National Programme Lead

About us

Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. We are a global movement of people, churches, and local organizations who passionately champion dignity, equality, and justice worldwide. We are the changemakers, the peacemakers, the mighty of heart.

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace and recognize the value this brings in forming strong, creative, and high-performing teams. We welcome applications from all community sections and those with experience from outside the voluntary sector. And no, you don’t have to be Christian to work here – we encourage people of all faiths and none to apply. We ask that everyone live our values of dignity, equality, justice, and love. We value a good work-life balance, therefore, we’re open to part-time and flexible working. We also offer hybrid working for our office-based colleagues and the option of being a homeworker for most of our roles.

Learn about our vision, mission, and values

About the role

The National Programme Lead, as a pivotal part of Christian Aid Nigeria Programme, will provide full-time leadership, coordination, and strategic oversight of the Sustainable Entrepreneurship-led Poultry Transformation Programme (SEPTP). This includes managing the overall strategy, ensuring coordination among consortium partners, maintaining program quality and compliance, and ensuring seamless execution to achieve the program goals and adhere to program requirements within the 5-year timeframe. The role will support collaborative programme design, systems thinking, policy engagement, and private sector partnerships. The role will serve as the central coordination point among consortium pillars, government, partners, and community stakeholders.

About you

The role holder should have a Master’s degree or at least 10 years of consistent experience in Agriculture, Livestock, Development Studies, Project Management, Business Administration, or any related field. Advanced degrees or certifications are a plus, with a minimum of 7 years of progressive leadership managing large-scale agricultural/livelihoods programmes, preferably in the poultry or livestock sector, demonstrated experience managing multi-partner consortia and complex, donor-funded development programmes in Nigeria. He/She should have strong knowledge of Nigeria’s poultry sector, smallholder systems, and rural youth dynamics, proven ability to lead youth or women-focused interventions, entrepreneurship models, and private sector engagement, excellent stakeholder coordination, advocacy, and partnership-building skills across government, private sector, and civil society, strong communication and report-writing skills in English; fluency in at least one major Nigerian language is a plus as well as strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and make informed decisions, excellent organizational and time management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse teams and stakeholders.

Desirable qualities:

The role holder should have experience managing or contributing to Mastercard Foundation-funded programmes or other youth/women employment initiatives, familiarity with Christian Aid’s partnership model, values, and commitment to localisation, experience designing or managing digital solutions in agriculture or youth skilling, good relationship management skills with the ability to work collaboratively as part of multidisciplinary and multicultural team. , strategic, analytical, problem-solving, and systems thinking capacity and skills. He or she should have strong data collection and research skills and the ability to interpret and analyze data, be proactive, resourceful, and results-oriented.

Further information

This role requires applicants to have the right to work in the country where this position is based.

At Christian Aid we strive to be an inclusive and diverse employer and recognize the value that this brings in helping to build strong, creative, and high-performing teams.

We are actively encouraging racialized minorities, people with disabilities, returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people with caring responsibilities, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, women, and older workers to apply. This is because these groups are under-represented within our teams, especially at the senior level, and we recognize and value the contributions members of these groups make to strong, creative, and high-performing teams. 

We have a strong Christian ethos, and we encourage applications from all faiths and none (with the exception of Director positions where there is a genuine occupational requirement to be a practicing Christian - Exempted under the Equality Act 2010).

Females are strongly encouraged to apply.