Project Manager – Horizon 1000 Kenya

Job description

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME Horizon 1000 is a transformative initiative to deploy contextually grounded, ethically designed artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, including 7, across primary healthcare systems in Kenya. Amref Health Africa will lead a three-county proof of concept in Murang'a, Mombasa and Bungoma, working alongside an AI design partner, a technology partner, a clinical learning partner and an implementation science partner. The project sits at the intersection of digital health innovation, primary healthcare strengthening and implementation science. Its defining legacy will be a practical, replicable deployment playbook that equips future implementers to deploy AI in Kenya's primary healthcare system with confidence, fidelity and speed. JOB PURPOSE The Project Manager will coordinate the day-to-day implementation of the Horizon 1000 Kenya project under the guidance of the Director, Impact & Innovation. The role will support delivery coordination, partner and sub-grantee follow-up, external stakeholder engagement and consistent application of the project's values throughout implementation. The role requires strong project management, health systems knowledge and digital health fluency, together with a commitment to co-design and community-centred approaches. The Project Manager will support engagement across the government and regulatory landscape, coordinate partner inputs, and contribute to the systematic capture of implementation learning for the national AI deployment playbook and scaling framework. PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES Project and Partnership Management Coordinate project planning, implementation and monitoring across the three counties, ensuring activities are delivered on time and aligned with agreed work plans and objectives. Support budget tracking, risk monitoring and funder reporting, maintaining accurate records and escalating significant variances or delivery risks. Coordinate day-to-day delivery across primary partners, specialist sub-grantees, government counterparts and community stakeholders, tracking agreed activities and outputs. Support administration of sub-grant agreements with specialist organisations, track performance and deliverables, coordinate inputs into the project's learning system, and facilitate interfaces with the technology partner. Support the convening and servicing of the project's governance structures at project and county levels, maintaining accurate records and following up agreed decisions and actions. Coordinate the day-to-day activities of the project team, provide operational guidance, monitor progress against work plans and escalate issues requiring management attention. Use Case Co-Design and Implementation Coordinate landscape assessments and participatory co-design activities in each county with the human-centred design expert organisation, healthcare workers, community health promoters, facility managers and county health teams. Support the development and validation of AI use cases grounded in local clinical realities and primary care workflows. Coordinate the phased, facility-level rollout of AI-enabled CDSS and related solutions, including change-management activities and healthcare worker onboarding. Implement feedback mechanisms, consolidate user and stakeholder input, and coordinate agreed improvements during implementation. External Stakeholder Engagement and Governance Support Amref's engagement with the Ministry of Health, Digital Health Agency, Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, county health authorities and relevant clinical regulatory bodies, maintaining effective working relationships at the operational level. Coordinate required inputs, documentation and follow-up for regulatory, data governance, clinical validation and ethical oversight processes associated with AI-enabled CDSS deployment. Contribute to project engagement within Kenya's national digital health and AI agenda and support meaningful government and county participation. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Work with the monitoring and evaluation team and implementation science partner to coordinate implementation of the project's MEL framework, baseline and outcome evaluations, and implementation science activities. Support the collection, quality review and synthesis of evidence on project results and the conditions under which AI solutions work in Kenyan primary healthcare settings. Track partner and sub-grantee progress, maintain accurate performance records and use evidence and feedback to recommend operational improvements. Support the translation of implementation learning into accessible products for government, county health teams, funders and the wider digital health community. Deployment Playbook, Sustainability and Scaling Coordinate partner contributions to the development of an AI deployment playbook documenting the process from co-design and regulatory navigation through solution build, implementation and evaluation. Support engagement with the Ministry of Health and Digital Health Agency on the development and use of the deployment playbook as a practical resource. Contribute project evidence and implementation inputs to the development of the scaling framework and sustainability plan with government partners. Ensure that lessons, implementation tools and decision points are systematically documented for adaptation and use by future implementers. Education Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Medicine, Public Health, Health Systems, International Development, Digital Health or a closely related field. A Master's degree or relevant professional qualification is an advantage. Experience At least five (5) years of relevant health project or programme experience in Kenya or the East African region, including at least one (1) year in a supervisory or project-coordination role. Demonstrated experience supporting projects at the intersection of health systems and digital technology, including work-planning, budget tracking, risk monitoring, reporting and multi-partner coordination. Experience supporting sub-grant administration and monitoring, including work with research institutions or clinical delivery organisations. Experience working within Kenya's devolved health system and coordinating with national and county government, regulatory or data governance stakeholders relevant to digital health deployment. Experience with co-design or human-centred design approaches, implementation science, and development of practical knowledge frameworks or toolkits is strongly preferred. Knowledge, Skills and Competencies Ability to coordinate project operations and execute technical and operational responsibilities across multiple partners and locations, ensuring accurate, timely and reliable outputs. Working knowledge of Kenya's digital health landscape, primary healthcare systems, AI-enabled Clinical Decision Support Systems, clinical workflows, data governance and clinical validation requirements. Ability to provide operational guidance, monitor performance against work plans and support staff, consultants and partners to deliver agreed activities. Ability to track budgets and expenditure, administer project resources and sub-grants, maintain accurate records and support donor reporting requirements. Ability to support responsible adoption of digital and AI-enabled tools to improve project effectiveness while maintaining ethical and people-centred practice. Strong interpersonal, teamwork and stakeholder-coordination skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across government, healthcare providers, technology partners, research institutions and communities. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to address operational challenges, recommend improvements and escalate significant delivery risks appropriately. Ability to collect, analyse and report project data and coordinate monitoring, evaluation and implementation-learning activities. Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present technical and project information clearly to diverse audiences. Commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, co-design and community-centred approaches. Demonstrated integrity and ability to uphold organisational governance, policies, safeguarding requirements, ethical standards and regulatory compliance. Proficiency in English and Kiswahili is preferred. Please submit your CV or resume highlighting relevant skills and experience along with a cover letter detailing why you are the best fit for this position. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the position will remain open until filled. Amref Health Africa does not require applicants to pay any money at whatever stage of the recruitment and selection process and has not retained any agent in connection with recruitment. Although Amref may use different job boards from time to time to further spread its reach for applicants, all open vacancies are published on our website under the Vacancies page and on our official social media pages. Kindly also note that official emails from Amref Health Africa will arrive from an @amref.org address. Amref Health Africa is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff to share this commitment. Amref Health Africa is is dedicated to diversity and is an equal-opportunity employer with a non-smoking environment policy. Amref Health Africa, founded in 1957, is the largest African-based international health development organisation. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Amref implements programmes across 35 African countries , reaching more than 40 million people , with a strong operational presence in Africa and advocacy and fundraising offices in Europe and North America. Guided by its vision of lasting health change in Africa , Amref’s mission is to catalyse community-led, people-centred health systems and address the social determinants of health . Amref believes sustainable health transformation is driven from within communities and works to strengthen health systems while empowering communities to demand and access quality, affordable healthcare.