Senior Manager, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

Purpose of Role 

CIFF’s WASH portfolio is central to its ambition of improving child survival, nutrition, education outcomes and climate resilience through universal access to safely managed, climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene services. As Senior Manager, WASH, you will lead the delivery of CIFF’s Zambia WASH portfolio, providing strategic leadership, technical oversight and operational management of major rural and institutional WASH investments while helping Government and partners convert committed financing into measurable results for children. The role combines programme leadership, infrastructure delivery, government engagement, financing mobilisation and systems strengthening.

This is a significant role with direct responsibility for approximately US$25 million of CIFF WASH investments in Zambia.

Your Key Responsibilities 

• Provide strategic leadership for CIFF’s Zambia WASH portfolio, ensuring alignment with the Africa WASH Mission and CIFF’s corporate priorities, including leading the design, appraisal, implementation, adaptive management and closure of WASH investments, and developing and managing a pipeline of high-quality investment opportunities.

• Oversee delivery of climate-resilient, solar-powered groundwater schemes serving rural communities, schools and health facilities from feasibility through commissioning and handover, ensuring investments deliver agreed outputs relating to beneficiaries, schools, health facilities, functionality, sustainability and value for money.

• Serve as CIFF’s principal WASH representative in Zambia, building trusted relationships with senior government officials, utilities, regulators, donors and development partners, including engagement with ministries responsible for Water, Finance, Health, Education and Local Government.
• Support the Government of Zambia to accelerate implementation of committed WASH financing, identify implementation bottlenecks delaying government and MDB-funded programmes, support preparation of bankable WASH investment pipelines, and help strengthen Zambia’s country-led WASH platform, including support for mobilisation of climate finance.
• Ensure robust monitoring systems are implemented across all investments, support independent verification of outputs and outcomes, promote learning from implementation to improve programme quality and contribute to CIFF’s thought leadership in climate-resilient WASH and innovative financing.

You will be able to demonstrate: 

• Senior WASH programme leadership in low- and middle-income countries — a track record of leading complex, large-scale WASH or water infrastructure programmes from design through to delivery and close.

• Rural water infrastructure expertise — hands-on experience overseeing groundwater development, solar-powered water systems, engineering design processes or equivalent rural service delivery.

• Government engagement and systems strengthening — proven ability to work effectively within and alongside government systems, public sector institutions and national WASH delivery platforms.

• Senior stakeholder influencing and co-financing mobilisation — demonstrated ability to engage and influence senior government officials, donors, multilateral or bilateral partners, and to support the mobilisation of co-financing or leveraged investment.
• Experience working with World Bank, AfDB or other multilateral development bank-funded programmes.
• Experience supporting climate adaptation initiatives or mobilising climate finance.
• Experience developing innovative or blended financing mechanisms.
• MEL design and results framework management at programme level.
• You communicate with integrity – you share information clearly, give honest feedback and engage authentically with partners and colleagues.
• You think and act strategically – you balance long-term goals with operational delivery and can navigate complexity and ambiguity with sound judgement.
• You build strong external partnerships – you are collaborative, relationship-led and skilled at mobilising others around shared goals.

CIFF has a collaborative culture which promotes peer to peer learning. CIFF employees also have an annual allowance for relevant upskilling to support learning in the role.

CIFF operates a hybrid working policy across our locations, meaning employees typically split their time between the office and working from home. Further details will be shared during the recruitment process.

This role offers a competitive salary and benefits package administered through our Employer of Record (EOR), aligned with local market standards.

While employment will be through the EOR, the successful candidate will work closely with CIFF teams and will benefit from a supportive, collaborative and mission-driven environment.

Full details of the compensation and benefits package will be shared with shortlisted candidates during the recruitment process.

Please submit your application on or before Monday, 24 August 2026. CIFF reserves the right to close the job advert early should we receive a high number of suitable applications.