Job Opportunity for Program Officer, Strengthening Delivery Service at Gates Foundation in New Delhi

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: that people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. By building a global and cultural workplace that supports greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — together with our employees and partners, we can help all people improve their lives from poverty and health to education. As an organization we offer full healthcare premiums coverage, generous paid time off, contribution to your retirement fund, several employee communities, and a commitment to embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do.

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 is focus on innovative delivery, including an emphasis on 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, 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.

Our culture shapes our choices about what we do and how we do it. We believe that energized people, working well together, fueled by great leadership in an inclusive environment can do extraordinary things. We expect foundation employees to intentionally and consistently embody our values of optimism, collaboration, rigor, innovation and inclusion.

Our efforts are aligned with India’s objectives of improving the lives of its people – working closely with India’s Central and State governments, we partner with community groups, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, the private sector, and development organizations, to achieve our shared goals. Our strong networks and ability to convene intellectual resources from many sectors and regions of the globe allows us to address complex challenges as they emerge or evolve.

Our efforts in India focus on key issues that will affect the future of India’s most vulnerable communities: reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition; urban sanitation; agricultural development; gender equality, and digital financial inclusion (DFI).

With a particular focus on Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP), we work with partners to develop impactful and sustainable solutions to improve the quality and coverage of key services for the poor and vulnerable. We also work in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra to support programs in urban sanitation, agricultural development, gender equality, and DFI. 

Your Role

Located in New Delhi, the postholder will ensure that our programming in the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child Health and Nutrition (RMNCHN) portfolio in UP and Bihar is robust and well-positioned for the impact and sustainability we are hoping to achieve in both states. This role will involve close collaboration with technical teams and colleagues from our Family Health (FH) portfolio (Family Planning, MNCH and Nutrition) both in India and Seattle. In addition, they will use knowleddge across functions such as Health Systems Strengthening (HSS), Behavioral Insights, Advocacy, Measurement Learning and Evaluation (MLE) to design and implement a grant portfolio that is optimal for impact and sustainability.

Under the leadership of the Deputy Director – State HSS, this position will support and cultivate relevant government engagement in UP.

What You’ll Do

1. Contribute to conceptualizing articulating and shaping priorities in the foundation’s FH portfolio in UP and Bihar

• Work with the broader UP and Bihar Deal/Investment Teams, FH Team and Seattle-based Program Strategy Teams in designing and implementing the FH portfolio of investments in UP and Bihar
• Jointly accountable, with the Bihar/UP Deal/Investment Teams, for ensuring the foundation’s goals related to FH (MMR, NMR, nutritional outcomes, large scale food fortification) are met in a time-bound and sustainable manner in both states
• Manage the following workstreams in the state in close collaboration with the FH Team and Bihar/UP SPOs Health System Strengthening: a) Strengthen facility-based care/service delivery – Bihar and UP: this workstream includes activities to help optimize and activate public facility infrastructure, and interventions to improve intrapartum care and complications, quality of clinical human resources, and provision of care for vulnerable newborns; b) Strengthen last-mile and outreach services – Bihar and UP: this includes activities aimed at helping improve quality of Ante and Post Natal Care, strengthening Village Health and Nutrition Days and community-based events, and increasing access to government-funded PHC
• Contribute as a Team Member when required in additional streams/bodies of work pertaining to accelerating the National Nutrition Mission, expanding access to contraceptives through public and private channels, scaling large scale food fortification, and scaling MNCH tools and technologies
• Be the primary liaison between the FH (FP, Nutrition, MNCH) team in India and the State team: ensure that both teams are well-informed of the latest developments in each team, and well-positioned to program and communicate (internally and externally) based on the latest data
• Define and implement all workstreams highlighted above in a creative, rigorous, data-centric, and analytical manner
• Monitor and track the latest literature in FH. Adapt the UP and Bihar portfolios of FH grants based on the latest and most innovative thinking in the field.

