Fortify Health - Chief Programmatic Officer

About Fortify Health-

Fortify Health has a vision for a healthier world where everyone has the micronutrients they need to survive and thrive. We work toward this by enabling access to micronutrient-rich wheat flour (chakki atta) to reduce and prevent iron deficiency anaemia.

Fortify Health operates through three flagship programmes:

a) Open Market: Support millers to cost-neutrally fortify chakki atta in the open market. We provide our mill partners with the equipment, materials and training that they need to produce high quality fortified chakki atta.

b) Partnerships: Work closely with both state government and quasi-governmental organisations to support them to provide fortified chakki atta to their beneficiaries.

c) Research, Monitoring & Evaluation: Monitor the quality of the fortified atta that we support our partners to produce and conduct evaluation studies to understand the impact and effectiveness of our programme.

Now is a particularly exciting time for Fortify Health. We have been scaling our programmes rapidly over the past two years, having received a grant of USD 8.2 million from GiveWell. Since 2017, we have:

a) Established partnerships with more than seventy mill partners and supported the production of tens of thousands of metric tonnes of fortified chakki atta. We now estimate that we are reaching almost 3 million beneficiaries per day;

b) Acted as the technical support partner to the Andhra Pradesh Public Distribution System. Through the partnership, Fortify Health has helped to support the distribution of high-quality fortified chakki atta to approximately five million consumers at risk of anaemia; and

c) Grown to a team of more than sixty dedicated professionals. Our team had a diverse range of skills and experience, including in public health, food and milling technology and government relations.

To read more about our work and impact, visit our "What we do" section on our website.

About the role-

The Chief Programme Officer (CPO) will empower and lead our Programs and Partnerships teams, working closely with Fortify Health's Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

a) The Programs team is responsible for executing our open market work, finding new mill partners and supporting existing partners to fortify the chakki atta they produce. The CPO would oversee work with all existing and potential mill partners.

b) The Partnerships team implements our partnerships work, engaging with governmental and quasi-governmental organisations to promote chakki atta fortification and support those organisations to adopt chakki atta fortification. The CPO would oversee the strategy and implementation of partnerships with all these partners.

The CPO's leadership of these teams will be critical to our aim of supplying fortified chakki atta to more than 25 million people per day by the end of 2025. The CPO will directly manage the leaders of the Programs and Partnerships teams and oversee a team of more than 40 professionals within these departments. Their steady oversight and guidance for our teams will ensure that Fortify Health's programmes are able to scale rapidly. The CPO will also act as a crucial spokesperson for our mission and work, engaging with high priority partners to raise awareness about anaemia, food fortification and Fortify Health.

This role is a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the development of a fast-growing, high impact nonprofit. If you are an experienced professional who is looking to have a significant social impact, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Please note: in a private sector context this role is analogous to a Chief Product Officer and we encourage those with experience in the private sector to consider this role.

Responsibilities and activities-

The CPO will have the following key responsibilities:

a) Overseeing and leading Fortify Health's programmatic departments

- Strategising about their teams' growth - The CPO will work closely with the directors, managers and officers in their department to develop effective long term strategies for how their teams can best contribute to Fortify Health's mission.

- Innovation and implementation - The CPO will be expected to be a critical thinker who is able to generate innovative ideas and effectively implement them. This may include: developing go-to market strategies, considering iterations to our intervention model, internal team structuring and operating processes.

- Managing and mentoring departmental leadership - The CPO will manage the leaders of the Programs and Partnerships team, providing them with the support they need to lead their teams and meet targets.

- Overseeing high-priority programme communications - The CPO will oversee the development of core documents from their teams, ensuring that external outputs are high quality and aligned with our strategy. This will also include preparation of materials for external stakeholders such as government stakeholders, private sector leaders and funders.

b) Representing Fortify Health effectively to important external partners

- Developing frameworks to prioritise and engage with partners - The CPO will ensure that we engage with the right partners in the right way. They will establish frameworks to prioritise between different potential partners and support their teams to operate those frameworks.

- Championing Fortify Health in external meetings - The CPO will act as a primary spokesperson for Fortify Health in a wide range of fora, including with government and industry partners. In doing so, the CPO will be sensitive to the needs and expectations of Fortify Health's external stakeholders, ensuring that we communicate as effectively as possible.

c) Working with the Executive team to design Fortify Health's overall strategy and make mission-critical decisions

- Co-developing and executing multi-year scale-up and programme plans: The CPO will collaborate with Fortify Health's CEO and leadership team to build our short, medium and long term strategy. Work with the programmatic teams to create and implement appropriate Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).

- Contributing to mission-critical decisions: The C suite of Fortify Health is responsible for making significant decisions about Fortify Health's future. The CPO will be a crucial part of this, working closely with the CEO and COO (once appointed).

Candidate profile-

Requirements

a) Prior experience working in India, ideally within the development sector or a related field.

b) Fluency in English and Hindi.

c) Execution: The CPO must be able to plan, monitor and deliver complex cross-departmental projects in a way that is efficient and aligns with Fortify Health's overall strategy.

d) Communication: The CPO must be able to communicate complex ideas with nuance and persuasiveness, both verbally and in writing. They should be capable of adjusting the tone of their communications for their audience as appropriate.

e) Collaboration: The CPO must be an effective motivator and manager, ensuring that their staff have the information and inspiration they need to fulfil their roles. The CPO should also be able to manage complex potential conflicts with empathy and professionalism.

f) Decision-making: The CPO must be able to consider data, evidence and others' views effectively to come to well-reasoned, logical decisions. When faced with new problems, they must be able to consider creative or new approaches to resolve those problems.

g) Knowledge of programmatic implementation: The CPO should have previous experience of senior leadership in an implementing organisation, ideally in India and / or in a related sector (this may include private sector experience in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology etc.). We are particularly keen to receive applications from candidates with experience of working at organisations that have scaled rapidly.

h) Strategic thinking: The CPO must be able to zoom out and identify long-term opportunities and challenges that our programmes might face. They should be capable of balancing the management of day to day work with long-term priorities, ensuring that their teams can complete current tasks without compromising strategic goals.

Desirable attributes

a) Knowledge of fortification or the food industry landscape in India

b) Knowledge of Indian government or experience working with government in India

c) An ability to analyse data effectively and use insights from data to make decisions

Assessment process-

a) Application form: To get started, please fill out the application form on our website

b) Virtual assessment: If you are shortlisted, we'll invite you to submit further information about yourself and complete exercises that represent work tasks that the CPO of Fortify Health would undertake. This assessment may come in two stages.

c) Three rounds of interviews: We will invite candidates that perform well in the virtual assessment to interview. There will be three rounds of interviews.

d) Reference Checks: Before making a final offer, we will complete reference checks for the preferred candidate

Expected duration of this application process: 8-10 weeks from job closing date.

Please note that we may make minor adjustments to the process listed above.