Project Director W/M – Inpatient malnutrition care management At Médecins Sans Frontières

Médecins Sans Frontières, an international medical humanitarian association created in 1971, provides medical assistance to populations whose lives are threatened: mainly in the event of armed conflicts, but also of epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters or exclusion from care. The French section of MSF is present in about thirty countries.

In the context of a project opening, we are looking for a:

Project Director W/M – Inpatient malnutrition care management

For decades, MSF has advanced care for malnourished children under 5, with efforts distributed between outpatient care for children with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and inpatient care for children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

In 2023, nearly 150,000 children with SAM were hospitalized in MSF Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centers (ITFCs), where they received stabilizing care and nutritional support. These children are at increased risk of death.

MSF is currently in the early development phase of a project (which name is still to be decided) to improve inpatient malnutritional care outcomes, by enabling global access to a novel therapeutic milk for stabilization care, while also continuing to improve Quality of Care (QoC) in ITFCs.

MSF is currently looking for a Project Director to lead this project development.

Epicentre is also in parallel recruiting a Central co-Principal Investigator for the same project (see Job Epicentre). Please only apply to one of these two positions.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Reporting to the Project Sponsor (Deputy Medical Director), your main responsibilities will be linked to the project development and management:

• Lead project development with support from the Project Manager: organize for collective definition of project objectives and requirements, ensure compliance with project development deadlines and budget, organize for collective definition of the full multi-year project plan and timelines, ensure alignment with MSF strategic orientations incl. promote a person-centered approach at key project planning moments, make tactical decisions about project deliverables.
• Lead the partnership strategy: discuss and seek alignment with and inputs from other nutrition actors (incl. but not limited to NGOs), support the Central co-PI in networking with potential research partners (incl. academias)
• Lead the site(s) assessment: coordinate with the many stakeholders to prepare for site(s) assessment; organize for and potentially contribute to the field site assessments
• Oversee development of the funding strategy and contribute to discussions with potential donors
• Oversee project risk management, oversee contracts development
• Lead internal and external communication with support from the Project Manager: lead the project Core Team meetings; inform progress/decisions to Project Sponsor; report to the MSF Steering committee and to the project Strategic Committee; socialize the project internally within MSF; coordinate the many multidisciplinary stakeholders: a project team across MSF-France and Epicentre (leading the clinical trial), other MSF operational sections and other MSF actors, as well as current and future external partners
• Lead the project team: contribute to the recruitment; contribute to establishing the ways of working, governance and operating rules; manage, advise, support, motivate and federate the larger project team towards achieving the 2025 objectives; directly supervise the Project Manager (part-time) and the Product Lead; define, distribute and monitor the workload of the larger project team, in terms of volume and timetable; prioritize work; provide feedback and guidance.

You will also have responsibilities across the project objectives:

1/ Development of a novel therapeutic milk

• Support Product Lead and Product development subgroup in developing a procurement strategy, in assessing suppliers and establishing a contract with the selected manufacturer by end of 2025

2/ Assessment of the novel milk through a randomized clinical trial in MSF ITFCs

• Support the Central co-PI in Epicentre in leading the trial preparation and in overseeing the research team to ensure a compliant and relevant preparation of randomized clinical trial
• Support the Safety Advisor in her oversight role
• Oversee compliance with the MSF Clinical Trial Transparency Policy https://msfaccess.org/msf-clinical-trial-transparency-policy

3/ QoC improvement

• Lead QoC improvement strategy & roll-out: coordinate contributions from the Medical department, Operations, and others to define QoC standards/minimums; responsible for producing and finalizing QoC deliverables, making sure to integrate person-centered approach, patients’ protection and health promotion in those; ensure alignment between the QoC improvement strategy, the trial design, and the usual MSF activities/guidelines/responsibilities
• Lead the QoC component of the site(s) assessment
• Coordinate development of the site-specific QoC improvement plans after each assessment and negotiate related resources with the Operations department
• Oversee implementation of the site-specific QoC improvement plans from end of 2025 and in 2026, in coordination with the clinical trial team and upfront proper trial site(s) preparation and study initiation in 2027
• Monitor and evaluate the QoC improvements

4/ Nutrition policies update and advocacy.

• Coordinate discussions with the institutional and regulatory stakeholders, especially WHO and UNICEF and represent the Trial Sponsor (MSF-France)
• Lead advocacy activities to prepare for introduction of the novel milk depending on trial results

You will also play an active part in the day-to-day life of the medical department and MSF headquarters.

This list of activities may evolve.

Would the project and position be extended, other activities would be added throughout the project development and implementation.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Experience

• 5 years proven experience in successfully leading complex medical projects with multidisciplinary teams – essential
• 3 years experience in working in or with resource-limited health systems – essential
• Experience proven in MSF fields or any other medical organization – essential
• Experience in inpatient acute care – a strong asset
• Experience in MSF HQs – a strong asset
• Background in clinical research or in product development in innovation – an asset

Education

• Medical Doctor or Supervising Nurse with background and in-depth knowledge of Pediatrics or Nutrition – essential
• Knowledge in public health management – a strong asset

Knowledge and skills

• Excellent command of project development and team management
• Collaborative and inclusive leadership, excellent interpersonal skills, team spirit, empathy
• Ability to cooperate and build bridges between many stakeholders, incl. multicultural teams working remotely
• Ability to understand and adapt to a complex environment, innovative mindset
• Ability to provide support / contribute beyond their area of expertise, sense of responsibility
• Ability to analyze, synthesize and react to problems under pressure
• Ability to place people at the centre of all practice, commitment to creating and promoting safe and healthy working and care environments
• Excellent oral and written effective communication skills, ability to convince, political awareness, diplomacy
• Proficiency to work with Microsoft Office suite in a collaborative fashion
• Strong autonomy and organization skills, good meeting management
• Flexibility for occasional to frequent travelling
• Languages
• Fluently spoken and written English (work mainly in English) – C1 essential
• Good level of French – B2 an asset

SPECIFICITIES OF THE POSITION

Status and salary conditions

• Full time position, short-term contract until end of Dec 2025
• Preferably based in HQ in Paris (France)*¹ or in a country allowing work primarily within the CET time zone.
  Flexible arrangements possible according to the organization’s regulations*².
• Salary according to MSF salary grid of the contracting country: Level 11

*¹ Due to administrative constraints, given the duration of the contract, candidates might already need to have the permanent right and/or a valid work permit

*² The contractual conditions will be established based on the country of residence, on administrative / legal constraints and in respect of MSF function grids and salary policies
Desired start date : As soon as possible in Q1 2025