Program Director at Clinton Health Access Initiative

Scope of Work

• Over the past few years, CHAI has expanded the scope of our work to include access to high-quality treatment for malaria, new vaccines, and essential treatments for common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea and pneumonia.
• CHAI has also increasingly supported governments to build the capacity required for high-quality health care and treatment programs.  Currently, CHAI partners with governments in more than 25 countries while more than 70 countries directly benefit from the low-priced drugs and diagnostic test agreements that CHAI has negotiated.
• CHAI has been working in the vaccine space in Nigeria since 2011. Currently, our work focuses on supporting the Government of Nigeria to strengthen the health systems, successfully transition from Gavi support, introduce new vaccines with an aim to increase the coverage rates of all routine vaccines.
• CHAI Nigeria is seeking to hire a Program Director for the Vaccines program to provide strategic, technical and political leadership for the program and to drive program expansion within the context of Nigeria’s strategic direction for PHC while sustaining high coverage of RI services and achieving transformational impact.
• The primary objective of this position will be to build, maintain, and update CHAI’s vaccines supply-and demand-side strategy, lead Government engagement, and collaborate with a range of internal and external stakeholders to design and implement strategies to ensure sufficient supply and utilization of vaccines within the context of strengthening PHC. In doing so, the Director will develop strong relationships with global and country teams within CHAI, as well as with donors, multilateral and other international partner organization and key opinion leaders.
• We are seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial individual with outstanding problem-solving ability and communication skills. The Director must be able to manage a small number of direct reports, function independently, and have a strong commitment to excellence. CHAI places great value on relevant personal qualities: resourcefulness, humility, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy, and work ethic.
• The Program Director will be based in Abuja, with some travel.

Responsibilities

• Oversee all aspects of CHAI Nigeria’s Vaccines program including program development and implementation, planning, budgeting, monitoring and reporting;
• Develop and implement adequate program management systems and structures to ensure optimal, high-impact program outcomes;
• Work with Program Managers to set program direction and goals, defining targets and measuring program performance across several focus states and multiple funding streams while establishing aggressive operational milestones and achieving program objectives;
• Ensure transparency of results for the Vaccines program (including financial performance) based on an effective monitoring and evaluation system, and ensure timely reporting of results to Donors;
• Oversee administrative activities related to the Vaccines program, including closely liaising with the CHAI Nigeria Deputy Country Director to manage overall program related logistics, and Human Resources;
• Raise CHAI’s profile in the relevant Government agencies at National and State level by serving as a senior counsel to leaders within the Ministry of Health and NPHCDA while simultaneously guiding a broad coalition of stakeholders towards an aligned programmatic approach;
• Engage and manage relationships with senior leaders in other partner organizations in Nigeria to identify and pursue new opportunities and innovative solutions to accelerate new vaccines introduction and strengthen RI services
• Proactively identify and pursue new funding opportunities for the vaccines program
• Represent CHAI to major donors and external partners
• Work with the CHAI Global Vaccines Team to ensure alignment of Nigeria’s program goals and objectives with CHAI’s overall Vaccines strategy and ensure prioritization of Nigeria in global conversations
• Support the development of junior members of the team to at national and state levels to drive activities across diverse workstreams to achieve results within tight timelines;
• Any other task as requested by the Country Director.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 12-15 years work experience, ideally in consulting, investment banking, or drug development; Medical, MBA or other relevant public health graduate degree is an added advantage
• Experience working in health development within complex Government systems and navigating bureaucratic processes; Experience working in a national program on Immunization will be an added advantage
• Exceptional analytical (qualitative and quantitative) and communication (written and verbal) skills
• Entrepreneurial mindset, including ability to work independently, self-motivate, and propose and implement new initiatives
• Proven program management skills, based on several years of experience in strategic, operational, and/or financial management of complex, multi-stakeholder programs/projects;
• Exceptional diplomatic and interpersonal skills, and an ability to communicate effectively and build durable relationships with people of varied professional and cultural backgrounds
• Strong desire to work in a fast-paced, limited-structure, high-pressure, multicultural environment
• Ability to work with humility and not seek personal credit for the work or contributions, even where credit is due; commitment to ensuring our government partner is the owner of our work together;
• Ability to absorb and synthesize a broad range of information, including financial, regulatory, clinical and scientific information