Technical Advisor, Leadership, Governance, and Financing

Overview

Background:  

Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) is a US-based, global public health organization with a mission to prevent 100 million deaths from heart disease and to make the world safer from epidemics. To find out more about our work, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org

Resolve to Save Lives’ Prevent Epidemics program works closely with Ministries of Health and national public health institutes in Africa to strengthen epidemic preparedness capacity, accelerate disease detection and response, and to use data effectively to inform action. In addition to direct partnership with governments, we also work with implementing partners including US CDC, the World Health Organization, World Bank, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator to implement programs, prototype new innovations, and ensure sustainability through increased national ownership, including domestic budget allocations.

Our Leadership, Governance, and Financing (LGF) team amplifies these efforts by concentrating on enhancing program management capabilities across vital public sector institutions. Our evidence-based approach highlights that effective epidemic response is intrinsically tied to cross-sectoral partnerships, national and sub-national coordination, community engagement, and ongoing strengthening of public health systems. To that end, we partner closely with national and sub-national teams in countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda through a range of different staffing and partnership models. We empower these institutions to embrace strategic management practices, institute consistent quality improvement protocols, and cultivate an environment conducive to epidemic preparedness. One of our primary interventions is to fund and support dedicated in-house preparedness units, known as “Acceleration Teams.” With a commitment to connect, simplify, and scale proven approaches, we create opportunities for shared learning, support, and collaboration across country teams to elevate their experiences and inform regional and global initiatives.

Position Summary:

The Technical Advisor will contribute program management and capacity development expertise to enable the adoption and scale of program management approaches to accelerate, simplify and strengthen epidemic preparedness. This individual will support the training design, delivery, and evaluation of the Program Management for Epidemic Preparedness (PMEP) initiative to bolster country peer exchange and capacity development. This includes providing technical, operational and leadership support to countries in partnership with RTSL’s public health, financing, legislation and advocacy experts. In addition, the individual will engage with country, regional and global partners to identify and scale strategic solutions, lessons and best practices through guidance, tools and other knowledge products.

This is a full-time employment position for a period of two years with the possibility or renewal or extension. The incumbent is expected to work remotely in GMT or US EST time zones. This position requires international travel. The typical salary range for this role in the US is $98,000 – $115,000. The exact offer will be determined by a variety of factors such as the candidate’s individual skills and experience relative to the requirements of the role. Outside the US, salaries are set according to national labor rates for the international NGO sector.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

The Technical Advisor works under the direction of the Senior Advisor within the Global Partnerships and Capacity Development sub-unit in the Leadership, Governance and Financing (LGF) team.  The individual will work collaboratively with the other members of the team and the broader Prevent Epidemics unit and be responsible for duties including but not limited to the following:

Capacity development and technical assistance

• Support the development and facilitation of PMEP training and tools along with other strategic learning initiatives that enable technical (health systems and health security) and organizational (program management and leadership) capabilities.
• Deliver strategic accompaniment (i.e., participatory problem solving, coaching, just-in-time training) to government leaders of low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries as well as other participants of RTSL capacity development initiatives.
• Support government leaders of LMIC countries to facilitate efficient assessment (e.g., JEE, SPAR, risk assessments, emergency response reviews) and planning exercises (e.g., strategic and operational NAPHS development) and adopt in-country accountability and performance tracking processes and tools that result in quality deliverables and stakeholder ownership.

Solutions design and quality improvement

• Partner with regional and global partners (e.g., WHO, Global Fund, US CDC, World Bank) to enhance the awareness, adoption, and application of best practices in NAPHS implementation and related frameworks and tools, such as IHR MEF approaches, WHO Benchmarks, and the WHO Early Action Review based on the 7-1-7 target.
• Leverage human-centered design approaches to support the development and adoption of program management and quality improvement tools and approaches (e.g., prioritization, bottleneck analysis, implementation tracking and accountability) to simplify, streamline and accelerate IHR and NAPHS implementation.
• Document lessons and identify high-yield mechanisms to amplify best practice

Project and resource management

• Align assigned projects with complementary technical activities across Prevent Epidemics to develop cohesive and compelling technical packages that achieve program goals.
• Manage assigned consultants or program budget to advance LGF initiatives.
• Deliver clear and strategic reports to senior management and partners on various initiatives.

Required Qualifications:

Education:

• Master’s degree in a health or international development-related field

Experience:

• 8+ years’ work experience in public health, global development, healthcare, or a relevant field
• 5+ years’ experience working within or closely with government in low or middle-income countries.
• Experience working with or within multilateral organizations (e.g., WHO, World Bank).
• Experience applying and advising on public health topics and organizational (e.g., program management and leadership, quality improvement) practices to improve institutional performance and implementation.
• Experience in the design, delivery and evaluation of high-quality training programs, applying best practices in adult learning and behavior change theory.
• Can facilitate and engage various types of audiences (e.g., technical and non-technical, small and large groups) and design clear agenda, curricula and training packages.
• Can effectively use participatory human-centered design methodologies to design, prototype, test and scale solutions.
• Can support use of data analytics and visualization to aid decision-making using relevant tools (e.g., spreadsheets, data visualization apps).Strong leadership, communication, and project management skills
• Have clear and responsive verbal and written communications in English.
• Good at organizing workflows, timelines and paying attention to essential details.
• Skilled at using internal communication and project management tools (e.g., Microsoft suite, Monday.com or equivalent)
• Can demonstrate empathy, humility and good judgement when working across cultures.
• Able to coach and partner with leaders in low- and middle-income countries.
• Skilled at asking for, receiving, and integrating feedback from different perspectives.
• Have a resilient attitude; energized about navigating complexity, paradox, or ambiguity.
• Enthusiastic and skilled at growing personal knowledge and skills in new issue areas.

Preferred (not required) qualifications

• Experience working in multiple regions
• Proficiency in French, Portuguese, Arabic or other languages
• Project/program management and quality improvement experience, training, or credentials (e.g., PMP, Lean, Agile, Six Sigma)
• Experience managing (e.g., collaborating with vendors and consultants) multimedia, communication or design projects and cultivating learning platforms (e.g., online courses and management systems)

Other

• Able to work remotely during US East Coast standard work hours, periodically convene in-person for team meetings and travel up to 20% of the time at mutually agreed times.

 

RTSL accepts and reviews applications on an ongoing basis. We are grateful for your interest in our work and for your application. Unfortunately, due to the volume of applications typically received, we can only reply to shortlisted candidates.