{"id":2588253,"url":"https://alion.io/job/this-american-life-program-director-uganda","title":"Program Director, Uganda","company":{"id":16904,"name":"This American Life","domain":"thisamericanlife.org","url":"https://alion.io/company/this-american-life","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":null},"role":"Science & Research","role_family":"Science & Research","seniority":"head","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Kampala, Uganda"],"countries":["UG"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":50000,"max_usd":96000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":454},"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-13T13:53:47Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-15T23:41:01Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"GiveDirectly has delivered more than $1B in cash directly to 2+ million people living in poverty across 15 countries since 2011. We believe cash transfers are one of the most scalable, cost-effective, and dignified forms of aid, with the research to back it up. Our work has been covered by The Economist, NPR, TED, and The Washington Post. We are one of Time100’s Most Influential Companies of 2026. \nOur culture is candid, analytical, and non-hierarchical. We support high ownership and real professional growth. Curious about what it's really like to work here? Read our values and hear from the people who do. If they resonate, this could be a great fit!\nLocation: This role must be based in Kampala, Uganda. \nAbout this role\nUganda's Programs team is the largest department in the country office and carries the biggest budget of any function, and it is scaling. The Program Director needs to be a strong operator who can run multi-million-dollar programs through that growth without the delivery model breaking, someone equally comfortable in the field diagnosing a bottleneck and in a budget review defending a variance. Because this person also serves as deputy to the Country Director, excellent stakeholder management is non-negotiable, not a nice-to-have: they need to manage up, across, and with Senior Managers with equal ease, and be ready to represent the country office internally when the CD is unavailable. We are looking for someone with a demonstrated track record of direct-delivery program leadership at scale (not grant intermediation), sound financial and risk judgment, and a management style that builds durable, accountable teams rather than one that runs on the PD's personal bandwidth.\nReports to: Country Director\nLevel: Director\nTravel Requirement: Must be able to travel ~1-2 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits \nWhat you’ll do:\nProgram Delivery & Operational Leadership\nLead day-to-day delivery of all Uganda programs, ensuring they run on time, on budget, and meet the efficiency, quality, and impact benchmarks set by the Country Director.\nBuild and maintain robust operational systems and standards to support a diverse and growing portfolio of projects, programs, and funding sources.\nServe as the primary internal owner of program execution, proactively identifying bottlenecks, resolving cross-functional dependencies, and ensuring smooth implementation.\nAct as a thought partner to Senior Managers, providing analytical support and removing obstacles to execution.\nOwn program scale and expansion strategy for field operations in line with organizational goals. \nPipeline Enablement & Program Readiness\nEnsure active programs are operationally positioned to support funding and partnership opportunities identified by the Country Director and fundraising team.\nTranslate funding and partnership opportunities into operationally viable delivery plans, including timelines, resourcing, and risk assessments.\nProvide program data, evidence, and delivery input to support donor and government engagements led by the Country Director.\nProduct, Evidence & Research Integration\nLead the integration of product, evidence, and research initiatives into Uganda programs, ensuring alignment with field realities and delivery objectives.\nBalance short-term delivery priorities with longer-term product and innovation goals, ensuring programs remain coherent and scalable.\nCoordinate across programs to avoid fragmented “project-by-project” execution and strengthen programmatic coherence.\nRisk & Compliance (Program-Level)\nSupport the Country Director as second line of defense on operational and programmatic risk within programs, flagging emerging issues early.\nMaintain program-level risk trackers, ensuring timely escalation and mitigation in coordination with Internal Audit, Safeguarding, and Compliance.\nEnsure program teams consistently follow safeguarding and compliance protocols set by the Country Director and global teams.\nBudgeting & Planning Support\nPartner with the Country Director, Senior Managers, and Finance to develop and maintain operational budgets and work plans.\nOwn program-level Budget vs. Actuals (B2A) tracking, supporting Senior Managers to manage variances and financial risks.\nFlag budget and resourcing risks to the Country Director to inform decision-making.\nTeam Leadership & Internal Coordination\nDirectly manage Senior Managers and provide day-to-day leadership across the programs team.\nSupport the Country Director in reinforcing a strong, values-driven culture rooted in GiveDirectly’s principles.\nIdentify talent, support development, and strengthen succession across program and operations teams.\nPartner with the Country Director on organogram planning and resourcing needs.\nProcurement & Operations Oversight\nProvide day-to-day oversight of procurement and operational functions to ensure smooth program delivery, minimal downtime, and strong coordination across teams.\nEnsure operational systems scale appropriately with program growth and complexity.\nDeputy to the Country Director\nAct as deputy to the Country Director, stepping in as Acting CD when required to ensure continuity of leadership, decision-making, and operations.\nSupport decision-making at the senior level, ensuring internal execution remains aligned with external commitments and strategic priorities set by the Country Director.\nWhat you’ll bring:\nExceptional alignment withGiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. 10+ years of relevant experience - e.g. in non-profit country management, organizational leadership, partnership development, program management, social entrepreneurship or consulting - with a track record of demonstrated excellence and increasing responsibility \nAdvanced partnership capabilities, including new business, negotiation, and consortium management\nStrong understanding of the cash and poverty reduction space, including an understanding of social safety net and poverty reduction programs and policy\nDemonstrated ability to lead and set strategic vision at a national level \nTeam management experience, including hiring and building teams \nOutstanding relationship management abilities, including ability to represent GiveDirectly at the highest levels \nExceptional communications skills: written and verbal, including with senior audiences \nStrong organizational and/or project management skills \nA high degree of autonomy and resilience \nProblem solver: you look at problems with an analytical and iterative mindset, with a strong framework for prioritization. You can run robust analyses to inform management and programming decisions \nAlignment with GiveDirectly Values, including the ambition to pursue industry-changing success \nActive demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity.\nLanguage Requirement: English\nCompensation\nAt GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to calculate what we believe to be competitive pay based on role, location, and cost of living. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles. Read more about our compensation philosophyhere.\nThe total compensation for this role is broken down as follows:\nBase Salary: $99,100\nBonus at Target Performance: ~15% \n Annual Benefits Stipend: $8,453","description_format":"text","description_chars":7599,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Uganda","iso":"UG","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Media & Entertainment","Secondary Education","Radio"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-15T04:48:30Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":26,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/this-american-life-program-director-uganda","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/this-american-life-program-director-uganda.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-16T02:42:45Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":4114,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-17T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":16904},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=16904"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fthis-american-life-program-director-uganda"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fthis-american-life-program-director-uganda"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fthis-american-life-program-director-uganda"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/this-american-life-program-director-uganda\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fthis-american-life-program-director-uganda"}]}