Senior Implementation and Field Consultant

Senior Implementation and Field Consultant

Prevail Fund is exploring a new area of giving, and this consultancy will help assess whether there is a strong enough implementer landscape to support it. We are looking for a Senior Implementation and Field Consultant to join us for roughly three months to assess promising livelihoods interventions and the organizations delivering them. The consultant will assess delivery models, operational capacity, and the practical risks of scaling. This is a rare opportunity to shape a major strategic decision for a potential new fund.

About Prevail Fund

Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to pursuing bold goals. We set a social change goal, find philanthropists who have a similar vision, raise a pooled fund, and then make grants. Rather than choosing a general issue area (e.g., education), each pooled fund chooses a simple, targeted goal. For example, our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million Grade 1-3 children across 11 national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Prevail provides patient capital to implementers – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organizations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail offers on-the-ground support to help orgs scale, including strategic planning, systems, recruitment, and talent development. Our roots are in the field. Our Co-Founding Board members have a track record of scaling social enterprises that together employ more than 15,000 staff and manage annual budgets exceeding $500M.

In our first three years, we have:

• Provided $55M in funding to date, to support 27 partners across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, growing very quickly

• Helped partners to strengthen foundational learning outcomes for over 3 million children

• Hired 35+ mission-driven team members

• Executed dozens of in-field projects to help support key functions for our implementing partners

About the role

You’ll work closely with the Claudia, Varsha and the research team to support the calls, field visits, and operational assessments behind Prevail’s scoping work. You will help determine whether organizations in this sector have the operational strength, leadership, growth potential, and delivery model needed to absorb funding and deliver impact as part of a potential fund. The role is best suited to someone who has built or scaled programs in low- and middle-income countries and can assess an organization quickly because they have done similar work themselves. The core components of this role are to:

• Pressure-test implementers. Co-lead screening calls with senior leaders of livelihoods organizations to assess whether their delivery model is credible, aligned with the evidence, and capable of absorbing funding and delivering impact. Identify strengths, risks, and red flags early so the team can decide where deeper diligence is warranted.

• Ensure efficient, effective field visits through thorough preparation and tools. Visiting partners takes a lot of their time and ours, and often does not lead to a real understanding of how the program operates. You will be in charge of ensuring each field visit is minimally disruptive to partners, while also ensuring Prevail gains a deep understanding of how the program works, what is working well, and what concerns might arise if the program were to scale.

• Write the operational read-ups. For each organization, draft concise summaries that cover budget, scale, growth trajectory, geographic footprint, MEL maturity, government relationships, leadership strength, absorptive capacity, and key risks or flags.

• Set up the sector conversations. Help identify implementers, funders, and field experts who can pressure-test our emerging views on delivery, scale, and operational risk.

• Get in the field. Join visits to implementing organizations, some of which are alongside the Prevail team. Walk through their operations, talk to participants and leadership, and compare delivery models, bottlenecks, and scaling claims against what you see. Write up each visit so the team has a clear read on whether the organization can deliver at scale.

• Help sketch the fund. Contribute to the first cut of the fund design: allocations, deployment pace, grant sizes, and the team needed to run it.

• Contribute to the recommendation. Draft the implementation sections of the decision memo, covering delivery models, operational capacity, and cost and scaling realities, working with the team to assess whether the implementer landscape is strong enough to support a fund.

Who we’re looking for

We are looking for a strong operator with sound field judgment. You should have experience running programs or organizations in low- and middle-income countries, know how to assess how an organization actually works beyond its own account of itself, and be able to draw out candid views from staff and leadership. You should also be comfortable leading multi-country fieldwork from planning through execution.

• Experience. 8-15+ years working with NGOs, philanthropy, or implementing organizations in low- and middle-income countries, in program management, field operations, or implementation.

• Field and operations experience. Experience working with on-the-ground NGO teams in low- and middle-income countries, ideally in Sub-Saharan Africa and/or South Asia, assessing or supporting how programs are delivered.

• Relationship management. Builds rapport quickly with NGO leaders and staff, leads productive conversations, and accurately identifies operational strengths and weaknesses.

• Logistics and organization. Strong at planning and running multi-country field visits end-to-end.

• Judgment and independence. Translates site visits into clear, structured operational reads, is comfortable with travel, and works well with the ambiguity of early-stage scoping.
  

Consultant contract details

We’re flexible on how we work with the right person. We expect this to be a short-term consultancy over roughly three months. The engagement could be full-time or part-time, depending on the right person’s availability and fit.

• Start date: As soon as possible.

• Contract duration: Around three months.

• Time requirement: Full-time preferred, with part-time arrangements considered for the right candidate.

• Reports to: Claudia Carbajal, Senior Researcher.

• Compensation: Competitive day rate, commensurate with experience.

• Location: Remote, with candidates ideally based within 2/+4 hours of Central Africa Time.

• Travel: Up to 40% of the time, concentrated around the field-visit period, and negotiable. Any required travel expenses will be covered by Prevail Fund.

Application process: Our hiring process is thorough, because there are very specific skills required for this role. Successful candidates will go through:

• Initial call with hiring manager (~30 minutes)

• Work exercise (2 hrs)

• Final panel interview (~60 minutes)

To apply: If you’re excited to help us scale, please apply using the application form. We are taking applications on a rolling basis and will respond to all applications within three weeks.

For more information. For more information on Prevail in general, check out this deck. For info on how we hire at Prevail, check here.

*Note: If you currently work for one of Prevail’s partner organizations, we’d love to consider you for this role as long as you speak with them first, to note your intention to explore new opportunities. Thank you!