Job Opportunity for Health Systems Innovation Manager at Vihara Innovation Network in Meghalaya

Vihara is a social impact oriented organization dedicated to delivering change in the Global Health space. Over the last two decades we have done meaningful work on some of the most pressing challenges in Public Health including COVID Vaccination, Routine Immunization, Gender Equity, Family Planning, and Maternal & Child health. We have adopted a transdisciplinary approach to deliver impact on the ground, that combines the strengths of Human Centered Design, Systems Thinking, Ethnographic Research and Behavioral Science. 

Ours is a diverse team of talented individuals from backgrounds including Social and Human Sciences, Design, Management and Marketing, who are all dedicated to applying their respective specializations in creating social innovations that are holistic and impactful. We are an agile and adaptive organization that is on the lookout for enthusiastic individuals who are interested in collaboratively creating meaningful social change. Vihara is committed to incubating and upskilling promising individuals in leadership, business development, management and consultancy through rigorous skilling and training.

What you will get to work on 

Vihara Innovation Network will be working across 50 HWCs in Meghalaya to enhance the uptake of FP services among young and low parity couples.

The project is aimed at integrating gender equitable and transformative approaches to improving uptake of family planning. This will be done through purposeful inclusion of young men as equal partners in this regard and by promoting equitable collaboration between men and women across a range of areas of decision making.  

Over the course of 18 months, you will go through the full cycle of situational analysis and discovery of barriers and enablers; develop beneficiary segments or personas; and design tailored intervention strategies through rapid iterative prototyping and testing. During the course of the project, the teams will also get an opportunity to trial the suite of innovations proposed and implement them, thereby witnessing the impact created and success exhibited in shifting the outcome indicators. This is a unique opportunity for designers and researchers to run through the entire cycle of innovation and deliver impact on the ground through their efforts.

Given the nature of the opportunity and the necessary outcome based approach we are utilizing, project teams will have to be situated on-site in Meghalaya for an extended period of time. You will get a chance to work out of the very context where your design interventions will ultimately be implemented, and gather rich experience and deep insights on the local culture and health realities. 

Location: Meghalaya

Experience: 5 years (with at least 2 years of managing midsize teams)

Date of Joining: Immediately

Educational Qualifications: Bachelors or Masters Degree in Communication Design/ Systems Design/ Social Design/ Interaction Design/ User Experience Design/ Public Health/ Design Research/ Strategic Design Management

The activities you will engage in 

• Lead a multidisciplinary team with varied competencies from a technical and practical perspective towards executing the program and its work stream. Coach and upskill team members to develop a social innovation mindset and orient them towards impact generation
• Have full oversight of all activities within the project, ensure high quality of outputs, guide team members working on different elements and coordinate communications within different arms of the project team
• With the support of Project Supervisor, lead planning project timelines, managing resource availability and their reallocation in line with project budgets and demands, and other organizational requirements.
• Lead innovation and solutioning efforts within the project by tying together threads of inputs and learnings gathered from different project teams, while engaging collaboratively with clients and partners
• Steer design-led research and analysis, co-design and facilitate sense making workshops with relevant stakeholders, lead design workshops and sprints to develop practical solutions and interventions 
• Develop ecosystem maps, build systems design frameworks and produce relevant knowledge artifacts that can serve as assets for the organization beyond the duration of this project
• Act as a point of communication between the project team and other arms of the company, including business development, marketing and communications and project teams working on other similar projects to ensure that the learnings and insights from this project are channelized in ways for the company to benefit from
• Own relationships and act as the face of the company with all key stakeholders involved in the project, existing and potential clients as required

Skills you will get to exercise and build on

• Client engagement and project management skills needed to handle a complex project and a team with a range of expertise. Practical skills including time management, task delegation and prioritization
• Creative leadership and Innovative problem-solving skills for day to day management, and the ability to handle crisis situations appropriately
• Planning and time management skills to lead design teams in delivering outputs on time and within budget
• Written and verbal communication skills including fluency in English to be able to articulate learnings and insights to a range of audiences within and beyond the organization 
• Agile working–the ability to rapidly adapt and align the team to changing ground realities, client requirements and project priorities. 

If you have prior experience of working across RMNCH+A, you’re already at the top of our shortlist

What we love to see in candidates 

• Adaptability and flexibility within reasonable limits in order to make timely and relevant contributions in the rapidly transforming vaccine delivery space
• Proactive ownership of responsibilities and the willingness to learn from failures. Vihara encourages individuals to initiate and lead, and provides support in whatever form needed
• Curiosity and openness to learn how different disciplines approach the same problem and an enthusiasm to collaborate with others
• Outcome and impact orientedness in one’s approach to design and research. Vihara is a growing organization that is committed to delivering outcomes rather than just insights