The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

We are change agents driven by our mission. We have an entrepreneurial and action-oriented culture. We work in cooperation with and at the service of partner governments to achieve ambitious and lasting results for their people. We engage a diverse staff expertise that goes beyond traditional public health and often apply approaches from the private sector.

ABOUT CHAI’S VACCINES PROGRAM

Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools available to save lives and keep people healthy and productive. Immunization is one of the most successful public health interventions in history. National immunization programs reach >100 million infants every year and have, across the globe, averted more than two million deaths every year since the launch of the Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI).

However, despite these successes, 1.5 million children still die each year of vaccine-preventable diseases. Many of these deaths occur in low-income countries, where immunization programs face unprecedented challenges (e.g., access to vaccines and ensuring vaccines reach all targeted people). On the bright side, advances in the development and financing of new vaccines provide great opportunities to tackle diseases and mortality through vaccine prevention.

Since 2010, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) has worked to save lives and reduce the burden of vaccine preventable diseases by improving coverage of immunization services in resource-limited settings. CHAI not only strengthens immunization systems but does so with an eye to make them a stronger backbone for primary health care. CHAI achieves this by working to strengthen national immunization programs in >12 countries, by shaping relevant global markets, and by improving the global immunization ecosystem.

CHAI is seeking an exceptionally dynamic and effective leader to shape the future of our Global Vaccines Delivery program and the dozens of national immunization programs around the world it supports. We are looking for an individual who can harness the dramatic growth our team has experienced in recent years and adapt our work to maximize impact in light of new strategic priorities, particularly the Covid-19 pandemic.

ABOUT THIS ROLE

The Director, Programs will be one of the senior leaders of CHAI’s Global Vaccines Delivery program, working closely with the Senior Director for Global Vaccines Delivery and the Director, Country Support. The Director will lead and directly manage a cohort of technical managers (who themselves manage individual technical teams) as well as the associative programmatic portfolio. This portfolio includes five critical goals:

1. Accelerating the uptake of new or under-utilized vaccines;
2. Enhancing the performance of vaccine cold chain and logistics systems to increase effective immunization coverage;
3. Improving the design and implementation of service delivery to reach the unreached;
4. Supporting financial and programmatic sustainability of immunization programs, notably when they transition from Gavi support; and
5. Strengthening the management system and capacity of immunization programs.

The Director, Programs will shape and steer the execution of CHAI’s vaccines strategies across >12 countries in Africa and Asia, providing strategic guidance to ~30 CHAI staff on the Global Vaccines Delivery team and >150 CHAI staff across CHAI country teams. The Director will move between, for example, creatively solving specific bottlenecks to vaccine access in a country in Africa, to engaging global partners and donors such as Gavi and the Gates Foundation on improving the global immunization space.

BASE LOCATION

Base location is flexible, with a strong preference for one of CHAI’s Vaccine Program focus countries in Africa or Asia, pursuant to CHAI country team leadership approval.

To successfully undertake this role, we require an exceptional leader, people manager, and strategic thinker who can lead and grow technical managers, as well as nurture CHAI’s Global Vaccines Delivery team (~30p) to foster a high-performance, high-growth culture and effectively engage a range of teams and individuals across CHAI and its partners. Key responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to:

1) Develop the Global Vaccines Delivery Program through activities including:

• Develop an ambitious, actionable programmatic strategy, with global and country level components, that will drive dramatic impact on immunization outcomes and the underlying health systems;
• Provide both high-level strategic direction and guidance on programmatic challenges and day-to-day management in the planning and execution of programmatic initiatives
• Spearhead, in collaboration with senior leadership colleagues, fundraising and grant development to ensure full funding of CHAI’s strategy;
• Cultivate strong relationships with key external stakeholders (e.g., Gavi, BMGF, WHO, UNICEF) to significantly leverage the impact of CHAI’s direct work and identify other promising partnerships.

2) Lead a high-performing team of global technical managers, including:

• Develop, support and manage an exceptional team of technical managers, enabling them to grow rapidly and deliver strong results, as individuals and as a team;
• Work with technical managers to set program direction and goals, defining targets and measuring program performance
• Lead technical managers in driving a culture of accountability and data-driven learning: regularly assess progress against objectives, identify risks, and drive creative problem solving to resolve issues.

3) Provide senior leadership to CHAI’s overall vaccine work through strong internal coordination, including: 

• Steer effective collaboration across the Global Vaccines Delivery team, notably across technical teams and between technical and regional managers, as well as with other relevant CHAI program teams (e.g., vaccines markets, health financing, global health sciences);
• Collaborate closely with the Director, Country Support to ensure strong engagement of CHAI’s country team management with vaccine technical programs;
• Develop and drive implementation of initiatives to improve the effectiveness of the Global Vaccines Delivery program and its team (notably in the context of a much increased size and level of complexity);
• Represent CHAI and communicate internal strategy and results to major organizational partners and donors
• Oversee administrative activities related to the programs, including closely liaising with team leadership to manage overall program budget, logistics, and Human Resources

• Education and Experience: Bachelor's degree (Masters-level or above preferred) in a relevant field and minimum 10 years of work experience in fast-paced, demanding environments
• Exceptional Strategic Capacity, including:
  • Excellent strategic thinking/mindset with the ability to design and drive effective long term strategies across various complex and ambiguous (country) settings;
  • Excellent problem-solving, analytical and project management skills; highly developed strategic perspective with a simultaneous ability to focus on the details;
  • Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot and achieve maximum impact and efficiency with limited human and financial resources;
  • Ability to work strategically and effectively in a high-pressure environment with high level of ambiguity and unstructured problems.
• Excellent people and team management, including:
  • Excellent team management and development skills with a good eye for people development/coaching of managers;
  • Excellent inter-personal and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively in a multi-cultural and often remote environment;
  • Demonstrated ability to build, strengthen and leverage complex and nuanced stakeholder relationships (internal and external)
• Team Culture and Leadership:
  • Ability to work collaboratively as part of a larger management team, in the context of a growing or fast-changing team;
  • Comfortability within a complex, matrixed team with multiple layers of management;
  • Entrepreneurial and result-oriented mindset- including the ability to self-motivate, propose and drive implementation of new initiatives;
  • Exceptional communication skills with ability to diplomatically and clearly communicate complex ideas with well-developed structure and logic;
  • Ability to lead as a team player, mentor and manager, demanding top performance from self and in partnership with the entire team;
  • Strong commitment to CHAI’s and the team’s mission;
• Ability to travel extensively (~35% of time) to focus countries and other locations as needed for work

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