The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The Global Development (GD) Division includes a diverse range of program areas aimed at finding creative ways to ensure solutions and products get into the hands of people in low-income countries who need them most. We focus on areas with the potential for high-impact, sustainable solutions that can reach millions of people. The GD Division encompasses our India Country Office and the Africa Team, with physical offices in Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, Abuja, and Nairobi.

The Global Health Agencies & Funds (GHAF) team leads the strategic relationships and drives the engagements on governance, strategy, operational effectiveness and programmatic impact with key global health institutions (GHIs): UNICEF, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria (Global Fund), UNITAID, and through the Islamic Development Bank’s Lives & Livelihoods Fund, and through the World Bank, the Global Financing Facility (GFF), Anchor Trust Fund (ATF) and Pandemic Fund. We engage with leaders of these institutions, participate in governance through membership on boards and committees and in advisory groups, and make investments to improve the operational effectiveness of the institutions and the impact of their programs. While many teams within the foundation work with these GHIs, the GHAF team specifically works to:

1. Bring deep knowledge of the strategic, governance, operational and programmatic approaches of and across the GHIs to inform foundation strategies and engagements;

2. Drive internal alignment on foundation-wide strategic priorities, objectives, outcomes, and accountabilities with these GHIs; and

3. Increase the strategic coherence across the GHIs on priorities for the wider foundation through cross-institutional strategies for topics like product access, introduction, and scale (PAIS) and surveillance.

Your Role

The global architecture for disease surveillance is fragmented: characterized by vertical surveillance systems at the global and regional levels that lack common goals and definitions, and verticalized funding at national level. The latter often inhibits integration that could better leverage existing resources across disease surveillance needs and is particularly damaging in a pandemic. Our vision is a global architecture with a common goal of collaborative surveillance where countries have the surveillance tools they need for timely, accurate information for public health decision-making, and where global data system norms and standards facilitate information integration nationally, regionally, and globally.

To advance this vision, the foundation plans to support the development of global data norms and standards, to facilitate information sharing at national, regional and global levels; leverage global funding streams to better support collaborative disease surveillance at country level; enhance support for National Public Health Institutes and Ministries of Health, and will include efforts that focus on strengthening sample registration systems and integrated sero-surveillance and environmental surveillance.

We are seeking an experienced professional to serve as a Senior Program Officer (SPO), Surveillance. The SPO will collaborate with external partners, mainly WHO and Global Fund, and will also work internally with other foundation surveillance counterparts on coordinating collaborative surveillance efforts across vertical disease teams at the foundation (e.g., Malaria, Polio, Immunization, HIV/TB). The postholder will serve as a key liaison for GHAF across multiple foundation teams, including the African Regional Office (ARO); Pneumonia & Pandemic Preparedness (PPP); Enterics, Diagnostics, Genomics and Epidemiology (EDGE); and Global Policy and Advocacy (GPA). The SPO will support the development of a strategy within and across GHIs to improve the impact of surveillance. This will include engagement at a strategic and operational level and development and management of investments that support collaborative disease surveillance in alignment with foundation priorities.

The postholder reports to the Deputy Director, Health Product Access & Agencies, GHAF, and may be based at the foundation’s office in London or in another foundation office location (e.g. Seattle, Washington DC) deemed more appropriate at the time of hire.

What You'll Do

The selected candidate will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Steer the foundation’s support around Collaborative Disease Surveillance efforts across WHO, including collaboration with the WHO Berlin Hub.

• Lead foundation’s engagement with the Global Fund on disease surveillance, including the support for collaborative surveillance and investments.

• Support WHO, Global Fund and other GHI efforts to provide normative guidance on collaborative surveillance, staffing required, and technical assistance needed, particularly at regional and country levels, to strengthen collaborative surveillance.

• Provide advice to and collaborate with the foundation’s Africa Team and program strategy teams on opportunities with GHI to support disease surveillance.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with institutional partners and governments, ensuring clear and consistent communication and representing the foundation as required.

• Provide input into work on cross-foundation activities important to our disease surveillance programming in Africa, including the development of implementation plans to ensure impact.

• Work with internal foundation teams, including co-development of investments, such as PPP, EDGE, GPA, ARO, and vertical disease teams to advance the foundation’s priorities on collaborative disease surveillance.

• Design, execute, monitor, and assess complex, performance-based contracts/grants with consultants and grantees.

• Maintain high-quality interactions and oversight of grantees and consultants, providing course correction.

• Contribute to writing background documents, briefs, articles, and presentations, including relevant literature reviews, landscape analyses, and data analysis; organize and prepare for high-level foundation leadership trips.

• Participate and learn from team, division and foundation Gender, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion efforts.

• Other special projects as assigned.

Your Experience

We are looking for a senior level professional with deep technical and sector expertise coordinating surveillance efforts for low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) across GHIs. Additionally, we seek:

• An advanced degree in public health, global health, epidemiology, or similar fields (e.g. MSPH, MPH, MD, PhD), with demonstrated experience in disease surveillance and global health.

• Significant experience working closely with partners to achieve health goals, including bilateral and multilateral donors and agencies (especially WHO and Global Fund); governments in LMIC (especially countries within Africa); implementing agencies; non-governmental organizations; think tanks; academic institutions.

• Professional experience managing or implementing complex disease surveillance programs and strategies, and/or providing technical cooperation to national surveillance programs in emerging economies (preferably in Africa), including supporting bilateral and multilateral fund flows to LMIC governments.

• Experience navigating complex relationships between multiple governmental, non-governmental and private sector partners, with tact and diplomacy.

• Excellent written and oral communications skills and experience communicating with broad and diverse audiences. Ability to communicate in French and/or Portuguese will be an advantage.

• Demonstrated experience working in cross-team programs and proven track record to adapt to a fast-paced environment and the networking and coalition-building demands of a highly matrixed organization. Ability to influence without authority.

• Ability to see ahead to future possibilities, understand political economy, and develop strategies, concrete theories of change and actions taking these things into consideration.

• Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, fast-paced environment.

Other Attributes

• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behaviour with a diverse range of people and a deep commitment to development issues and high standards of personal integrity.

• Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.

Application deadline: 8 June 2024

Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

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Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission 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, and prior protected activity.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/) works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.