Deadline: 13 August, 2023

Location: Abuja, Nigeria 

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is seeking to fill the role of Senior Programme Officer, Child Survival. 

The foundation is a global nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity.

Responsibilities

• Co-develop strategies and implementation plans that will lead to accelerated scale-up of project and improvements in child survival in Nigeria and other selected countries in West and Central Africa
• Oversee detailed targeting and micro-planning
• Identify, negotiate, implement and monitor complex, performance-based contracts/grants to accelerate increase in child health outcomes
• Manage partnerships and grantee relationships to ensure learning and impact
• Work closely with the Nigerian federal and state governments and other West and Central African governments and implementing agencies
• Manage grants and relationships at the country level to support early rollout of such strategies including the development of a local evidence base for appropriate policy development and scale-up
• Serve as a senior technical resource on new and emerging interventions for child survival, connecting international research and scientific expertise with national child survival and mortality reduction policy and priorities
• Liaise with Seattle-based research and product development teams to ensure research and product development strategies within Nigeria are tailored to the local context
• Engage a broad range of partners and decision-makers working on delivery of clinical services for child survival, either in primary health clinical care settings or through mass delivery platforms such as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), supplementary immunisation activities (SIAs), child health weeks, etc
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration of partners across states and countries
• Contribute to writing background documents, briefs, articles, and presentations, including relevant literature reviews, landscape and data analyses
• Organise and prepare for high-level foundation leadership trips
• Represent the foundation at key platforms 
• Play a liaison and advisory role with different Seattle-based global health, gender equality and global development teams, the NCO and the Africa regional office on investments aimed to optimise equitable coverage, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness for specific clinical services and tools
• Collaborate with foundation colleagues in related programme areas to take advantage of cross-sector grant-making opportunities
• Carry out any other activities to support the foundation’s strategy

Requirements

• Advanced degree in Medicine, Public Health, Health Economics, Public Policy or a similar  field with eight years, minimum, of proven experience in public health service delivery management in African settings
• Five years, minimum, of experience in a low-income country context, or equivalent experience, in managing clinical service delivery programmes at scale
• Experience may also include work in academia, government, management consulting, other foundations, pharmaceutical or research institutions, with a preference for a regional African experience
• Experience providing advice to governments, donors, implementing agencies, and other national-level partners in developing countries.
• Experience in implementation of child health interventions through mass-delivery platforms 
• In-depth understanding of the Nigerian health system 
• In-depth experience in broader public health with a strong development orientation backed by excellent management capabilities
• Experience in integration across disease areas and/or integrating health and ‘non-health’ interventions will be a plus
• Experience in managing complex delivery of health programnes, with evidence of achievement of significant results, whether directly or indirectly influenced
• Ability to collaborate and build partnerships and work collaboratively with others to meet shared/joint objectives, both internally and externally
• Ability to orchestrate effective decisions across a broad range of issues and partners, assess progress, analyse gaps, and make necessary changes
• Strategic approach, including the ability to scan future possibilities and translate them into strategies, concrete theories of change and actions
• Ability to think/act like an investor and a creative and generative thinker
• Innovative and open-minded approach
• Ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners in a constructive manner
• Ability to manage complexity and ambiguity effectively, including making sense of complex, high quantity and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems – especially in managing relations
• Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, fast-paced environment, both in Nigeria and headquarters (Seattle)
• Ability to communicate effectively, including developing and delivering communications that convey complex situations in a clear and concise manner with a broad and diverse audience
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Fluency in English
• Fluency in French is an asset
• Ability to travel up to 40 percent domestically and internationally

To apply and for more information, click here.

Photo source: Marc Smith