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

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

CHAI’s global malaria program provides direct technical and operational support to countries around the globe to strengthen their malaria programs and reduce the burden of this preventable, treatable disease. We support governments to scale up effective interventions for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance, with the goals of sustainably reducing the number of malaria-related illnesses and deaths worldwide in the short-term and accelerating progress towards malaria elimination in the long term.

Technology plays a key role in achieving these objectives. Building strong information systems can substantially reduce the time taken to collect and access data, improve data quality, and reduce redundancies in parallel data collection systems. Availability of higher quality information enables programs to target and tailor their programs and use resources more effectively. CHAI’s malaria and NTDs program applies digital tools and systems to support effective decision-making through streamlining data collection and reporting, integrating data sources, and generating automated analyses, visualizations, and presentation of data in simple and actionable forms.

Overview of Role:

CHAI is seeking a highly motivated and mission-driven individual to drive health informatics strategies and activities across all Francophone CHAI Global Malaria & NTDs program countries in Africa in the areas of malaria, NTDs, public health campaigns (e.g. bed net distributions, mass drug administrations, immunizations), and geo-spatial data management. They will work with CHAI staff to build in-country capacity at the CHAI and government levels on the application of information technology for data collection, management, analysis, and use. This will include strategic direction on context-appropriate architecture, technologies, and use cases; operational support on the thoughtful design, development, implementation, modification, and maintenance of potentially complex and diverse surveillance platforms; leading training initiatives on the deployment and use of technology solutions for data management and use; and helping staff use and gain confidence with health information technology solutions on an ongoing basis with the end goal of improving data quality, access and use.

The Technical Advisor will focus on all Francophone (Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Benin) CHAI program countries and work closely with other CHAI technical teams focused on malaria, NTDs and public health campaigns. The Technical Advisor will also work closely with external institutions including technology companies, academic partners, the WHO, and government technical bodies working on malaria and NTDs. 

A successful candidate will need to possess strong communication, organizational, and management skills,  and be able to work effectively with team members across CHAI’s Global, Regional and Country Malaria and NTDs teams. They must exhibit a passion for results, a commitment to excellence, a willingness to provide mentorship and hands-on support to one direct report, team members, and stakeholders with different workstreams, and possess the capacity to facilitate high-level strategic discussions with a multi-cultural, multidisciplinary set of actors. The candidate will also cultivate relevant relationships with partners including technology companies, academic institutes, the WHO, and government technical bodies to drive the execution of programs, stay abreast of emerging technologies, and ensure strong capacity and transition of systems to government programs. CHAI places great value on the following qualities in its staff: resourcefulness, responsibility, patience, tenacity, humility, independence, energy, and work ethic.

This position will report to the Health Informatics Senior Technical Advisor, Africa.

Across countries and projects, the Technical Advisor will have the following responsibilities:

Regional Strategy and Scoping (20%)

• Lead scoping Lead scoping activities on health technology solutions to further malaria and NTDs control and elimination, public health campaign digitization, and geo-spatial data management including the mapping of existing digital health systems, information flows, infrastructure, stakeholders and partner projects in select countries
• Serve as a thought leader for regional and country level digital strategies and approaches; provide input into regional and country workplans; provide technical guidance and input on donor proposals
• Establish and cultivate relationships with other CHAI teams and in-country partners working on technology, data, and/or surveillance work, to inform CHAI activities, guide country strategies, and collaborate with stakeholders to achieve program objectives
• Work with Ministry of Health programs, regional CHAI technical advisors, and CHAI country team members to understand requirements for surveillance use cases, including the monitoring of epidemiology, vectors, data quality, case management and the impact of interventions such as vector control and mass drug administration campaigns
• Advise on strategies for collecting, reporting, storing, cleaning, and analyzing data, and for producing accessible automated data outputs for routine decision-making in the form of dashboards, reports and bulletins that speak to key data needs
• Cultivate strong digital health leadership, capacity, and policies in focus countries to advance surveillance and campaign digitization goals

Technology Project Management and Support (30%)

