Director, Strategic Portfolio

Ipas•Chapel Hill, NC

9d•Remote

About The Position

Ipas is a global reproductive justice organization working to ensure that all people can exercise their right to bodily autonomy and access quality abortion and contraception services. We work hand in hand with governments, civil society, health systems, and communities. Ipas advances sustainable abortion ecosystems that expand access, reduce stigma, improve quality of care, and strengthen supportive policy and financing environments to make care possible, permanently. This role is grounded in and informs the Ipas strategy and evidence/measurement of impact. The Director will provide strategic technical leadership, coordination, and relationship management for Ipas’s engagement with high investment donor(s) and other key partnerships, as needed. This is a leadership role — for someone who can hold the strategic vision, build trust and partnership with funders, partners, governments and movements, mobilise country teams, and translate complex implementation into insight and narrative that drives organizational learning and continued investment. You will work closely with Ipas’s most senior leaders and be a visible external presence for the organisation. This role requires a highly strategic leader with strong political acumen, partnership management skills, methodological rigor, systems thinking capability, and experience navigating complex, multi-stakeholder reproductive health and development initiatives.

Requirements

Advanced degree in public health, international development, gender studies, social sciences, public policy, or related field.
10–15+ years of progressively senior experience in international development, SRHR, gender equality, adolescent health, philanthropy, or systems strengthening.
Experienced with impact measurement, evidence-driven adaptive programming and communicating results.
Deep understanding of abortion access, contraception, reproductive justice, SRHR, strengthening health systems policy advocacy, and gender equality-including the political landscape that shapes this work.
Demonstrated experience managing complex multi country donor portfolios, particularly with large philanthropic funders.
Strong political acumen and the ability to navigate sensitive, multi-stakeholder environments with confidence and care.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and presentation skills- you can distill complex evidence into a compelling narrative for any audience.
Experience supporting ecosystem or systems-change approaches, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
A collaborative, adaptive leadership style — you bring people together across functions and geographies and build trust quickly.
Organizational‑level strategic thinking and results stewardship.
Decisive, values‑grounded risk management.
Feminist leadership and shared power practice.
Complex stakeholder and donor relationship management.
Systems integration, learning, and adaptive leadership.
Clear, credible communication in high‑ambiguity environments.

Responsibilities

Lead a Strategic Portfolio: Own the strategic coordination and technical excellence of a large and complex portfolio, ensuring alignment and integrating learning with the organizational strategy.
Support the design of integrated approaches that expand abortion and contraception access through health systems strengthening policy engagement, financing, community support, and stigma reduction.
Drive alignment between organizational strategy, donor priorities, key partnerships and country implementation, identifying opportunities for scale, learning and innovation, financing and systems change.
Contribute to country and regional project design, ensure coherence across the Ipas global portfolio.
Lead the Ipas relationship with Selected Donors/Partners: Serve as a primary relationship manager for key donor portfolios, in collaboration with senior Ipas leadership.
Leading donor communications, updates, learning engagements, and strategic discussions to ensure that Ipas is always responsive, credible and forward looking.
Ensure internal communication and understanding of emerging shifts and priority decisions.
Ensure high-quality donor and partnership stewardship, responsiveness, and confidence.
Produce high-quality, evidence-driven strategic briefs, presentations, reports, and donor-facing materials that reflect both ambition and rigorous delivery.
Coordinate donor visits, learning exchanges, and portfolio reviews.
Ensure Excellent Technical and Program Delivery: Work closely with technical and country teams to ensure quality implementation and adaptive management across the portfolio.
Facilitate cross-country learning and embed emerging evidence into programming in real time.
Facilitate collaboration across clinical, community, policy, financing, evidence, and advocacy workstreams.
Support development of impact measurement, implementation frameworks, partnership models, and systems-level approaches that strengthen sustainable abortion ecosystems.
Ensure the needs of women and girls, including adolescents, remain central, addressed through practical, rights-based approaches.
Strengthen the Ecosystem Around the Work: Cultivate strategic relationships with governments, civil society organizations, youth-led groups, philanthropic actors, multilateral agencies, and research institutions.
Position Ipas as a thought leader in abortion and contraception access, reproductive justice, and sustainable abortion ecosystem approaches.
Support convenings, external engagement opportunities, and collaborative partnerships.
Identify co-funding and partnership opportunities aligned with the portfolio.
Drive Evidence, Learning, and Adaption: Support learning agendas, portfolio reviews, and evidence generation efforts, working with MEL and technical teams to strengthen outcome tracking and systems-level measurement.
Translate implementation learning into strategic insights for internal and external audiences.
Champion adaptive management across country portfolios, building a culture of continuous improvement.
Other duties as assigned.