Jobs at Palladium Group

Project Overview and Role:

Data.FI is a five-year global project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support the HIV and COVID-19 response. Data.FI partners with programs to accelerate and sustain access to high-quality data to expedite HIV and COVID-19 epidemic control and maintenance. By improving global, regional, national, and community/local in-depth analyses of HIV and COVID-19 epidemiologic and programmatic data, Data.FI expedites program achievements to improve client services and attain and sustain control of the epidemics. Data.FI supports host country governments to enhance existing health information systems (HIS), informing management responses to gaps in programming and sustaining impact by supporting local partner transition.

Purpose of Position 

Palladium/Data.FI is seeking to engage a skilled Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Specialist to join the QA team to ensure the functional readiness of software products for release. The SQA Specialist will be responsible for developing and implementing requisite technical quality assurance metrics, standards, and guidelines for software products, and working with the technical leadership in determining requisite technical quality thresholds and compliance requirements for project applications.

The specialist will be responsible for evaluating software functions and designing test protocols to ensure that products work as intended and meet internal and global digital standards. (S)he will be responsible for completing all testing procedures, suggesting performance changes, preparing performance reports, interfacing with end users to ascertain areas of improvement, and evaluating technical infrastructure for security issues and automation solutions. 

The Software QA Specialist will report to the Informatics Advisor.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Developing and spearheading compliance to software quality guidelines and standards.
• Automating end-to-end test scenarios for applications.
• Meeting with software development teams to discuss software specifications and controls.
• Designing manual and automated test procedures to evaluate each software product.
• Building, coding and implementing software evaluation test programs.
• Conducting software audits and providing feedback and recommendations for improvement to meet technical standards.
• Automating code testing procedures.
• Running test programs to ensure that testing protocols evaluate the software correctly.
• Tweaking the software testing systems for maximum performance.
• Finalizing and documenting testing procedures.
• Supporting technical documentation of software products as part of quality assurance before release.
• Completing final tests and creating test reports.
• Suggest software fixes.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a similar field.  
• Minimum 2 years of proven work experience as a software test engineer.
• In-depth knowledge of program testing software e.g., selenium/cypress.
• Advanced knowledge of debugging codes and software development languages e.g., Java.
• Advanced knowledge of software design and engineering.
• Experience working in an Agile/Scrum development process.
• Experience working with popular operating systems, including Windows and Linux.
• Ability to design and write complex software testing procedures.
• Ability to collate data and compile test reports.
• Strong attention to detail and understanding of architectural dependencies.
• Ability to coordinate and balance priorities of multiple projects and deliverables.
• Experience in health digital standards will be an added advantage.
• Experience in technical documentation will be an added advantage.

go to method of application »

Project Overview and Role:

In April 2019, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the implementation of the Translating Data for Implementation (Data.FI) cooperative agreement to a consortium led by Palladium. Data.FI is a $180 million, 5-year project which will serve as USAID's primary mechanism for data, technology, and health information systems to support HIV activities across strategic President's Emergency Program for AIDSRelief (PEPFAR) countries as part of a suite of large-scale global HIV programs representing the next generation of HIV/AIDS programs. The project will play a key role in USAID's goals of helping partner countries on their journey to self-reliance and transitioning local organizations to prime recipients of US Government funding. 

The project's overall goal is to improve in-depth global, regional, and national analyses of HIV epidemiologic and program data that can be directly applied to expedite the achievement of PEPFAR targets to attain and sustain control of the HIV epidemic.  The focus also includes directly supporting host country governments and implementing partners to enhance existing health information system platforms further to inform management responses to well-defined HIV/AIDS programming gaps.  To ensure rapid access to high-quality data, Data.FI is working towards accelerating data utilization to rapidly course-correct and take to scale cost-effective and impactful activities, models, and approaches required to attain and maintain HIV epidemic control; scaling and optimizing in-country health information system capabilities to collect, exchange, adapt, govern, and visualize information to track the attainment and maintenance of HIV epidemic control, and supporting the transition of prime funding and implementation to capable local partners.

Purpose of Position

Palladium is seeking a Strategic Information (SI) Associate to continue to support USAID and Data.FI Nigeria SI teams and in collaboration with PEPFAR service delivery implementing partners (IPs), the  National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), and relevant Akwa Ibom State Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (the State Ministry of Health, Akwa Ibom State for the Control of AIDS (SACA), State AIDS and STDs Control Programme (SASCP), State Ministry of Women Affairs) leverage weekly PEPFAR high-frequency reporting (HFR) data to support control of the HIV epidemic in the state.

The SI Associate will work with the Data.FI Nigeria Senior Data Use Advisor and SASCP to implement a field-based strategy to create regular forums for sharing achievements and challenges with stakeholders and generate analysis at the state level for key priority indicators, by promoting peer exchange and problem-solving. The Associate will report to the Senior Data Use Advisor

 Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Provide technical support to PEPFAR HFR and optimal use of the automated partner performance (APPR) platform      at the state level; facilitate of access across hierarchies.
• Support SASCP and the State Ministry of Health in institutionalization and implementation of the HIV/AIDS         program  situation  room; standardizing the data review approach across the state local government areas,     partners,  and other stakeholders.
• Support implementation of weekly data reviews for rapid action methodology at the state level and across     hierarchies.
• Support implementation of a unified data use strategy and data review guidelines
• Conduct data collection and collation at the state level
• Working with the Senior Data Use Advisor, support IPs to facilitate and support HFR processes to identify barriers     to data use and generate solutions to address those barriers. 
• Support documentation of best practices and development of data use cases at the state level. 
• Implement data quality strategies and activities at the state level and other hierarchies as advised.
• Conduct regular analysis and reviews of state-level performance on key priority indicators. 
• Work with stakeholders (IPs and State agencies) to develop, disseminate, and monitor the implementation of data      utilization plans.
• Any other duties assigned per the dynamic programming environment. 

Required Qualifications:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Statistics, Health Informatics, Computer Science, Monitoring and Evaluation     or  a related field. 
• At least five years’ experience working with health management information systems or routine health information   systems.
• Experience working with HIV/AIDS and OVC programs, including DHIS 2 preferred.
• Skills in data analysis with proficiency in a statistical package i.e. Stata, SPSS, advanced excel, or Business   Intelligence applications. 
• Previous experience conducting State/LGA, and facility data assessments and data reviews. 
• Working knowledge of patient-level and aggregate data management systems.  
• Ability to work well under pressure, skills in crisis management and problem solving.
• Excellent written and verbal skills in English; ability to communicate technical information to audiences with varying   levels of technical expertise.