Summary

The Associate Director, Maternity Growth and Development is responsible for driving the growth and expansion of maternity services across African markets. The role works closely with cross-functional teams to identify growth opportunities, develop business cases, support the launch of new maternity facilities, and improve the performance of existing services. The position also leads investment planning for maternity expansion while ensuring services are commercially sustainable and clinically safe.

Responsibilities

Growth planning and analysis. Develop growth models, dashboards and opportunity assessments to support agreed maternity growth plans. Review trends in admissions, deliveries, theatre use, bed occupancy, case mix, package pricing, revenue per patient, collections, ancillary income, client feedback and margin drivers. Provide recommendations to accountable leaders.

Performance improvement support. Work with country and hospital teams to identify practical actions to improve utilisation, client flow, package design, referral conversion, revenue-cycle discipline and the client journey. Support implementation of agreed actions and track learning from pilots and improvement activity.

Business case and investment support. Prepare market, operational and financial inputs for maternity service relocations, upgrades and new site opportunities. Identify assumptions, risks, dependencies and proposed gate criteria for review by accountable senior leaders or approval committees.

Health financing and partnership development. Work with country teams to identify and evaluate opportunities to strengthen maternity service sustainability through public and private insurance partnerships, employer schemes, government contracting, referral agreements and other innovative financing mechanisms. Support the development of scalable models that improve access while strengthening financial sustainability.

Workforce and service readiness. Support country teams to assess workforce capacity, leadership capability and operational readiness required for maternity service expansion. Identify workforce-related risks and contribute to strategies that strengthen clinical, operational and leadership capacity to support sustainable growth.

Demand-generation initiatives. Develop and pilot maternity-specific marketing, digital discovery and booking, referral pathway, partner relationship and client package approaches that country teams can adapt to local markets.

Health system engagement. Support the identification and strengthening of strategic relationships with government institutions, regulators, referral partners, professional associations and community stakeholders to improve service integration, referral pathways and long-term sustainability of maternity services.

Quality, safety and safeguarding coordination. Work with clinical and quality colleagues to ensure growth initiatives consider obstetric, newborn, safe abortion, safeguarding and regulatory standards. Escalate concerns and support corrective action planning without replacing formal clinical governance.

Tools and capability building. Create templates, dashboards, playbooks and peer-learning materials for Hospital Directors and country maternity leads. Provide coaching and implementation support without formal people-management accountability or ownership of site results.

Cross-functional coordination and learning. Coordinate agreed workstreams across operations, finance, clinical, quality and marketing colleagues. Capture learning across countries and share practical recommendations that can be adopted or scaled by accountable teams.

Education and Qualifications

Relevant growth and development experience. Experience supporting commercial growth, service development or performance improvement in healthcare, maternity, women's health or a comparable client-service environment. Experience managing a for profit maternity in Africa or Asia strongly preferred.

Africa, Asia or comparable market experience. Experience working with teams in Africa, Asia or other LMIC/private healthcare markets. Multi-country experience is desirable; deep experience in one relevant region may be sufficient.

Commercial analysis. Strong ability to analyse revenue, cost, pricing, margin, payback, utilisation, collections and service-mix drivers, and to translate analysis into practical recommendations.

Project and business case support. Experience contributing to business cases, expansion projects, operational pilots, site improvements or turnaround workstreams, without needing to have held full P&L ownership.

Healthcare service economics. Understanding of occupancy, package design, revenue cycle, referral growth, clinician productivity, ancillary income and cost control in healthcare or a similar service environment.

Quality and governance awareness. Understanding of private healthcare governance, patient safety, quality systems, safeguarding and regulatory compliance. A clinical qualification is helpful but not required.

Collaborative influencing style. Analytical, organised and commercially aware; able to influence across functions, support implementation through others, and escalate risks clearly.

Travel. Travel across Africa and Asia, or to other priority markets, will be required as agreed with the line manager

Requirements

 

• Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare, Business Administration, Public Health, Finance, Management, or a related field.
• A Master’s degree (e.g., MBA, Master of Public Health, Healthcare Management, or related discipline) is an added advantage.
• Minimum of 11 years of experience in healthcare, business development, strategy, operations, or a related field.

Characteristics

 

• Strategic thinker with strong commercial acumen.
• Excellent project management and implementation skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Effective stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Good understanding of healthcare service delivery and quality standards.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Results-driven, proactive, and able to work independently.
• Financial and business planning skills

 

Reporting To

COO/VP of International Programmes