The Senior Program Officer will work as part of the Develop and Scale (D&S) team within the Foundation’s Vaccine Delivery group. The D&S team focuses on identifying promising practices, policies, and/or products that can help reach more people with vaccines, evaluating the potential for impact, and determining or demonstrating the factors necessary for sustainable success at system level scale.
The Senior Program Officer will contribute to establishing the approaches for evaluating various practices, policies and products as well as lead efforts to demonstrate and evaluate these at scale. In addition, the position will include working to refine and/or develop the policy and adoption pathways required to move to scale. S/he will also be expected to lead stakeholder engagement and develop effective relationships with relevant Government health officials, grantees, and global partners such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and others to disseminate what’s learned and position these approaches for broader implementation. The position may include management responsibilities as well, depending on the candidate and the needs of the team.
- Develop methodologies for identifying and evaluating practices, policies, and products that can help reach more people with vaccines and reduce vaccine preventable morbidity and mortality
- Apply the methodologies to promising areas including large scale (state/national level) demonstrations to determine the enabling factors for sustainable success
- Systematically evaluate practices, policies, and products and synthesize enabling factors such as policies, financing, context, etc. that are critical for success at scale. This will include understanding and promoting the appropriate use of qualitative, quantitative, and modeled approaches of program and financial data.
- Contribute to developing the policy pathway framework needed to endorse successful practices and approaches
- Identify and utilize expert resources on various immunization practices, policies, and products as well as the systematic approach for evaluating them
- Manage a team of program officers and other staff
- Plan, execute, manage, and track a portfolio of grants in support of the teams’ work
- Consult with grantees and partners to achieve desired impact of grants, conduct site visits, provide technical guidance, convene meetings, and apply and evaluate milestone-based performance objectives
- Manage internal processes and portfolio progress while ensuring appropriate documentation, grant budgeting, and reporting
Reports to Deputy Director, Develop and Scale team within the Vaccine Delivery group
- 10+ years professional experience in a health-related field with at least five years spent working in developing countries
- Strong base of knowledge gained through in-country experience of health program delivery especially through the public sector - immunization program experience and knowledge is desirable
- Demonstrated skill in drawing on expert resources
- Familiarity with global health organizations such as Gavi, UNICEF, and WHO highly advantageous
- Excellent analytic, writing, and oral communication skills
- Proven history of rapidly learning new technical areas. Proven ability to work with technical counterparts at global and local level.
- Experience in complex organizations and/or complex working environments
- Demonstrated ability to influence peers and partners and move groups towards a common objective
- Skilled communicator with ability to prioritize multiple projects and efforts simultaneously. Highly-organized and efficient.
- Demonstrated initiative to solve unstructured problems with limited oversight, high energy, and persistence. Not afraid to explore different options for problem solving.
- Ability to develop solid working relationships at high levels quickly and strong evidence of success in effective working relationships even in complex environments
- Very strong representational and negotiation skills. Able to operate with and influence senior colleagues internally and externally with ease.
- Experience successfully managing a team
- Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally
As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices.
All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve the mission of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to:
- Race
- Color
- Age
- Religion
- Pregnancy
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
- Disability
- Gender Identity
- Gender Expression
- National Origin
- Genetic Information
- Veteran Status
- Marital Status
- Prior Protected Activity