Chief Programs Officer

About Plan International Canada

At Plan International Canada, our mission is to strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We stand with children, especially girls, wherever they are oppressed, exploited, left behind or not equally valued. We strive to create a world where children, especially girls, learn, lead, decide and thrive. We tackle the root causes of inequality.

Plan International Canada is the first non-profit organization to ever be inducted into Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures Hall of Fame by Waterstone Human Capital. Here’s why: together, we have created a climate of trust and inclusivity – where diversity in people, ideas and approaches is not only respected, it’s encouraged.

We remain agile amid an ever-changing global landscape. Though we continue to evolve, our mission and strategic ambition will not change – and our work has never been so imperative. We will never stop believing in the multiplying power of girls and that every child deserves that right to learn, lead, decide and thrive. Our future success will be founded upon Plan International Canada’s 80+ year history of focusing on our mission, our core values, responding to challenges and seizing opportunities with purpose, relevance and impact.

The Position

The Chief Programs Officer (CPO) reports directly to the CEO and serves as a critical force for innovation, leadership and management at Plan International Canada. The CPO contributes to Plan International’s global efforts to deliver measurable, credible, and transformative impact for children and girls across humanitarian, development, and sponsorship portfolios. This role ensures that Plan International’s work is grounded in evidence, responsive to global shifts, future oriented and strategically connected to advocacy, communications, and partnerships.

As the leader of the International Programs Department (including leading 2 Vice-Presidents), the CPO brings together teams to develop and deliver program resources and services to connect, champion, and improve program impact across Plan International worldwide. This role mobilizes resources and enables the delivery of high impact programming. The CPO oversees a diverse portfolio valued at over $800m, with approximately $200m in annual revenue from institutional, and foundation donors that are programmed in countries around the world. They are responsible for growing revenue aligned to Plan’s strategy and ensuring financial accountability, sound management, program quality and impact. They oversee youth engagement in Canada, and policy, advocacy and influencing work to ensure children especially girls rights are promoted and protected everywhere.

The Chief Programs Officer leads the programmatic strategic direction and ensures overall program oversight and efficient operations. The CPO, as a key member of the executive leadership team, helps inform the overall strategic direction of the organization and works with the CEO and other executive team members to deliver on the strategic and operating plans of Plan International Canada.

The CPO leads comfortably and capably and represents Plan International Canada well, both internally and externally, nationally and internationally.

• Oversee a significant portfolio of humanitarian and development programs, ensuring that they deliver measurable, credible, and transformative impact.
• Oversee impact performance, evidence generation and learning to inform program quality and support advocacy, communications, and partnerships.
• Champion and drive program and finance innovation, anticipating global trends and needs and enabling organizational agility in a rapidly changing context.
• Build and provide strategic leadership to the Programs teams (100+ staff members) to achieve team and organizational goals; allow team members’ strengths to shine and provide opportunities for continued learning and improvement.
• Oversee the annual work planning and budgeting process resulting in a plan that makes the best use of resources and meets organization and strategic goals.
• Serve on the Chief Executive (Cx) and Executive Management Teams (EMT) helping to set strategy and goals for the organization.
• Serve as a highly visible and effective ambassador to position Plan International Canada strategically.
• Anticipate sector shifts through strategic foresight and mobilize internal and external knowledge networks to drive innovation, learning, and strategic agility.
• Manage various sector relationships with stakeholders, institutional donors, corporate partners, and funders.
• Work with the Marketing, Philanthropy, Finance, Communications, and Operations teams to ensure organizational goals are achieved.
• Work with the leadership team to manage organizational learning efforts and foster a positive, high-performance culture that is underpinned by feminist principles.
• Lead innovative, cutting-edge ideas on international development that can build evidence and deliver impact, including innovative finance mechanisms and oversight of Plan Catalyst.

The ideal candidate will have an entrepreneurial mindset with a passion for fostering an innovative environment and encouraging creative problem solving. You will have a collaborative working style and an ability to engage with diverse internal and external stakeholders. You are adept at anticipating problems and proactively developing solutions. You create an environment of inclusion and continuous improvement by championing diversity, engaging in open and honest dialogue, listening, sharing, and debating ideas. A humble leader of people with high emotional intelligence, you will give clear directions, contextualize new ideas, and inspire others. When you speak, people listen! Highly analytical and strategic are qualities used to describe you. You enjoy leading and mentoring a high performing team.

As an executive team member, you are objective, collaborative, respectful, and bring an enterprise mindset to the table. You are an engaging spokesperson, politically savvy with strong advocacy skills. You are a well networked convenor with a track record of negotiating impactful public-private partnerships. You bring confidence as you guide and lead change during a period of substantive transformation across the sector and bring a passion for continuous improvement. You are brave and experienced in taking calculated risks while respecting and being accountable to large, complex program budgets. You lead with both your head and your heart as an integral member of a global movement for change, mobilizing millions of people around the world to support social justice for children in the most vulnerable marginalized communities around the world.

Education, Experience, & Skills

• Advanced degree in international development, social services, non-profit management, business administration, or related field.
• A minimum of fifteen years senior level management and people leadership experience including change management, program management, technical and program development experience in a multi-faceted service delivery organization.
• Executive level leadership acumen with prior C-suite experience, ideally.
• Experienced in governance and providing strategic counsel to CEOs, boards and senior leadership.
• Demonstrated success working in large global organizations attracting, developing, coaching and leading high performing management teams.
• Demonstrated knowledge, expertise and passion for International Development, Humanitarian Action and gender equality as a force for impact; in particular, an understanding of current trends, opportunities and challenges facing this sector.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, including the ability to work with and develop nuanced partnerships with a wide variety of people (colleagues, sector partners, Board members, funders, clients, and community partners) and people of diverse backgrounds.
• Experience and track record brokering public-private partnerships of a substantial scale.
• Strategic, systems and enterprise mindset; strong analytic abilities.
• Sound knowledge of best practice in monitoring, evaluation and demonstrating impact.
• Experience leading the strategy and implementation of a range of innovative organizational and program-specific initiatives.
• An understanding of innovative finance (including climate finance) and familiarity working with non-traditional funding modalities.
• Excellent communication skills, both orally and in writing; presentation skills.
• Comfortable speaking to donors (both individual and institutional), media, international development experts, academia and researchers.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage budgets of significant size and scope.
• Demonstrated success writing proposals in response to government RFPs or private grant opportunities; grant/contract reporting.
• Experience in leading and/or being part of global initiatives working in a global federation model with leaders across the globe to influence positive change.

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