The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The Global Development Program includes a diverse range of program areas aimed at finding creative ways to ensure solutions and products get into the hands of people in low-income countries who need them most. We focus on areas with the potential for high-impact, sustainable solutions that can reach millions of people. Our program strategies include Emergency Response; Family Planning; Maternal Newborn & Child Health; Nutrition; Polio Eradication. A common theme across these programs focuses on innovative delivery, emphasizing strengthening primary health care systems. The Global Development Program also encompasses our India Country Office and Africa Team, with physical offices in Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, Senegal, Kenya, and Abuja. Our Program Strategy Teams work in close partnership with these Country Office Teams to align the foundation’s health and development equity agenda with the government’s broader priorities.

Application Deadline: 8/5/2024

Your Role

We are seeking an experienced, French-speaking professional to serve as a Senior Program Officer for Health and Innovation, Africa. The primary purpose of the Senior Program Officer, Health, Africa is to conceive, develop, and lead a complex portfolio of grants to support regional bodies and countries’ health system strengthening efforts across the continent, in alignment with the foundation Africa approved strategy.

In alignment with the Africa strategy, SPO Health and Innovation will develop and manage a portfolio of complex grants and contracts requiring high-level grant management skills, monitoring, and evaluation.

The SPO. Health will partner with teams across several foundation divisions to deliver a “coordinated” one-foundation approach to solve health challenges on the continent. Externally, the SPO will engage with regional, national, and provincial health authorities to support health system strengthening, service delivery, and innovation adoption. The SPO will also collaborate with other key development partners in Africa and represent the foundation with external partners such as universities, think tanks, and NGOs and may serve on external boards and committees.

This role reports to the Deputy Director of Health Delivery Systems, Africa and the position will be based in Senegal, Dakar.

What You’ll Do

• The Senior Program Officer will:
• Co-develop and implement strategies that will lead to improvements in Health service in selected foundation engagement countries in Africa, under the leadership of the Deputy Director Health systems Africa, and in partnership with other regional health staff, Seattle-based Program Strategy Teams (PSTs, mainly the Global Delivery Program) and the Global Policy and Advocacy (GPA) team.
• Work with other members of BMGF’s Africa health team, Global Delivery Programs, and partners to develop and implement BMGF’s priority areas for delivering quality health services in Africa. This will include completing the approved BMGF strategy to advance health service delivery through different building blocks such as finance, workforce, supplies, data, service delivery, and boosting community demand for services.
• Design and implement complex, performance-based contracts/grants with partners. Monitor and evaluate the quality and progress of grants/contracts. Maintain high-quality interactions and oversight of grantees, providing course correction as needed.
• Work closely with colleagues in BMGF Africa offices on specific areas such as HIV and TB, malaria and other infectious diseases, routine immunization, maternal, newborn, and child health, family planning, gender, and other areas of priority to the foundation, to find connections points, thoughtful Integration opportunities and strategic alignment across vertical diseases areas to strengthen health service delivery in places that we work on the continent.
• Work with others to stimulate and facilitate innovation adoption for increasing health service coverage and quality of services.
• Collaborate with foundation colleagues supporting global-level initiatives (GAVI, GFF, GFATM) and support the optimization of their efforts in foundation engagement in Africa.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with government and other institutional partners including academia, and private sector NGOs, ensuring clear and consistent communication and representing the foundation as required.
• Help to ensure coherence in implementing health programming across the African continent. Provide advice to PSTs and regional teams in introducing new tools and delivery approaches that improve health programming from a systems perspective.
• Represent the Deputy Director of Health Systems in Africa when needed in internal and external meetings.
• Contribute to writing background documents, briefs, articles, and presentations, including relevant literature reviews, landscape analyses, and data analysis; organize and prepare for high-level foundation leadership trips.
• Lead internal processes and work on cross-foundation activities important to our health programming in Africa, including the design of new strategies, collaborations, and implementation plans to ensure sustainability/impact.

Your Experience

The foundation is seeking an expert in health system strengthening and Innovation.

The ideal candidate should have:

• A Ph.D., MD, or equivalent in a related field is required.
• Minimum 10 years of directly related professional experience managing or implementing health programs in the francophone region of Africa, with a strong focus on health systems strengthening.
• Full professional proficiency in FRENCH is mandatory, with excellent oral, facilitation, and written communication skills in English, able to effectively synthesize information to reach diverse audiences and build consensus.
• Experience in integration across disease areas and/or optimizing global levels efforts to support long-lasting health systems strengthening
• Experience in managing complex delivery of health programs, with evidence of achievement of significant results whether directly or indirectly influenced.
• Demonstrated experience working in cross-team programs and proven track record of adapting to a fast-paced environment and the networking and coalition-building demands of a highly matrixed organization.
• Significant experience working closely with partners to achieve health goals, including governments in developing countries, bilateral and multilateral donors; implementing agencies; non-governmental organizations; think tanks; and academic institutions.
• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared/joint objectives, both internally and externally. Ability to orchestrate effective decisions across a broad range of issues and stakeholders, assess progress, analyze gaps, and make necessary changes.
• Strategic Approach: Proactively conceive future possibilities and opportunities and translate them into strategies, concrete theories of change, and actions. Ability to think/act like an investor and a creative and generative thinker. Innovative and open-minded approach; ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners constructively.
• Manages complexity and ambiguity effectively: Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems – especially in managing relations (with sensitivity across barriers such as language, culture, and distance and in a politically demanding environment.)
• Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, fast-paced environment both in Africa and at headquarters.
• Commitment to the foundation’s core values, mission, and programs with an approach that is consistent with the foundation’s guiding principles and holding self to the highest ethical standards.

Other Attributes

• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
• Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.
• Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements