Chief Programs Officer

VITAMIN ANGEL ALLIANCE INC•Goleta, CA

17h•$265,000 - $340,000•Remote

About The Position

Vitamin Angels is a global health organization dedicated to improving the health and nutrition of women and children worldwide by delivering effective nutrition solutions. They achieve this through strong partnerships with governments, local organizations, multilateral agencies, and the private sector, aiming to strengthen health systems and increase access to life-saving nutrition interventions. Currently, Vitamin Angels reaches over 74 million individuals annually in more than 65 countries. With a strategic focus on 'Science. Systems. Scale.', the organization is committed to advancing scientific leadership, reinforcing sustainable health systems, and accelerating country-led solutions for lasting impact. Vitamin Angels fosters a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and welcoming workplace that values all individuals and promotes professional growth and mutual respect.

Requirements

Proven executive leadership experience within global health, nutrition, international development, humanitarian assistance, or related sectors, with responsibility for organizational strategy, execution, performance, and measurable impact.
Demonstrated success leading large, geographically dispersed teams and complex multi-country programs through growth, transformation, and organizational change.
Enterprise mindset with a track record of leading across functions, influencing beyond direct authority, and contributing to organization-wide priorities.
Experience managing complex organizations, strategic partnerships, and significant program portfolios and budgets (managing multi-million-dollar, multi-country budgets across diverse funding streams).
Deep expertise in maternal and child nutrition, implementation science, public health, health systems strengthening, or closely related disciplines.
Strong scientific credibility with the ability to translate evidence into scalable programs, policy influence, and sustainable health outcomes.
Experience leading implementation science, monitoring, evaluation and learning, or technical innovation to strengthen organizational impact.
Ability to anticipate emerging scientific, technological, and policy trends and position organizations at the forefront of innovation.
Track record of partnering with fundraising teams to develop compelling investment cases, engage strategic donors and partners, and mobilize resources for organizational growth.
Understanding of institutional funding landscapes, strategic partnerships, and business development approaches that enable long-term sustainability.
Demonstrated ability to connect scientific leadership, programmatic impact, and organizational strategy to create opportunities for sustainable growth and scale.
Demonstrated success strengthening relationships with governments, multilateral organizations, academia, NGOs, and strategic partners to advance sustainable, country-owned solutions.
Experience influencing policy, shaping global dialogue, and building coalitions that accelerate impact at scale.
Recognized ability to represent organizations with senior government officials, institutional donors, multilateral organizations, and international forums.
Experience engaging major institutional donors, bilateral agencies, multilateral organizations, and philanthropic foundations (e.g., UNICEF, Gates Foundation, World Bank, Global Affairs Canada, FCDO, USAID, Gavi, CIFF, or similar organizations).
Significant lived and professional experience working in and across low- and middle-income countries, with credibility to lead and partner authentically in the regions where Vitamin Angels operates.
Visionary yet pragmatic leader who combines scientific rigor with operational excellence.
Collaborative enterprise leader who builds trust, develops leaders, and fosters high-performing, mission-driven teams.
Exceptional communicator, relationship builder, and systems thinker with the ability to navigate complexity and influence diverse stakeholders.
Courageous decision-maker who demonstrates humility, curiosity, resilience, integrity, and sound judgment.
Passionate advocate for nutrition as a driver of health, human capital, and economic development.
Ability to travel internationally regularly.
Ability to manage stress, including but not limited to, stress resulting from local and foreign travel, large crowds, open spaces, shared office space, and daily activities with reasonable accommodations.
Ability to remain seated and/or stationary for extended periods of time, including but not limited to prolonged air travel, and general job assignments performed at a desk.

Nice To Haves

Doctoral degree (PhD, DrPH, MD, or equivalent) preferred.
Equivalent combinations of education, executive leadership experience, and demonstrated impact will also be considered.

Responsibilities

Lead the vision, strategy, execution, and performance of Vitamin Angels' global Programs portfolio, ensuring measurable health impact and alignment with the organization's long-term strategy.
Define and execute Vitamin Angels' global Programs strategy, ensuring alignment with the organization's mission and long-term strategic priorities.
Lead the Global Programs portfolio in alignment with Vitamin Angels' Guiding Principles, ensuring decisions are evidence-driven, strengthen systems, remain agile, and create sustainable impact at scale.
Lead the delivery of measurable health and nutrition outcomes across all programs, regions, and interventions.
Drive operational excellence, accountability, and performance through clear objectives, data-driven decision making, and continuous improvement.
Ensure effective stewardship of program resources while balancing quality, efficiency, innovation, and impact.
Advance scientific excellence, implementation science, innovation, and evidence generation to strengthen program quality, influence policy, and continuously improve impact.
Advance scientific excellence and technical leadership across the organization, ensuring programs remain evidence-based and globally relevant.
Champion implementation science, innovation, and organizational learning, ensuring decisions remain evidence-driven and continuously improve impact.
Lead the organization's monitoring, evaluation, learning, and knowledge management agenda, fostering a culture of continuous learning and using data and evidence to strengthen programs, inform strategic decisions, and demonstrate impact.
Provide executive sponsorship and strategic oversight for the Initiative to Advance Implementation Science in Nutrition in advancing Vitamin Angels' strategic priorities and programmatic impact.
Provide strategic leadership and executive oversight for the Initiative to Advance Implementation Science in Nutrition, ensuring that its scientific agenda, led by the Principal Investigator, advances Vitamin Angels' strategic priorities, strengthens program effectiveness, and expands the organization's global influence.
Anticipate emerging scientific, technological, and policy trends and position Vitamin Angels to lead future opportunities.
Co-lead enterprise growth with the Chief Development Officer by building strategic partnerships, engaging donors, shaping investment cases, and expanding resources to maximize impact.
Together with the Chief Development Officer, co-lead enterprise resource mobilization by engaging strategic donors, corporate partners, foundations, governments, and investors.
Shape compelling investment cases by translating scientific evidence, implementation expertise, and program impact into opportunities for sustainable growth.
Represent Programs in strategic donor engagements, proposal development, and partnership stewardship.
Identify opportunities to expand Vitamin Angels' geographic reach, technical portfolio, and long-term organizational impact.
Strengthen government and strategic partner relationships to accelerate the integration of nutrition into health systems and scale sustainable, country-owned solutions.
Strengthen and expand strategic partnerships with governments, multilateral organizations, NGOs, academia, and implementing partners.
Lead efforts to integrate Vitamin Angels' interventions into sustainable, country-owned health systems, advancing systems integration across the organization.
Ensure program delivery models are scalable, resilient, and responsive to evolving country and community needs.
Strengthen global supply chain and implementation systems to maximize reach, quality, and long-term sustainability.
Build a high-performing Programs organization, develop future leaders, foster cross-functional collaboration, and serve as a global ambassador and thought leader for Vitamin Angels and nutrition.
Build, inspire, and develop a high-performing global Programs organization that reflects Vitamin Angels' behaviors and principles.
Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and continuous learning across Programs and the broader organization.
Serve as a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, contributing to enterprise strategy, organizational effectiveness, and cross-functional decision-making.
Represent Vitamin Angels as a trusted global leader and advocate, elevating the role of nutrition within global health, human capital, and economic development agendas.