Assistant Director - Programme Development Department

THE OPPORTUNITY

The first six years of a child's life shape everything that follows. For children from lower-income families, what happens in that window determines the trajectory. KidSTART exists to change those odds: personal home-based support, delivered by trained practitioners, built on evidence, and scaled nationally. KidSTART completed its nationwide expansion in 2025. The programme now reaches families in all 24 towns, is scaling toward 80 per cent of eligible children in every birth cohort and has nearly tripled its practitioner base in two years. What happens next depends on whether the programme model can keep pace with that growth. That is what this role is for.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As Assistant Director for Programme Development, you will lead the thinking behind how KidSTART works, and where it is headed. You own the service model and the operational policies that govern how practitioners support families. You work directly with MSF in the strategic direction and hold accountability for programme outcomes across a network of implementing agencies, while also looking ahead to develop new or better services and programmes to better serve children from lower‑income and/or vulnerable families. This is not an execution role. It is the role that decides what gets executed. You will need to hold a wide view of what a good early childhood programme looks like on a national scale, while staying close enough to implementation to know when the model is not working. The right person for this role is someone who has shaped policy or programme design before, is energised by the complexity of multi‑agency implementation, and is motivated by the prospect of getting it right for children who need it most.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Programme Strategy and Model Design: Lead the planning, design, and review of KidSTART's service model, operational policies, and processes—including funding and manpower frameworks—aligned with MSF's national strategic direction. Own the integrity of what KidSTART does and how it does it.
• Programme Monitoring and Evaluation: Drive the review and continuous refinement of programme design, implementation quality, and outcomes measurement. Ensure that data on programme performance reaches the right people and informs real decisions, not just reports.
• Funder and Agency Accountability: Oversee KidSTART's funding agreements with implementing agencies. Hold agencies to performance standards, manage disbursements, and address compliance and audit requirements. Maintain the quality of the partnership network that delivers the programme on the ground.
• Team Leadership: Lead and develop the Programme Development team. Set direction, build analytical and policy capability within the team, and create conditions for rigorous, thoughtful work in an organisation that is still forming.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for someone who can operate at the level of programme architecture—thinking clearly about what a national early childhood programme needs to do and how it needs to be structured—while remaining grounded in what works for families and practitioners. You will have:

• At least six years of relevant experience in policy formulation, programme development, data analytics, or planning.
• A bachelor's degree, with strong writing and analytical skills.
• A track record of leading projects and engaging stakeholders at different levels, including government agencies and community partners.
• The ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and deliver quality outcomes in a fast‑paced environment.
• Experience leading a team and supporting others' professional growth alongside your own.
• Experience in the public sector, social service sector, or early childhood sector is an advantage.
• Familiarity with MSF's policy landscape will help you hit the ground running.

WHY JOIN KIDSTART

Policy roles in government shape what happens at scale. Programme roles in SSAs are close to the work. This role is both. KidSTART sits at the intersection of government mandate and community delivery, and the AD for Programme Development is the person who holds that tension productively. You will work on a programme that has demonstrated outcomes — studies have shown measurable improvements in parenting confidence and child socio‑emotional development within 12 months of home visits. You will have the mandate to improve it further, and the accountability to show that it works. For someone who wants to shape how Singapore supports its most vulnerable children, this is the work.