Audacious Project Director

Benefits

Additional Information

This position may work remotely from any of the following countries: Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia. Ipas is the only global organization laser-focused on preventing unsafe abortion, with more than 50 years of experience strengthening pathways to safe abortion and contraceptive care. In 2025, Ipas became the first ever abortion rights organization to secure a grant from the Audacious funding initiative. By 2032, we aim to prevent 16.3 million unsafe abortions, 22.6 million unintended pregnancies and 39,000 maternal deaths, focusing efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. By scaling our work across 10 of the highest-need countries, we will reduce annual unsafe abortions by approximately 30%, giving millions of girls and women the chance to determine their own future. By 2040, we expect improved abortion ecosystems across all project countries and, despite existing barriers, significant advancement in laws and policies, social and cultural norms, as well as access to quality care. Through this work, Ipas will accelerate progress that would otherwise take decades - building sustainable, country-owned systems that will achieve impact well beyond this seven-year, multi-million-dollar investment. The Audacious Project Director is a senior leadership role within Ipas's Program Support Team (PST), accountable for strategic stewardship, governance and adaptive results-based management of the Audacious investment across implementation regions and countries. In essence, while this role manages the Audacious project, it will also help leverage this investment to strengthen Ipas's broader strategic plan. The Audacious Project Director will serve as a key integrator and steward of Ipas's Audacious strategy, ensuring alignment across country strategies, budgets, logic models, results frameworks and funding scenarios while enabling locally-led decision-making and learning. The Audacious Project Director is responsible for designing and maintaining project governance structures, results-based management systems, risk and compliance frameworks, and evidence and learning architectures that support collective, sustainable impact at scale. Working closely with country leadership, global functional teams (Programs, TEX, MERLA, Finance, Legal/Compliance, Business Development), and major donors (including Audacious donors and beyond), the Audacious Project Director ensures that Ipas can credibly demonstrate progress against ambitious ecosystem level outcomes, adapt strategy based on evidence, and steward one of Ipas's most significant strategic investments. Primary Responsibilities Strategic and Project Results Leadership Provide project leadership for the Audacious investment, ensuring the strategic and organization-wide value to Ipas is maximized. Design, implement, and maintain Audacious governance structures, including project charters, decision‑rights, escalation pathways, and shared‑leadership practices that balance global stewardship with strong country ownership. Maintain a clear focus on driving Audacious project delivery and results, as a major contributor to organizational performance against the Ipas strategic plan. Establish and steward Audacious project management systems; working closely with Ipas teams to adapt and apply efficient and effective processes and documentation for delivery, monitoring, reporting, compliance and risk management. Work closely with the Business Development team to leverage the Audacious investment to secure additional funding. Strong collaboration with CSTO, TEX and MERLA teams to maintain alignment and leverage cross-learning for the network strategy and technical priorities. Lead and guide iterative redesign of projections, budgets, and implementation strategies as operational landscape, funding levels and donor requirements evolve. Build and positively manage excellent relationships across the Ipas Network and external sector. Project Management, Risk Management and Safeguarding In consultation with the implementing countries, develop technically sound and operationally robust project workplan, develop scenario planning and trade-offs for the project. Ensure coherence across country strategies, workplans, budgets, logic models, results frameworks, and multiple funding scenarios in line with Ipas's strategic plan. Ensure each implementing country develops and maintains a contextualized Audacious logic model articulating intervention choices across all impact levers. Drive dynamic, results‑based management, integrating programmatic, financial, and evidence data to inform strategic decision‑making and adaptive course correction over time. Anticipate, mitigate and manage programmatic, financial, legal, political, and reputational risks and issues across country programs. Ensure timely access to high-quality progress, performance a