2. Develop and manage a portfolio of grants and contracts to meet strategic objectives in FH in UP and Bihar and in consultation with State SPOs and the FH Team

• Identify and select partner institutions and shape scope and strategy for FH grants and contracts to meet strategic objectives
• Manage relationships with grantees, contractors and key partners to achieve the foundation’s desired impact, provide project briefings and updates to foundation leadership, and represent the foundation in meetings with external partners, as well as at scientific conferences and workshops.
• Review grant proposals and write proposal summaries; review interim and final reports; write final evaluation
• Apply and evaluate milestone-based performance objectives to make go/no-go decisions about specific projects and product candidates. 

3. Relationship management

• Ensure adherence to a cadence of engagement with key external partners -government, grantees and other partners
• Help ensure opportunities such as Program Coordination Committee meetings are efficiently used and are productive for the FH portfolio
• Jointly accountable with the state Deal/Investment Teams for effective engagement with all relevant internal Program Strategy Teams
• Identify and leverage emerging opportunities for increased external or internal engagement that could catalyze impact in UP. 

4. Contribute to foundation knowledge capture, evaluation, learning, and dissemination

• Keep both the India Country Office (ICO) and Seattle leadership informed of progress of both individual grants and sets of grants that aim to solve state team goals on FH
• Partner closely with the Measurement Learning and Evaluation (MLE) team to codesign the MLE framework and a coherent set of activities and grants in this space, and in response to the evidence needs of the foundation and its partners
• Partner closely with MLE and other members of the State Deal/Investment Teams to implement a cross-state learning agenda
• Synthesize and document lessons learned across all related grants and contracts; develop review materials, summaries and informative reports for team, program and foundation leadership (e.g. President, Co-Chairs and other foundation leadership) that summarize key activities, progress and issues around priority programs
• Partner with other foundation teams as required to share lessons learned and expertise. 

5. Represent the foundation and program to the external world related to position responsibilities

• Speak and participate in public events, forums and meetings
• Bring to bear opportunities to disseminate the knowledge and products developed by grantees in order to extend their impact. 

6. Organization effectiveness and culture building responsibilities

• Contribute towards making ICO a collaborative and inclusive workplace by modeling foundation Values and Behaviors
• Internalize and help embed ICO’s culture and DEI interventions in the ways of working, both internal and external. 

This position reports to the Deputy Director – State HSS, ICO.

Your Experience

We are looking for people who enjoy solving complex problems, using hypothesis – and data – driven approach and working through matrixed teaming to deliver break-through solutions.

• Masters’ degree is required. Specialization in Medicine, Health or Public Health/Policy preferred. Ideal candidate may have a PhD
• Minimum of five years’ professional experience in RMNCHN program delivery in similar contexts to Bihar and UP
• Demonstrated experience of critical and strategic thinking
• Strong technical knowledge of programming in RMNCHN, particularly in the Indian context and ideally in geographies similar to UP
• Prior experience in program strategy, design, and implementation in public health
• Demonstrated experience building and leading strategic partnerships with key partners from diverse sectors including NGOs, government, and the private sector.
• Proven success using evidence and data to inform policy, programming, and management decisions
• Strong ability to work with efficiency and diplomacy, particularly as part of a multi-disciplinary team effort. Demonstrated ability to work with diverse teams including scientists, business analysts, program implementers, and developing country partners, from various cultures, over multiple time zones. Experience working in a matrix environment preferred
• Excellent organizational skills and demonstrated ability to lead teams through a complex and ambiguous task with energy and optimism; ability to influence people without formal authority
• Demonstrated curiosity and comfort in areas beyond current areas of expertise with proven ability to rapidly acquire knowledge and implement good judgment in a variety of scientific and political areas.
• Ability to organize/prioritize work and meet deadlines within a fast-paced environment with multiple and competing demands.
• Excellent oral, facilitation, and written communication skills.
• Excellent software skills with Microsoft Office applications. Ability to quickly learn new software
• Ability to travel locally and internationally, up to 50% of the time.
• Role model for foundation values of rigor, innovation, collaboration, optimism and inclusion
• 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.
• A sense of humor 

Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Application deadline: 27 September 2022