASH efforts as needed and within reason.
• Promote iDE’s thought leadership by communicating findings externally through strategic publications, presentations at conferences, meetings, and networking.
• Lead internal discussions among iDE’s leaders on what WASH results and learnings, both internally and externally, means for our global technical strategies in WASH.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES  include the following:

• Directly supervise iDE’s WASH Innovation and Performance Manager within the Global WASH team.
• Provide soft-management and/or mentorship to country-office WASH staff so that they may achieve their objectives, professional development goals and feel fulfilled in their roles at iDE.
• Manage contracts with external consultants for WASH-related programming across the organization as appropriate.
• Recruit and manage WASH-related interns as needed and as available.

Requirements

• Expertise and experience in the WASH sector, with a preference for designing, implementing, or advising market-based WASH programs.
• Demonstrated connection to the WASH community and sector stakeholders, and especially to partners and funders engaging with market-based approaches to generating impact in WASH.
• Appropriate experience in technical and/or operational leadership, with demonstrated levels of increased responsibility for program development, revenue generation, and execution
• Demonstrated strategic planning abilities.
• Demonstrated experience generating revenue for iDE’s work.
• Strong knowledge of issues and opportunities in relevant sector and discipline areas, including: human-centered design (HCD); market systems development (MSD); monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL)
• Demonstrated management skills, including project, financial, and human resources.
• Alignment with iDE’s mission, values, and approaches.
• Ability to communicate clearly and persuasively in oral and written presentation.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively across language and culture barriers.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and take initiative on multiple projects at any one time.
• Ability to multitask and pivot to respond to time-sensitive requests and needs when required.
• Overseas work experience preferred.
• Fluency in English required; proficiency in one of the following languages preferred: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Khmer, Nepali, Vietnamese, Bengali.
• Willing and able to travel extensively in areas with minimal infrastructure or services (will have a lot more fun if this is seen as a perk).

Work Environment

This job operates primarily in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. The employee frequently is required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms. Occasionally lifting up to 25 pounds is required.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time, exempt position. Variable work hours are required as job duties demand.

Travel

Travel both international and domestic, to areas with minimum physical comforts may be required, up to 30% as appropriate to implement strategic Global Initiatives. A valid passport is required at all times.

Diversity Statement

iDE is an equal opportunity employer. We believe every employee has the right to work in an environment that is free from all forms of unlawful discrimination. Consistent with applicable laws, iDE makes all decisions involving any aspect of the employment relationship without regard to race, color, sex, creed, religion, age, ancestry, marriage to a coworker, national origin, citizenship, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, veteran status, sexual orientation (including transgender status), if applicable, or any other status or characteristic protected by local law. Discrimination and/or harassment based on any of those factors are inconsistent with our philosophy of doing business and will not be tolerated. This policy of non- discrimination applies to all aspects of recruiting and employment, including compensation, benefits, advancement, transfers, terminations, and reductions in force.

Benefits

The salary range for this position is $75,000 - $95,000 annually. iDE offers a robust benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision and life insurance, paid time off and 403(b) inclusion.

Information

• Location: Denver, United States

Industry experience

Education: Masters

Seniority: Manager, Director, Professor

Taxonomy

• Water Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH)
• Senior WASH officer
• WASH in remote communities
• WASH in healthcare facilities