Deputy Med-Ops Cell Manager

MSF Ubuntu is looking for a D eputy Med-Ops Cell Manager (Medical)

Do your skills and experience not precisely match the requirements? At MSF Ubuntu, we strive to create a safe, diverse and inclusive workplace, recognizing the need to increase access to professional opportunities for historically underrepresented groups. If you're interested in this position but your experience doesn't align perfectly with the selection criteria, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the ideal candidate for this or other positions.

Firmly committed to Safeguarding patients, community members, staff and all those in contact with the organization from all forms of abuse including Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Harassment (SEAH), we will take all necessary steps to ensure that confirmed perpetrators of abuse will not join the organization, enabled through rigorous vetting processes.

For this position, contact level with patients and children is categorized as Medium Risk and will be monitored with this in regard.

Introduction

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is an international independent medical humanitarian organisation that provides assistance to people affected by conflicts, epidemics, and natural or human-made disasters and excluded from healthcare. We provide this assistance without discrimination, irrespective of race, religion, creed or political affiliation.

About MSF Ubuntu

MSF Ubuntu is the newest Operational Directorate (OD) of Médecins Sans Frontières, grounded in the principles of Ubuntu – “I am because we are”. With a base blended between the offices of MSF Southern Africa and MSF Eastern Africa and a strong emphasis on interdependence, interoperability, and maximizing sustainable outcomes, MSF Ubuntu seeks to add a new approach to the delivery of medical humanitarian action to the movement by placing communities at the heart of decision-making.

Job Purpose

The Deputy Cell Manager (Medical Profile) co-leads the medical-operational interface within the MSF Ubuntu Med-Ops Cell. The role ensures that medical-operational strategy, program quality, and patient outcomes are central to medical operational decisions, while maintaining agility, collaboration, and shared accountability.

Subject and Description

The MSF Ubuntu Med-Ops Cell operates on a collective, integrated Med-Ops model emphasizing:

• Collaborative and shared leadership between Operations and Medical managers.
• Strong collaboration across departments (Med, Ops, Emergency manager, Community Engagement, People & Culture, Logistics & Supply, Finance, Advocacy and communications).
• Decentralized decision-making with high Country programs proximity.
• A people-cantered, context-driven approach (“Ubuntu”: I am because we are).

In this model, the Deputy Cell Manager (Medical Profile) is not only a technical manager/advisor but acts as a co-owner of medical operational decisions, ensuring medical priorities shape strategy, implementation, continuous follow up and learning.

Strategic Role within MSF Ubuntu

The Med-Ops Deputy Cell Manager (Medical Profile) closely working with Med-Ops cell manager is expected to operationalise the strategic pillars of MSF Ubuntu by ensuring that the country programs portfolio contributes to:

• Community leadership and people-centred care: Moving beyond community engagement towards meaningful community participation and, where possible, shared decision-making in programme design, implementation, adaptation and handover. Consideration to the ongoing climate crisis to be integrated into people-centred care, with a longer-term view on maximising sustainable outcomes for communities.
• Being rooted locally and acting globally: Drawing on the knowledge, relationships, innovations and lived experience of Eastern and Southern Africa, while developing operational approaches that can strengthen MSF’s global medical-humanitarian action.
• Maximising sustainable outcomes: Ensuring that MSF Ubuntu operations aim to have strong immediate impact while also leaving tangible positive outcomes for patients, communities and local health systems after MSF’s presence changes or ends.
• Interdependence: Working through deliberate collaboration with MSF entities, local actors, communities, academia, institutions and operational support hubs, avoiding unnecessary duplication and building common capacity where it strengthens operations.
• Accountability: Strengthening accountability to patients, communities, staff, supporters, MSF Ubuntu governance and the wider MSF movement through clear decision-making, feedback, learning and transparent performance monitoring.
• Emergency responsiveness and operational agility: Ensuring that MSF Ubuntu prioritises emergency response, critical gaps in humanitarian assistance, and the needs of the most vulnerable, while building operational capacity progressively and responsibly.
• Equity, diversity, inclusion and safeguarding: Embedding inclusive power dynamics, affirmative action, duty of care, safe recruitment, responsible off-boarding and safeguarding into both operational delivery and team leadership.
• Restless activist spirit and bearing witness: Ensuring that advocacy, analysis, representation, networking and communications are integrated into operations, with patients and communities having a greater share of voice in public positioning and advocacy choices.

