Senior Advisor, Newborn Health - Reproductive Maternal Newborn and Child Health at Save The Children

Save the Children seeks a Senior Advisor, Newborn Health for an upcoming USAID-funded health program in Nigeria. The program will focus on reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) and nutrition and will be implemented at least initially in northern Nigeria.

The Senior Advisor, in collaboration with state and Local Government Area (LGA) Ministry of Health (MOH) leadership and the RMNCH team, will provide strategic direction and technical management for the planning and implementation of newborn health interventions at the facility and community level in project states.

Responsibilities:

• Provide programmatic leadership and guide priority setting for newborn health interventions in project states in collaboration with state and LGA MOH leadership and the project RMNCH team.
• Ensure that project, state, and LGA newborn interventions are technically sound, evidence-based, integrated with maternal care and PMTCT, responsive to needs at both the facility and community level, and aligned with national policies and strategies.
• Develop implementation plan and annual and quarterly work plans in collaboration with the Technical Director and RMNCH team.
• Strengthen or contribute to the development of state and LGA annual and quarterly implementation plans in partnership with state and LGA MOH leaders and in collaboration with the Project Technical Director and RMNCH team.
• Assist in state and LGA assessment of training needs and together with MOH staff provide technical support and oversight to newborn health service provision including trainings and follow-up supportive supervision.
• Liaise with relevant FMOH and Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA) focal persons and participate in selected national forum and technical working groups.
• Mentor project and state and LGA staff as appropriate.
• Guide the analysis, synthesis, lessons learned, and reporting of newborn health outputs and results in close collaboration with the state, LGA and project M&E team, and incorporation into quality improvement processes and other ongoing project tasks.

Qualifications:

• Neonatologist, pediatrician, medical doctor, or midwife with a master’s degree in public health or a similar field.
• At least 10 years of direct experience in newborn health policy development, program planning, implementation and evaluation.
• Prior experience working with Nigeria’s public health system.
• Prior experience working with USAID funded projects highly preferred.
• Demonstrated management, coordination, teamwork, and planning skills, with proven ability to liaise effectively with and collaborate with a range of key stakeholders, including national and local officials, public, private and civil society partners, and communities.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to work effectively with a diverse team.
• Strong training, mentoring, coaching and interpersonal skills, including supportive supervision.
• Computer literacy in the following: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook.
• Fluency in English required; fluency in Hausa preferred.
• Willingness to travel extensively, and potentially live in northern Nigeria.