Vice President, Programs

Maisha Meds is hiring! We build technology to make healthcare affordable, accessible, and high-quality for everyone. We’re looking for a Vice President of Programs to lead the performance and scale of our programs across sub-Saharan Africa.

As the VP of Programs, you will ensure our programs are delivered with integrity, efficiency, and the measurable impact our partners and patients expect. You will be responsible for our global program strategy, overseeing implementation and compliance while building the trusted partnerships that allow us to scale within national health systems.

This role is about ensuring that every dollar invested translates into high-quality care on the ground.

About Maisha Meds

Maisha Meds is an organization dedicated to improving health care in Africa through best-in-class technology.

Founded in 2017, Maisha Meds has created the largest digital network of private pharmacies and clinics across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, and Zambia through our mobile software. Our platform not only helps these providers improve business by making sales, managing inventory, and tracking patients. It also reimburses them for providing high-quality care for malaria, family planning, and HIV prevention at discounted costs.

Maisha Meds logs more than 25 million patient visits every year and has provided more than one million quality-assured reimbursements to-date. We harness data from our network of pharmacies and clinics to reveal health and market trends, which allows us to design better solutions that work for the people we serve. We have worked with leading academic institutions such as UC Berkeley, Emory University, and KEMRI to evaluate the effectiveness of our programs. Research shows that our system is able to significantly increase appropriate malaria case management and the uptake of long-acting contraceptives.

Our work is powered by a diverse group of global health partners, including the Global Fund, the Gates Foundation, the Livelihood Impact Fund, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the WAM Foundation, and Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. To reach our current scale, we have relied on scale funding from USAID Development Innovation Ventures and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We recently demonstrated the sustainability of our model through a flagship initiative with the Lagos State Government, where the government adopted our platform for malaria and fever care via a World Bank loan. Support from our current and future partners will allow us to expand our digital network and deliver high-quality, subsidized care to millions of patients.

Our Programs

We deliver affordable, high-quality care across malaria case management, women’s health, HIV prevention, vision care, and more through our innovative platform. Through these programs, patients receive subsidised care, while healthcare providers receive financial incentives for adhering to recommended standards of care. We are in the process of securing funding commitments in the $100M+ range that will allow us to scale to tens of millions of patients annually across 6 countries and need a strong leader with a focus on scaling operations to make this happen.

About the role

We are looking for a Vice President of Programs to lead the next phase of our growth across sub-Saharan Africa. At Maisha Meds, we build technology to make healthcare affordable, accessible, and high-quality for everyone, but our impact is ultimately powered by people. This role requires a strategic leader who can translate digital solutions into effective, ground-level implementation alongside local providers and governments.

You will lead our cross-country teams, ensuring we maintain a culture that is innovative, evidence-driven, and collaborative. We are looking for a leader who treats everyone, from pharmacy attendants to government ministers, as colleagues solving shared challenges. You will be responsible for building the trusted, long-term relationships that enable us to reach millions of patients while staying grounded in what’s next.

This is a hybrid-remote role, and you will be based in one of our countries of operation, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, or Nigeria, with work permit sponsorship available. Because we believe in building trusted relationships on the ground, you will travel often across the region to work directly with our country teams. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, you will lead our country programs as we expand the largest digital network of its kind.

Responsibilities

Lead program planning and design

• Lead the strategic vision for program scale; defining how, where, and at what pace programs should grow to maximise impact while maintaining operational integrity and efficiency.
• Own global program results across all countries, with clear accountability for delivery against agreed targets, timelines, and impact metrics.
• Oversee end-to-end program operations, including program management, program supply chain execution, and program compliance, ensuring high-quality, efficient and consistent delivery across markets.

Oversee program accountability and success

• Ensure programs are implemented with the highest standards of integrity, meeting funder, regulatory, and organisational requirements at all times.
• Harmonise program implementation standards across countries, identifying strengths, challenges, and opportunities to enable cross-learning and continuous improvement.
• Own program budgets and financial planning, including forecasting program needs, managing month-on-month expenditures, and aligning resources to delivery priorities.

Manage internal and external stakeholders

• Build and manage strategic external relationships critical to program success, including Ministries of Health, government agencies, implementing partners, and relevant sector associations.
• Oversee program reporting to funders and stakeholders, ensuring timely, accurate, and high-quality monthly, quarterly, annual, or ad-hoc reports as needed.
• Collaborate closely with product and technology teams to ensure digital tools and workflows effectively support program implementation and continuous improvement.

Team leadership, thought-partnership, and culture-setting

• Drive efficiency across teams, systems, and processes, regularly reviewing ways of working to ensure optimal use of people, technology, and resources.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and direction to program teams, building strong capability, accountability, and a culture aligned with Maisha Meds values.
• Serve as a strategic thought partner to the COO and executive team, contributing insight and leadership on how best to achieve program targets at scale.

Qualifications

• 5+ years senior leadership experience with responsibility for large-scale, multi-country program delivery in at least one of our countries of operation
• Demonstrated experience managing programs across multiple countries, with exposure to different operating and regulatory environments.
• Experience in pharmaceutical programs, healthcare service delivery, and/or last-mile implementation
• Proven experience owning program targets, budgets, and performance outcomes, including forecasting and resource planning.
• Strong technology literacy, with experience working alongside digital tools, ERPs, and program management systems to improve efficiency and visibility.
• Strong analytical skills, with experience in modeling paths to achieving targets, budgeting, and performance management.
• Strong people leadership experience, including coaching senior team members, building capability, and leading through complexity.
• A systems-oriented thinker with a strong bias for efficiency, continuous improvement, and disciplined execution.

Why You Should Join Us

• On a roll: We are doubling year-over-year with new funding partnerships that are boosting expansion in multiple countries
• Great team: Founded, managed and backed by successful veterans of Stanford School of Medicine, Google, Safe Boda, Helium Health, M-Kopa, CNN, and BCG. We have technologists, clinicians, and economists working side by side to solve difficult problems.
• Great funders: We’re backed by the Gates Foundation, CIFF, The Global Fund, Livelihoods Impact Fund, WAM Foundation, Novartis, the Nigerian Government, and many others - their funding provides us catalytic funding to fundamentally change the way health outcomes are funded in the private sector throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Huge market: We are disrupting a massive, growing $50+ billion market for healthcare payments for low-income patients, with a focus on paying for health outcomes to ensure patients get the best quality care.
• Great customers: We create financial incentives that ensure our health care providers deliver excellent care.
• Impact: We have cultivated a fun and exciting start-up culture that empowers to make a huge impact.