Responsibilities / Result Areas

Co-Leadership in Med-Ops Decision-Making

• Act as a core member of the Med-Ops Cell leadership, jointly responsible for strategic and medical operational decisions.
• Ensure medical perspectives are systematically integrated into operational planning and prioritization, and decision making.
• Participate in collective decision-making processes, promoting shared ownership and accountability.
• Deputize for the Med-Ops Cell Manager when required.

Medical Strategy & Operational Integration

• Co-develop and implement country programs strategies with strong medical, person-people centered care and community drive, anticipatory programming elements in all its country programs.
• Validation of medical strategies, technical guidelines and related protocols applied in the country programs in close collaboration with the CMedCo, Country Management team and relevant cell members.
• Ensure programs are need-driven, evidence-based, and person and people-centered and impactful.
• Align Country program strategies with MSF Ubuntu Strategic plans and global health priorities.
• Balance operational feasibility with medical ambition.

Quality of Care & Patient Outcomes

• Champion patient safety and quality of care as a central pillar of medical operations.
• Monitor and analyze key medical indicators, patient and community feedback ensuring timely corrective actions, in close collaboration with the Country Coordination teams and Med-Ops Cell members.
• Lead or co-lead planning and reporting cycles, project reviews and performance discussions with a strong medical lens.
• Promote continuous quality improvement (CQI) and innovation.

Country Programs Engagement & Proximity

• Maintain close engagement with country programs, ensuring responsiveness to local context and realities.
• Provide direct support to Country Medical Coordinators (CMedCo), and coordination teams and project teams.
• Responsible for validation and approval of international medical orders (IMOs) and escalating exceptional local purchasing validation to UBT section pharmacist and team.
• Responsible at Med-cell level supporting Staff Health related issues and decision making closely working with CMedCo and SHU.
• Participate in programs visits, conduct assessments, program initiations/start-ups, and be part of the team during interventions.
• Coordinate and Chair the Health program Support team (HPSTs) for country programs closely working with the Country MedCo and respective medical advisors.
• Foster strong, trust-based relationships with country programs leadership.

Capacity Building & Team Development

• Mentor and coach Country Medical Coordinators (CMedCos), health advisor or Medical Officer and medical teams within an empowering Ubuntu approach.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and professional development of medical staff.
• Promote a learning culture, encouraging reflection and knowledge sharing.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work seamlessly with Ops, HR, Logistics & Supply, Finance, Advocacy and Communication counterparts within the Med-Ops Cell.
• Break down silos by promoting integrated problem-solving.
• Ensure medical needs are reflected in HR planning, supply strategies, and logistics setups.
• Ensure identifying and initiating medical advocacy topics and agendas in close collaboration with the country programs, advocacy and communication teams.
• Work in close collaboration with the Analysis, Humanitarian Affairs and Advocacy (AHAA) Unit to support the development of strategic relationships with regional academic institutions, Africa CDC, WHO AFRO and other relevant African public health bodies, positioning MSF Ubuntu as a bridge between the movement and African medical expertise and emerging models of People and community-centred humanitarian action.

Emergency Response & Adaptability

• Play a key role in emergency assessments and responses, in close collaboration with the Med-Ops cell Emergency Manager and other cell members.
• Ensure Country programs EPPRP (Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Plans, include Anticipatory Action, and Early Action tools) are up-to-date, teams have readiness and responsiveness, an agile culture and mindset, this is done in close collaboration with the Med-Ops Cell Emergency Manager.
• Ensure rapid integration of medical priorities in acute crises (outbreaks, conflicts, displacement).
• Support Prevention, preparedness planning and contingency strategies including Anticipatory actions and Early Action tools are in place across all country programs.

Representation & Knowledge Sharing

• Represent the Med-Ops Cell in medical and operational platforms within the OCs, inter-desk in close collaboration with the Med-Ops cell manager, and when delegated.
• Facilitate two-way communication between Country programs and HQ, ensuring local/project realities inform strategies and policy.
• Contribute to operational research, innovation, and best practice dissemination.

Ethics, Risk & Accountability

• Ensure adherence to MSF principles, medical ethics, and patient rights.
• Identify and mitigate clinical and operational risks.
• Promote accountability to patients and communities.
• Support safeguarding and ethical decision-making processes.
• Work closely with the Safeguarding Unit to embed Safe programming, responsible behaviour, prevention of harm, and accountability across all MSF Ubuntu medical operations, ensuring that our conduct, decision-making and community engagement consistently protect the dignity, safety and trust of the people and communities with whom we work.

