Program Officer, Market Shaping at Results for Development (R4D)

• R4D seeks a highly motivated and dynamic Senior Program Associate to play a key role in the Market Shaping Practice to support the quantitative and qualitative market analysis and solution development for projects focused on expanding access to maternal nutrition commodities and maternal, newborn, and child health commodities. The Senior Program Associate is vital in conducting research, testing hypotheses, generating solutions, and engaging with global and country stakeholders.

If that work ignites your imagination, we’d love to tell you more and explore how we can work together!

Practice:

• The Market Shaping practice (MSP) is dedicated to transforming access to, and improving appropriate use of, essential and life-saving products in a holistic and sustainable manner. We develop, iterate on, and support catalytic implementation of long-lasting solutions at the global and country levels to address challenges identified by country partners and backed by rigorous analyses. Using practical and business-driven approaches -- from increasing market transparency around the number of potential users, to improving demand forecasting, to developing purchasing and value chain strategies, to crafting cost-effectiveness and financing gap analyses -- our work ensures that the markets for life-improving goods operate with improved efficiency, and that utilization of those goods increases.
• We’ve applied our expertise to achieve more than a billion dollars in savings in countries and supported improved access to high-quality products in health, nutrition, and education markets.
• Some of our projects include increasing access to childhood pneumonia treatments through iterative market shaping approaches in support of government leadership and in close collaboration with partners and other key market actors in several high-burden countries, including Ethiopia and Tanzania; transforming markets for maternal, newborn, and child health medicines and devices across five Sub-Saharan African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda), identifying underlying market challenges and opportunities to address severe acute malnutrition; partnering with the Government of Ethiopia to establish and support the Quantification and Market Shaping Directorate to spearhead country-owed and -led market shaping investment in the public health system. You can explore more of our current and previous projects here.

Opportunity:

• Results for Development (R4D) is seeking a highly motivated and dynamic Program Officer to provide technical support to the Market Shaping Practice’s global work in Maternal Newborn and Child Health and Nutrition products. As a Senior Program Associate, you will help to conduct high-quality research and analysis for new and ongoing projects to support efforts towards identifying holistic barriers in markets, generating evidence, and designing creative solutions to address identified barriers related to products that address maternal and child wasting including but not limited to microbiome-directed ready to use therapeutic food, balanced energy protein supplements and small quantity- lipid-based nutrient supplements. As part of all this work, you will help to manage new and existing stakeholder relationships at both the country and global levels across the public and private sectors, and effectively communicate our approach and impact.
• A successful Market Shaping PO will be highly motivated and passionate about our projects; a creative problem-solver; have strong analytical, communication, and collaboration skills; and have a commitment to excellence and producing results. Our team is resourceful, responsible, tenacious, mission-driven, and always has a positive attitude. We hope that you value these traits as much as we do!

Responsibilities

• Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
• Lead qualitative and quantitative research and analysis to identify market barriers to product introduction or scale up,
• Design of solutions via hypothesis-driven approach to develop recommendations for global and country level stakeholders,
• Develop analytic and written deliverables that synthesize information effectively and communicate key findings and policy recommendations from research and analyses to internal and external audiences,
• Develop and execute project workplans and activities in a high-quality and timely manner,
• Engage with a wide range of domestic and international stakeholders,
• Work with a multi-cultural team based across R4D offices and focus geographies,
• Develop knowledge management and communication strategies to promote the dissemination and uptake of our work,
• Support business development efforts (in collaboration with market shaping team members and across R4D teams) to mobilize resources to finance new opportunities for impact

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with 5 years’ relevant work experience OR Master’s degree with 3 years’s relevant work experience in public health, economics, international development, business, or other related field of study
• Public, non-profit, or private sector experience in health commodity supply, quantification, procurement, distribution, financing, or regulation preferred, but not required
• Experience working (or supporting work) in LMICs (Low and Middle Income Countries) preferred, but not required
• Genuinely passionate about markets-based approaches to drive sustainable impact
• Demonstrated track record of analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, and independently developing analytical products
• Ability to think and solve problems in a structured and logical manner
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders in multicultural environments
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to develop compelling presentations and written reports
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively as part of a geographically disbursed team, including working across a wide range of time zones, and deliver high-quality results within a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Willingness to periodically travel domestically and internationally, per project need
• Fluency in oral and written English.