Senior Programme Manager, Public Health Emergencies & Pandemics

Position title:    Senior Programme Manager, Public Health Emergencies and Pandemics
Contract type / duration:    5-year fixed-term contract
Location:    Geneva
Department:    Vaccine Programmes and Markets (VPM)
Team:    Global Health Security (GHS)
Reports To:    Head, Public Health Emergencies and Pandemics (PHE&P)
N° of positions supervised (if applicable):    N/A
Career Step:    4 

1. About the Role:
The Senior Programme Manager sits within the Public Health Emergencies and Pandemics (PHE&P) sub-team of the Global Health Security (GHS) team in Gavi’s Vaccine Programmes and Markets function. The role works closely with internal teams across the Secretariat and with key external partners including WHO, UNICEF, Africa CDC, and affected countries. The team’s core mission is to ensure Gavi is prepared for, and can rapidly and effectively respond to, vaccine preventable public health emergencies and pandemics, by enabling timely funding decisions, access to vaccines, and support to countries for delivery.

2. Key Responsibilities:

• Triage and provide timely alerts and escalation on emerging and evolving public health threats relevant to Gavi, leveraging information from partners and internally to support early awareness and leadership decision-making. Maintain and advance information sharing agreements with core partners, including WHO and UNICEF.
• Lead development of rapid assessments and recommendation to inform funding decisions and operational responses under Gavi mechanisms, such as the First Response Fund and the Gavi Resilience Mechanism, including integrating inputs from internal teams, partners, and affected countries. Refine assessment templates, eligibility and review criteria and ways of working to ensure fit-for-purpose and as streamlined as possible. 
• Coordinate cross-Secretariat response efforts during active emergencies, convening internal workstreams, clarifying roles, strategic and operational priorities and aligning teams and partners toward rapid and effective operationalisation of Gavi’s response. 
• Drive operational delivery of Gavi’s emergency responses, coordinating and supporting efficient approval, disbursements, and implementation of outbreak and emergency support via relevant response mechanisms (working in close collaboration with key internal teams, such as country delivery, grant management, resource mobilization, market shaping and others). 
• Represent Gavi in cross-partner coordination fora (such as IMSTs, key working groups) during active responses, contributing to discussions and decisions on supply, allocation, funding, and strategic coordination in collaboration partners. 
• Support surge capacity and operational adaptability during scaled emergency responses, including contributing to onboarding and coordination of time limited surge resources where required.
• Strengthen preparedness and response systems by leading the refinement of tools, guidance, operating procedures, and partnership approaches that support Gavi’s “Gavi Ready” agenda, aligned with Gavi’s comparative advantages. 
• Partnerships: Lead partnerships with certain teams internally (such as Country Delivery) and with select external partners (in collaboration with other PHE&P team members). Support the ongoing refinement of Gavi’s GHS partnership strategy. 
• Generate and use evidence, monitoring, and learning to inform real-time decision-making, manage risk, and support continuous improvement of Gavi’s global health security and pandemic response approach. Coordinate routine reporting and generate analyses for Gavi’s governance bodies and leadership.  

Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not limited only to the tasks listed and may include other duties as assigned.

3. Your Experience and Skills:

Experience

• Typically 8–12 years of relevant professional experience in global health at national, regional, or global level. This includes several years of direct involvement in outbreak, epidemic, or pandemic preparedness and response, with experience operating at national or sub national level in countries. 
• The role requires experience operating in complex, multi stakeholder emergency response environments and familiarity with vaccine related programmes. Exposure to funding, operational, or delivery decision making during public health emergencies is expected.

Education and qualifications:
Essential:

• Advanced university degree in medicine, public health, development, economics, politics, or a related field. 
• Master’s degree in public health or another field directly relevant to global health security (e.g. epidemiology).

Languages:

• Essential: Fluency in written and spoken English.
• Preferred: Fluency in French

Technical and functional skills 
Must-Have: 

• Outbreak and pandemic preparedness and response expertise (technical, advanced): applying public health and emergency response frameworks in real world settings.
• Vaccine value chain knowledge (technical, working to advanced): understanding vaccines from development through supply, allocation, and delivery.
• Public health programming and grant management (technical, working knowledge): contributing to programme design, funding decisions, and implementation oversight.
• Rapid assessment and analytical synthesis (functional, advanced): integrating multi source inputs, generating quality analyses to produce clear recommendations under time pressure.
• Stakeholder coordination in complex environments (functional, advanced): convening and aligning global, regional, and country actors during emergencies.
• Operational delivery in crisis contexts (functional, advanced): steering time bound, high stakes approval, funding, and implementation processes through established systems and procedures.

Good to have:

• Monitoring, evaluation, and learning in emergency contexts (technical/functional, working knowledge).
• Familiarity with innovative financing mechanisms (technical, working knowledge).

4. How You Work (Behaviours and Mindsets)

• Operate with sound judgment and accountability, with a pragmatic mind-set in fast moving, high risk, and ambiguous situations. 
• Build trust based relationships and collaborate effectively across functions, organisations, and cultures. 
• Work respectfully, demonstrating diplomatic skills, and solid political and cultural awareness consistent with Gavi’s values to be successful in an international and multi-cultural environment and engage sensitively with a wide range of stakeholders, including implementing countries, humanitarian and civil society organisations, and regional and global partners.
• Communicate clearly, translating complex information into actionable guidance for decision makers. 
• Demonstrate adaptability and resilience, shifting between preparedness and response modes as required. 
• Work with a high degree of independence and ownership, maintaining focus on impact, delivery, and continuous improvement while knowing when to escalate or seek alignment.
• Strategic mindset – thoughtful of both near-term needs, tasks and priorities as well as longer-term horizon challenges that need to be identified, planned for and ultimately addressed.