Organisational Positioning

Reports hierarchically to Med-Ops Cell Manager

Reports functionally to Medical Director

Academic and Professional Qualifications and Knowledge

• Degree in Medicine or MSc in Nursing (Essential).
• A degree in Public Health (an advantage).
• Excellent fluency in spoken and written English (essential); French or Arabic (An Advantage).
• Demonstrated experience in cross-cultural communication and collaboration.

Years and Nature of Experience

• Minimum of 7+ years’ relevant professional, hands on, and senior medical management experience in MSF or similar medical-humanitarian organizations (Essential).
• Previous experience as health/medical manager or advisor, emergency medical manager, medical coordinator (Essential).
• Exposure working as or gap fill country coordinator or head of mission (an advantage).
• Strong understanding of medical-humanitarian medical operations, emergency response, programming management and principled humanitarian action.
• Proven capacity to develop medical strategies and translate them into effective implementation.
• Experience managing multidisciplinary teams and supporting senior field leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex humanitarian, political, security, access and ethical dilemmas.
• Proven commitment to people-centred care, accountability, safeguarding and inclusive leadership.

Core Competencies Required for the Role

Technical Competencies

• Excellent skills in Office Suite (advanced MS Excel and others), data and statistical tools.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills with ability to produce concise, actionable recommendations.
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills.

Skills & Competencies aligned with ‘Ubuntu’

• Ability to work in non-hierarchical, collaborative (“Ubuntu”) environments.
• Strategic thinking combined with operational pragmatism.
• Collaboration and shared leadership.
• Empathy and people-centered approach.
• Accountability and collective responsibility.
• Openness to feedback and learning.
• Cultural sensitivity and humility.
• Resilience under pressure.

Behavioural / General Competencies

• Commitment to MSF’s Principles.
• Cross-cultural Awareness.
• Strategic Vision.
• Results and Quality Orientation.
• Service Orientation.
• Planning and organizing.
• Initiative and Innovation.
• Teamwork and Cooperation.
• People Management and Development.
• Networking and Building Relationships.
• Security awareness and Management.

Conditions and benefits

• Start date: 1 October/2026
• Travel: 20% to 50% a year
• Grade/Annual salary section: In line with MSF reward policy, Subjected to local conditions.
• Location: This position will be based in one of the countries within its portfolio (to be confirmed). For the initial two years, the duty station is expected to be in Harare (Zimbabwe), Johannesburg (South Africa), or Nairobi (Kenya).
• Contract: 3 years renewable, full-time contract (maximum 6 years)
• Risk categorization: Medium

Application details

• The vacancy closing date is: 14 th of July 2026 .
• This vacancy is open to Local and International Applicants.
• By applying to this position, the applicant confirms they have read, understood and agreed to fully comply with MSF Charter and MSF Behavioral Commitments and Data Privacy Policy .
• In line with MSF’s Safeguarding Principles, successful candidates undergo a rigorous vetting process that includes background checks and self-declaration.
• If you recognize yourself in this profile, we welcome you to apply directly via the vacancy;https://msfsa.bamboohr.com/careers/446.
• The vacancy can be found on various MSF websites, digital channels, ReliefWeb and other job boards.
• Applicants are required to upload a Letter of Motivation and Curriculum Vitae (in English) as per prescribed formats. Applications missing the motivation letter will not be considered.
• If you have any questions regarding your application, please contact assistance@joburg.msf.org before the vacancy closing date. Kindly use this email only for technical issues related to your application, for example, if you do not receive an automated response or encounter problems uploading documents. Applications sent directly to this email will not be considered .

Information

The protection of your personal data is important to MSF. By submitting your application, you consent to MSF using your personal data only for the recruitment process to have all the information and documents necessary to proceed with the recruitment, validation of your application and selection of the most suitable candidate. Your personal data will be treated confidentially. MSF will not use your personal data in any other way, not foreseen for purposes of recruitment.

MSF is an equal opportunity employer and does not charge any application/ recruitment fee.

Lately, MSF is a civil society initiative that brings together individuals committed to the assistance of other human beings in crisis. As such MSF is by choice an association. Each individual applying for MSF roles does it out of conviction and is ready to uphold the values and principles of MSF.