Project Director, Climate-Smart Health Products and Supply Chain

Who is USP?

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) is a private, non-profit scientific organization that develops standards and science-based solutions that help increase the supply of quality medicines, dietary supplements and food ingredients. Used in 150+ countries, USP standards play a critical role in supporting the availability of quality medicines for billions of people worldwide.

Job Overview

The Project Director, based in Nairobi, Kenya, provides strategic, technical, and operational leadership for a multi-country program addressing the impact of climate change on the stability and performance of critical health products. This role is accountable for overall program vision, execution, and results, ensuring high-quality delivery in alignment with donor expectations and global health priorities. The Project Director leads a multidisciplinary team of technical experts and serves as the primary liaison with donors, governments, and global partners. The role emphasizes strategic direction, partnership development, and translation of evidence into scalable solutions and global impact.

Key Responsibilities:

Project Leadership and Results Delivery

• Provide overall leadership for the project strategy, implementation, and results across all countries and workstreams.

• Ensure timely delivery of high-quality outputs and achievement of the program milestones in line with program requirements and organizational standards

• Oversee implementation across technical areas, ensuring coordination, quality, and consistency.

Technical Strategy and Innovation

• Provide strategic oversight of technical activities related to health product stability, evidence generation, and climate resilience.

• Guide the development and execution of implementation research and evidence generation, ensuring relevance to health outcomes and policy.

• Oversee identification and advancement of promising solutions and innovations, ensuring alignment with program objectives and scalability potential.

• Ensure technical rigor and adherence to international standards through leadership of specialized technical teams.

• Provide strategic leadership on pharmaceutical supply chain resilience, ensuring project evidence and solutions address the effects of climate-driven heat, humidity, and extreme weather events on product quality, availability, and performance across the product journey.

• Guide the integration of pharmaceutical supply chain, climate science, product stability, and regulatory evidence to identify scalable climate-resilient solutions for health products.

Stakeholder Engagement and Partnerships

• Serve as the primary liaison with donors, local and regional authorities, and global stakeholders, ensuring effective communication, alignment, and reporting

• Represent the project in global, regional, and national forums, contributing to thought leadership and knowledge exchange.

• Lead a global consortium of partner organizations across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, ensuring effective coordination, clear governance structures, aligned workplans, and consistent communication.

• Foster strong, collaborative relationships, monitor partner performance and compliance with contractual obligations, and proactively address risk to maintain high-quality program delivery

Program management and Operations

• Ensure strong project management systems, including planning and performance tracking.

• Ensure compliance with contractual requirements and organizational policies, ensuring financial, technical, and operational integrity.

• Establish efficient operational structures and processes to support multi-country implementation.

Knowledge Management & Dissemination

• Ensure generation, documentation, and dissemination of high-quality, evidence-based knowledge products.

• Promote learning and uptake of findings to inform global policy, practice, and future investments in climate-resilient health products.

Who is USP Looking For?

The successful candidate will have a demonstrated understanding of our mission, commitment to excellence through inclusive and equitable behaviors and practices, ability to quickly build credibility with stakeholders, along with the following competencies or experience:

• Advanced degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacy, Supply Chain Management, Chemistry, Public Health, Engineering, or a related field.

• Demonstrated expertise in pharmaceutical supply chain systems, including product distribution, storage, transportation, cold chain and controlled-temperature logistics, last-mile delivery, and supply chain risk management in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in pharmaceutical industry, supply chain, or a related field with demonstrated leadership of large, complex, multi-country programs.

• Strong understanding of pharmaceutical product lifecycle management, including stability, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, post-market performance, and quality assurance.

• Proven experience leading multidisciplinary initiatives

• Understanding of climate-related risks affecting health products and supply chains.

• Proven track record leading large, complex, multi-country programs, with full accountability for results.

• Experience engaging with regulators, manufacturers, procurement agencies, ministries of health, donors, and/or global health organizations.

• Demonstrated leading multidisciplinary teams, technical specialists, and external implementation partners.

• Demonstrated experience overseeing donor-funded budgets, contractual obligations, compliance, and program risk.

• Experience working in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and partnership development, cross-cultural collaboration skills.

Additional Desired Preferences

• Familiarity with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of HIV, Malaria, PPH, and TB, and decentralized care models.

• Demonstrated expertise in developing and managing stability studies, regulatory submissions, and data systems supporting product quality and performance.

• Proven experience in implementation research and evidence generation related to health products and systems.

• Deep expertise in pharmaceutical lifecycle management and real-world product performance monitoring.

• Strong knowledge of ICH stability guidelines, GMP/cGMP frameworks, and relevant analytical methodologies.

This is a supervisory role based in Nairobi, Kenya.