This Senior Program Officer (SPO) reports to the ICO Deputy Director (DD) of Infectious Diseases and is dedicated to the LF elimination strategy (75%) and the VL elimination strategy (25%) in the foundation’s India Country Office (ICO). The successful candidate will work in close collaboration with the DD for infectious diseases, two other dedicated ICO NTD Program Officers (focused on Strategic Data and Analytics and Program Strategy & Management), ICO-based Program Officers representing state teams, Seattle-based Program Officers, and multiple external stakeholders including government, grantees, and development partners, to create a common vision and visualize simple and effective but implementable solutions to complex problems.
This individual will partner, develop, and manage a portfolio of grants and contracts to deliver an integrated approach to support the country’s LF and VL elimination goals. This position will have expertise in NTDs and global health challenges, senior relationship management, vision for integrated disease control and management-both across diseases. Expertise should also include experience with state health system strengthening efforts, grant-making and management skills, and program and project monitoring and evaluation. This individual will be a key advisor to GOI, with the ability to synthesize complex data to assess progress, identify root cause problems, and recommend solutions to continuously build capacity within GOI to deliver on their elimination goals.
The successful candidate will utilize a unique blend of rigorous technical expertise, strategic thinking, keen skill in partnership at all levels, and detailed attention to execution.
- Implement an integrated NTD strategy, with 75% commitment on LF and 25% commitment on VL, including developing goals for these initiatives, articulating how the foundation’s goals support the global community’s elimination efforts, identify gaps in achieving goals and collaborate such that the foundation is using its strategic advantage to close these gaps
- Be an advisor to GoI to strengthen implementation of government-owned LF and VL elimination programs
- Be a broad and open-minded strategic thinker on integration activities across diseases, across partners, and across the vertical & horizontal ecosystems
- Consult with grantees and partners to engage the public and private sectors to maximize the impact and synergy of programmatic interventions
- Work closely with the SPO for NTD Strategic Data to ensure real time utilization of programmatic data
- Consult with grantees and partners in public and private sectors to maximize the impact and synergy of and across projects and investments and to ensure optimal learning. This may include meeting high level government partners, participating in site visits, providing operational guidance, and convening meetings of key stakeholders
- Plan, manage and execute a wide range of activities in support of strategic planning, prospect and develop complex investment opportunities, grant management and external relationship management
- Review letters of inquiry and grant proposals; provide clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding, including drafting and editing proposal summaries and progress reports for existing grants for review by foundation leadership
- Lead meetings with grantees to take stock of progress and deliverables. Review progress reports and summarize developments for the both programs
- Act as an expert resource within the NTD program and as a consultative expert for other teams across the foundation as needed
- Consult with grantees to achieve desired impact of grants; conduct site visits when appropriate, provide technical guidance, convene meetings and apply and evaluate milestone-based performance objectives
- In depth knowledge of infectious diseases/NTDs; preferably at least LF, VL or both
- Successfully worked in India for a significant period; gaining an appreciation for the complexities of implementing and managing field-based programs
- Extensive experience working with governments, Ministries of Health, NGOs and Academic Institutions, as well as with regional, multi-country institutions such as WHO
- Able to think broadly across disease entities and seek synergies and integration
- Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people
- Strong understanding of shaping and managing sustainable and scalable ventures
- Understanding of strategies for automating the process of quality data collection in a variety of settings and sites
- Strong analytical, writing and verbal skills for communicating with a broad and diverse audience
- Effective as a collaborator in complex internal and external organizations
- Extensive project contribution and management experience
- Works with efficiency and diplomacy
- Proven ability to lead and influence others in a constructive manner and to build and sustain collaborative relationships
- Experience as a technical resource to teams and leadership on impact evaluation and decision analysis
- Experience in strategic planning and strategy implementation
- Program and/or project management experience; from work plan concept development to implementation
- Strong competence working within a highly matrix environment where impact is achieved through collaboration with diverse colleagues/teams as well as externally within a network of grantees and partners
- Comfortable dealing with ambiguity, and with turning ambiguity into clarity and impact
- Demonstrated ability to work with a wide variety of partners (e.g. government, development, etc.) from a diverse range of geographies, cultures, across sectors and expertise
- Ability to work in a complex team environment delivering on multiple outcomes; “leading from behind”
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to effectively synthesize information to reach diverse audiences, build consensus and be the voice/represent the foundation, including in high-level meetings
- Strong analytical skills
- Ability to travel up to 40% domestically and participate in international meetings relevant to global elimination of LF and VL