The Technical Advisor, Newborn Health, is responsible for providing technical and programmatic expertise to help develop, guide, and implement Save the Children’s newborn health program. The incumbent will be a core member of Save’s newborn health team in the Department of Global Health and will engage as a technical expert in both global- and country-level newborn health initiatives and programs. The incumbent will provide leadership, guidance, and inputs related to newborn health, including proposal and new business development; technical guidance and support to country teams to introduce, implement, and scale up newborn interventions in existing health systems; help to develop and execute monitoring and evaluation plans; systematically document program learning and lead or collaborate in program-based research; and develop dissemination products to share key results and learning. S/he will work in collaboration with other key stakeholders in newborn and maternal health including research institutions, professional associations and academic entities, international development partners, and host country governments. S/he will also provide technical assistance and support to ensure that state-of-the-art newborn survival and health evidence is implemented in Save the Children International’s health programs (per the Saving Newborn Lives (SNL) Common Approach, adopted in 2017).
Technical leadership and expertise for SC newborn health programs and member country initiatives (50%)
- Provide hands-on technical assistance to Save (DGH) countries in strategy and program development, focusing on technical content and approaches that lead to increased coverage, use, and quality of high impact newborn health interventions at scale.
- Under the SNL Director, provide strategic guidance on newborn health programming in SC
- Provide technical expertise within the Save the Children/U.S DGH, and in support of Save the Children International’s adoption, implementation, monitoring, and dissemination of the Saving Newborn Lives Common Approach.
- Provide technical assistance to country teams and partners in identifying, planning, designing and evaluating introduction and/or implementation of innovative technologies and delivery approaches to improve newborn survival and health at scale.
- Provide technical inputs and oversight for research and innovation activities; including technical and ethical review of research proposals as required, technical monitoring of research implementation, including research design and protocol, conducting site visits, and participating in or reviewing analysis approaches, conclusions, and publications.
- Provide technical expertise representing Save in policy, program, and research dialogue with key international organizations (eg, WHO, UNICEF) and host-country counterparts, and in technical discussions and collaboration with key stakeholders and partners (eg, USAID) engaged in newborn health.
- Assist the monitoring and evaluation teams in designing, implementing, and synthesizing the findings of Maternal & Newborn Health (MNH) projects led by DGH, SCI, and partners.
Mobilizes public and private resources (30%)
- Collaborates and develops long-term funding strategies for SC’s technical and programming priorities in newborn health
- Plays leadership role with SC US and country offices in identification, development and submission of quality proposals in MNH.
- Provide technical inputs in new proposal conceptualization, development, review, and feedback, including bilateral bids, solicited proposals by donors, etc)
Leads program learning and innovation specific to newborn health and in collaboration with other SC Departments and SCI (20%)
- Assist the knowledge management teams in identifying important technical content for dissemination activities, and help ensure the technical integrity and accuracy of information in publications and reports produced by Save.
- Utilize research results and program learning to inform and influence key stakeholders and partners on important technical and policy issues affecting newborn health.
- Assist in building SCI global capacity in newborn health (e.g., online platforms such as webinars).
- Minimum of 7-10 years' experience in area of expertise
- At least 5 years’ experience working in a developing country, preferably in Africa or Asia, on health programs.
- Ability to think critically and strategically
- Excellent writing and communication skills in English required; proficiency in other language(s) (eg, French) high desired
- Ability to travel up to 30 percent time, primarily internationally.
Preferred Qualifications
- Medical degree or other appropriate clinical background (eg, midwife), preferably with experience in pediatrics and/or newborn health
- MPH or equivalent highly desired
- Experience working in maternal/newborn/child health (MNCH) programs strongly preferred.
- Experience in applying technical expertise for advocacy and in using results to inform programming highly desired.
- Recognized technical expertise in MNCH as demonstrated by participation in global networks and forums, presentations at technical meetings, authoring peer-reviewed publications) highly desired
- Experience in public health research highly desired
- Meaningful work, with a knowledge that you are changing the lives of children all around the world
- A family friendly work environment
- Highly collaborative and innovative teams
- Generous paid vacation days, holidays, family leave days, and sick time
- Healthcare plans including medical, dental, and life insurance
- Retirement savings account with matching company contributions
- Structured and formalized management development and coaching programs for mid and senior level managers
- Extensive e-learning opportunities on a variety of topics offered through our affiliation with several prestigious universities as well as language learning opportunities