Chief Program Officer

Splash is an international development organization founded in 2007 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA. In 15 years, we have reached over 800,000 children in cities around the world. In 2019, we embarked on an exciting, five-year initiative, Project WISE (WASH in Schools for Everyone), focused on reaching over 800,000 children in three major growth cities - Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar, Ethiopia and Kolkata, India - with improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure, WASH behavior change programs, and strengthened school-based menstrual health programs. Looking ahead, we aim to expand our impact to new cities across five countries in Asia and Africa.

Splash supports local leaders, institutions, and partners to drive lasting change on the ground. We believe that local capacity to solve problems at scale exists, and our job is to strategically support and magnify the impact of local governments, nonprofit and for-profit actors for the good of children and families across the cities in which we work. 

Our core values guide everything we do, including every hiring decision we make. They are:  

• People - People first. People second. People third.  
• Quality - Beautiful products that function and last.  
• Honesty - No drama, no surprises, no BS.   
• Joy - Kids at heart, seeing potential everywhere.  
• Mistakes - Make them, don’t repeat them.  

 Splash values the unique skills and experiences everyone brings to the organization, and we are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment. To learn more, please visit www.splash.org.  

The Job

This position is full-time, remote, and based in the U.S. This position will require significant international travel while complying with safety advice and regular reporting into the Pacific standard time zone.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Chief Programs Officer is at the leading edge of change and has expertise in the WASH sector. They are committed to ensuring that water is flowing, latrines are used, hands are washed with soap and girls have menstrual health support in every school and health care facility. The CPO has experience scaling complex WASH programs globally to support the replication of Splash’s work, not simply the scaling of Splash’s work.

This leader is unafraid of ambitious initiatives in line with Splash’s impending move to support 12 cities, in 4 countries, to ensure that all schools and health care facilities in these cities have access to Splash’s world class WASH package. They consider themselves a WASH person and understand this work must be implemented in a way that inspires replication and involves meaningful financial support from governments for front-end capital expenditures and tail-end operations and maintenance costs.

The Chief Program Officer will work in partnership with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as a member of the global management team to ensure our present work in Ethiopia and India meets and exceeds our rigorous standards and audacious goals while also helping to chart a course toward the future. The Chief Programs Officer will support the organization as we build out our four-country strategy and help to execute that strategy.  This includes creating a positive atmosphere and a culture of equity and inclusion for employees across all country offices and at all levels within the organization.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Oversee Splash’s biggest program to date, Project WISE (WASH In Schools for Everyone). This two-country multi-city endeavor aims to prove that citywide WASH in Schools programs can be affordable, effective, scaled and replicated globally.
• Provide leadership and support to Country Directors in both Ethiopia and India.
• Support Splash’s expansion in four additional countries (including Kenya and Bangladesh). This includes support in the creation and execution of country strategies so that we can succeed at modeling successful city-wide schools and health care facilities WASH intervention.
• Manage and grow a team of thought leaders and practitioners in countries where we work, as well as the Splash Global team, so talents are utilized with greatest effect for the good of children and families.
• Provide leadership and support to Splash’s global technical teams.
• Provide oversight for the Program budget in collaboration with Country Directors
• Guide Splash’s evolving work on advocacy, sustainability, and operations and maintenance to ensure that our investments last.
• Support and enforce the utilization of monitoring results, evaluations and lessons learned so that Splash consistently uses data to inform program strategy and bolster quality.
• Be a leading voice on the issues of WASH in schools, urbanization, and child-focused investments in the broader WASH and philanthropic communities.
• Identify, negotiate, and secure funding opportunities in collaboration with Splash country offices and Splash’s Business Development team across the five participating countries (four new countries plus Ethiopia) 
• Willingness to travel to program locations in countries such as India, Kenya, Ethiopia and Bangladesh; travel is likely to be up to 40% of the year, pending travel restrictions as a result of COVID-19.

About You

QUALIFICATIONS

The Chief Programs Officer has at least 10 years of proven WASH experience in a leadership role. You have implemented WASH programs with a focus on women and girls, within and across countries in the Global South. The Chief Programs Officer uses data to learn and improve and has direct experience harnessing government finance. You will have managed a diverse, globally dispersed team and demonstrated the ability to mentor and coach your team to achieve success. Your lived experiences and investment in your career will play a role in positioning you for this next chapter in your professional journey.  

CHARACTERISTICS

• You are self-motivated, flexible, and nimble. You are comfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. 
• You demonstrate trustworthiness and integrity by promoting and maintaining a culture of compliance and ethics.
• You are committed to safeguarding and protecting populations with whom we work, especially vulnerable children and adults.
• You balance patience as needed with a deep desire/hunger/impatience for change and thus move at a speed that brings people along, builds coalitions, pushes for change and keeps focus on kids and the urgency of their needs.
• You are strategic and detail oriented.
• You are curious and humble, knowing how and when to ask for help.
• You love collaboration as well as independent work and can work well with remote team members and diverse cultures.
• You have extensive experience in gender-responsive WASH programming.
• You have secured and harnessed government finances for WASH capital investments and operation and maintenance costs on a global scale.
• Experience living and working in South Asia or East Africa a plus.
• You are committed to Splash’s mission and values.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

At Splash, we are committed to living out our mission every day, and that starts with providing benefits that allow our employees to care for themselves and support their families. 

• The annual salary range for this position is $135-145k. This will be reviewed at least annually. 
• Splash provides generous benefits including 18 days of paid time off, increasing by 2 days each year up to 28 days, and 11 paid holidays. 
• Wellness Fridays (reduced working hours on Fridays); medical, dental, and vision; and a 401K pension with a 3% match. 
• We provide additional paid time off for all staff between December 26 to New Year’s Eve to recognize end-of-year stress and time for reflection, rejuvenation and planning for the holidays.