Water Programs Manager; Remote

Main Areas of Focus

• Grants management
• Partnership management
• Rural drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
• Performance monitoring
• International programs
• Cross‑cultural communication

Location: Remote - U.S. only.

Eligibility: At this time, we are only considering candidates who are eligible to work in the United States without the need of company sponsorship now or in the future.

You’ll manage grant performance and partnerships with implementing organizations who deliver excellent WASH programs around the world.

As Water Programs Manager, you’ll own the grant lifecycle and partnership relationship for a set of global WASH partners. Your core focus is grants management and partner relationship management, building the kind of trusted relationships that make accountability productive rather than punitive. You’ll leverage your experience and technical knowledge of on‑the‑ground program implementation to support our partners and ensure that effective strategies are being evaluated and utilized while helping to build, adapt and apply a clear performance framework.

You will work within an integrated team to coordinate strategies related to these partnerships, drawing on external technical resources and consultants when specialized expertise is needed. You will report to the Associate Director of Program Partnerships, who is responsible for overall guidance on partnership strategy, portfolio‑level budgeting, and final grant approval. You may manage at least one Water Programs Associate or coordinate closely with other Associates on your team to support administrative processes for the partnerships within your purview.

You’ll also work closely with members of the Program Finance sub‑team to oversee financial management for each partnership as well as representatives of a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning cross‑cutting sub‑team. Within this integrated team, you will make sure that charity: water’s funds are invested in effective WASH programmes and you will manage great partner relationships to enable this work, and you will bring a continuous‑improvement mindset to both how we work internally and how the work we fund through implementing partners gets stronger over time.

• Managing the multi‑year grant lifecycle for a portfolio of global implementation partners, including soliciting and reviewing grant proposals, approving progress reports, monitoring implementation milestones and managing project timelines.
• Managing programme performance against a defined performance framework by setting expectations upfront, tracking progress against agreed objectives and indicators, reviewing progress reporting and monitoring work through field visits to inform grant and programme decisions.
• Optimising partner programme implementation through the incorporation of M&E findings and by sharing effective WASH strategies and innovations with partners where relevant.
• Regularly identifying opportunities for strengthening technical and operational areas relating to programme implementation, which may include management of various external technical consultants as needed.
• Building and maintaining strong partner relationships characterised by trust, candour, mutual accountability and a shared commitment to quality by navigating difficult conversations across cultures and languages when required.
• Aiding the execution of portfolio or department goals and special initiatives as needed.
• Driving ongoing improvements both internally (our systems, processes and ways of working) and externally (the quality, sustainability and cost‑effectiveness of the partners’ work), all with the aim of strengthening systems that increase the efficiency, transparency and impact of our programmes over time.
• Supporting the team’s AI transition by piloting and adopting AI tools that increase the efficiency, consistency and quality of partnerships with appropriate human judgement and oversight.
• Supporting the identification, vetting and onboarding of new global WASH partnerships as needed.
• Working collaboratively across the organisation with each charity: water department to make sure their involvement in our water…