The Interim Senior Program Officer, HIV Prevention, is a member of the HIV Delivery team within the broader TB and HIV Teams in Global Health. This position will be directly responsible for overseeing the Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) portfolio which is currently undergoing a strategic shift to focus on sustainability and programmatic resilience. The Interim SPO will be responsible for making and managing investments across Eastern and Southern Africa as well as to global normative agencies such as the WHO.
The Interim SPO will be responsible for continued operationalizing the VMMC sustainability strategy, combining traditional health systems strengthening approaches with more innovative behavioral science, market research, human-centered design, organizational development and change management, and systems mapping methods often used in private sector. The role will oversee an integrated portfolio of multiple investments and will be ensure these investments and partners are well-coordinated and aligned with a common goal of local capacity building and ownership as well as strong community engagement. In addition, lessons from the VMMC work should inform the broader set of activities in primary HIV prevention.
In addition to the VMMC portfolio management, the interim SPO is expected to manage relationships with global stakeholders including PEPFAR, CDC/USAID, WHO, UNAIDS, and others.
Interim SPO, HIV Prevention (VMMC Portfolio)
- Responsibilities include execution of the foundation’s HIV strategy in sub-Saharan countries with a specific focus on VMMC and HIV prevention. Focus countries include South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya along with some regional support and potential expansion to Malawi.
- Directly manage and lead the VMMC sustainability portfolio where the foundation is focused on designing and implementing approaches leading to greater programmatic resilience in the long term.
- Develop and closely manage investments with a wide variety of partners across several disciplines bringing together traditional public health approaches with innovative methods in behavioral science, market research, and human-centered design.
- Write background documents, briefs, and presentations, including relevant literature reviews, landscape analyses, and data analysis based on internal needs for portfolio/grant progress reporting and/or new grant development.
- Participate in initiative meetings as a contributing member of the team across various bodies of work providing lessons and insights.
- Routinely engage with HIV delivery team and leadership on portfolio progress, grant and goal updates, and key events or activities.
- Represent the foundation on donor coordinating meetings or other committees, task teams, as they relate to the VMMC and/or HIV prevention bodies of work.
- Supervise consultants that support country-level operations.
Zimbabwe HIV Country Lead
- Serve as the HIV country lead for all HIV investments in Zimbabwe. Primary responsibilities will be direct oversight and engagement on VMMC investments, but the role will also be the main point of contact for the foundation’s TB and HIV Team on HIV-related issues with the Zimbabwean government, local PEPFAR team, and other local partners such as implementers and normative agencies. This includes coordinating investments across HIV initiatives and partners, providing input to investment development and management outside of VMMC, and ensuring facilitation and engagement to socialize investments with government as needed.
- Serve as a partner and resource to members of the TB and HIV Team to facilitate accomplishment of goals and objectives, and on the development and management of grants in Zimbabwe.
Participant in Demand-side Working Group
- Serve as a member of the demand-side working group attending and participating in monthly / bi-monthly meetings and supporting activities where possible.
Required:
- Successfully worked in developing countries for a significant period; gaining an appreciation for the complexities of implementing and managing field-based programs. Significant preference for experience in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.
- Experience working with governments (e.g. African governments), Ministries of Health, NGOs and Academic Institutions, as well as with regional, multi-country institutions such as WHO.
- Proven ability to lead and influence others in a constructive manner and to build and sustain collaborative relationships.
- Program and/or project management skills/experience; from work plan concept development to implementation with strong organizational and prioritization skills.
- 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.
- 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 internal and external meetings
- Ability to travel up to 30% (mainly sub-Saharan Africa).
Preferred:
- Experience in health systems strengthening, integration of vertical programs, and/or transition to sustainability highly desirable. Particular focus on sustainable government capacity building and/or organizational change a plus.
- Understanding and/or experience in behavioral sciences, social marketing, behavior change, market research, and/or human-centered design.
- In depth knowledge of HIV treatment and prevention.
- Competence working within a diverse network of grantees and partners that have complementary projects or scopes of work to achieve an outcome.
- Experience in strategic planning and strategy implementation.