• Develop and document coherent and technology-appropriate software and hardware specifications for meeting user requirements across countries and regions (including DHIS2-appropriate specifications) for user workflows, data collection forms, dashboards, systems integrations, and other platform components as needed, in line with programmatic objectives and data use needs
• Play a translational role in communicating technical approaches, user requirements and software/hardware specifications to non-technical staff within CHAI management and ministries of health
• Select, liaise with and manage sub-contractors to build and configure applications and integrations (including DHIS2) according to the defined requirements and timelines; manage internal CHAI developers to ensure technical oversight of sub-contractors and contribute to discrete deliverables as needed
• Create and manage detailed project plans with Ministry of Health programs and CHAI regional and country teams, including governance structures, timelines, product management processes, and communication mechanisms to progressively design, develop, and test systems and mobile tools; pro-actively ensure projects are progressing and are aligned with broader programmatic end goals
• Manage ongoing tracking and prioritization of software development activities. Proactively manage changes in project scope, identify potential challenges and roadblocks, and develop contingency plans
• Problem solve technical challenges in meeting programmatic objectives, including management of developers, challenges in technical design and architecture, and in integrations
• Test developer outputs and provide regular feedback on bugs and functionally to ensure solutions are being developed according to specifications
• Assist in the configuration of data collection, management, reporting tools as needed (DHIS2, ODK, MS Access, Excel), including user-friendly dashboards

Technology Implementation and Training (25%)

• Develop system roll-out plans and support system installation and device set-up ahead of implementation
• Assist with capacity building for government staff by developing manuals, SOPs, training materials; help train global, country and program staff in the use of information technology
• Help cultivate a culture of data-use within malaria programs by monitoring and strengthening the quality of data inputs, refining analytical outputs, and developing context-appropriate strategies to strengthen the usage and analysis of data by government programs
• Work actively and closely with CHAI teams and government stakeholders to design and implement M&E plans to routinely assess the performance of digital solutions, as part of broader program M&E plans
• Develop and implement system transition plans to ensure sustainability of both technology and supporting processes

People Management (20%)

• Directly manage Health Informatics associates dedicated to supporting technology projects across the region
• Onboard, develop and mentor direct report; provide guidance, constructive feedback, and implement strategies to troubleshoot areas of weakness.

Knowledge Management (5%)

• Manage and develop resources, guidelines, and other material to provide guidance to and share lessons across teams
• Contribute to both internal and external dissemination of CHAI’s work through webinars, conferences, publications, and other relevant forums

Technical Skills

• Fluency in both French and English required
• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field (information systems, computer science); Master’s degree preferred
• At least five years’ working experience as a business analyst, product manager, technical project manager, or in a similar role working closely with stakeholders to define and deliver business requirements for technology initiatives.
• Proven experience managing large-scale technology implementations with a high user base and multiple involved stakeholders; experience working with government stakeholders preferred
• Proven experience in leading the planning, design, testing and implementation of technology-based solutions across the full software delivery lifecycle, preferably for disease surveillance
• Experience providing clear guidance and recommendations to non-technical stakeholders on context-appropriate technology solutions, processes, and operational considerations; ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical users
• Understanding of disease surveillance (including surveillance platforms) with knowledge of global health issues; DHIS2 knowledge strongly preferred
• Familiarity with emerging technologies for data collection and reporting; comfort with developing basic data collection forms and reports such as ODK strongly preferred
• Familiarity with emerging technologies for web or mobile application development for data visualization and analysis
• Experience in data management (including managing databases) and data analysis
• High levels of proficiency in Access, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Leadership and Interpersonal Skills

• Experience working in an international context and/or entrepreneurial environment
• Ability to think strategically and anticipate future consequences and trends
• Ability to work well both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Experience managing and mentoring junior staff
• Strong work ethic, integrity, credibility, and dedication to CHAI’s mission
• Ability to be effective, calm, and flexible in high-pressure situations, to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and to effectively prioritize
• Ability to communicate effectively with people of varied professional and cultural backgrounds.
• Exceptional written, oral, and interpersonal skills
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 30-50% of the year

Advantages

• DHIS2 and/or OpenLMIS configuration experience
• Visualization software experience (Tableau, PowerBI)
• GIS knowledge
• Software languages: SQL, JavaScript, html
• Knowledge of malaria or other global infectious diseases
• Experience working and communicating with government officials and multilateral organizations
• Prior experience managing direct reports

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