Senior Technical Advisor, Pandemic Preparedness Accelerator Initiative

Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) is a global not-for-profit organization with a mission to prevent 100 million deaths from heart disease and to make the world safer from epidemics. We are led by Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2017, Resolve to Save Lives has partnered with low- and middle-income country governments, multi-lateral agencies, academic and other civil society partners, and communities to build capacity for and support implementation of enabling policies and effective programs to treat and control hypertension, reduce sodium intake, eliminate artificial trans fat, and strengthen systems to prevent, detect and respond to epidemic threats. To find out more about our work, visit: https://www.resolvetosavelives.org.

We believe our programs are strengthened when they are developed and supported by individuals with diverse life experiences, whose understanding of social and cultural issues can help make our work and workforce more inclusive. We encourage applications from and provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Resolve to Save Lives complies with all applicable US EEO laws.

Position summary:

RTSL seeks a Senior Technical Advisor for its Pandemic Preparedness Accelerator (PPA) initiative. PPA is a newly established initiative to pilot and innovate approaches to rapid quality improvement for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and support the global rollout of the 7-1-7 timeliness approach (https://resolvetosavelives.org/prevent-epidemics/7-1-7-early-disease-detection). The PPA will serve as a vehicle for countries, bilateral and philanthropic donors, and technical partners interested in advancing the use of RQI approaches to improve the global detection of and response to public health threats. Led by country partners and supported by RTSL, the PPA consortium will partner with countries to accelerate adoption of the 7-1-7 timeliness approach to inform rapid quality improvement of early detection and early response functions.

The PPA will form a technical secretariat hosted by RTSL for an initial 5-year period. During this initial project period, the PPA will focus on alliance building with countries, network creation, partnership development, implementation, and learning, with the goal of building the capacity of institutions at country level to address health security capacity gaps based on functional assessments. The approach will be adaptive and contribute to existing IHR ME (2005) monitoring and evaluation framework tools including the Joint External Evaluation, National Action Plan for Health Security and After-Action Review processes. In collaboration with partners, the PPA will establish a common learning agenda, offer technical assistance, support, and guidance to implement the 7-1-7 approach, as well as establish and run a rapid quality improvement grant program to support countries to address bottlenecks identified using the 7-1-7 metrics implement improvement measures.

The Senior Technical Advisor reports to the PPA Project Director and is responsible for providing technical guidance, mentorship, and support to country partners to plan and implement the 7-1-7 approach for performance improvement. The Senior Technical Advisor will also lead and support the coordination of the partnership networks and communities of practice to share expertise and learning. This full-time, remote position is for a fixed term of two years, with the possibility of renewal. The incumbent will be expected to convene periodically for in-person team meetings and to work during East Coast core working hours. The salary range for this role in the US is $118,000 to $132,000; outside the US, salaries are set according to national labor rates for the international NGO sector.

Core duties and responsibilities:

Technical guidance and oversight

• Support the development, implementation, and monitoring of 7-1-7 projects for epidemic preparedness and response by providing both remote and in-person technical assistance and project management support.
• Guide strategy for contextual adaptation of the 7-1-7 framework and the use of data for decision-making to improve the detection and response of public health threats.
• Liaise directly with teams implementing 7-1-7 activities to ensure efficient and effective data collection, analysis, and use for decision-making.
• Lead the development and improvement of tools, resources, and guidelines for implementation of 7-1-7 for rapid quality improvement.
• Coordinate the production of regular situational updates and thematic briefs for use by policymakers and technical teams related to 7-1-7 activities.
• Convene and facilitate communities of practices with country and technical partners to promote insight and shared learning.
• Support the development of materials that disseminate outputs of 7-1-7 implementation, including development of briefs, presentations, publications, and other technical documents,
• Provide surge support to the global Prevent Epidemics teams if/as requested.
• Work as the intermediary between subject matter experts in the Prevent Epidemics team and the advisory group and requests for support from countries.
• Support broader Prevent Epidemic initiatives including research, monitoring and evaluation of PPA activities.
• Participate in other RTSL activities as needed.

Grants coordination

• Provide technical reviews of grant applications from countries interested in accessing PPA funding to implement 7-1-7 for performance improvement or address bottlenecks identified through 7-1-7 implementation
• Support grant monitoring by routinely reviewing implementation progress and proactively identifying when technical support or other outreach to grantees is beneficial to improve program implementation
• Work closely with the Senior Program Finance Manager and country partners to develop budgets and monitor financial reports

Required Qualifications:

Experience and education

• 10+ years of experience in public health practice, with at least 5 years of experience working globally on programs in low- and middle-income countries
• Master’s degree or higher in public health, epidemiology, or a related field; or a medical degree

Skills and abilities

• Deep experience using data for decision-making and performance improvement
• Expertise in surveillance and outbreak response systems, processes, and workflows
• Experience applying quality/performance improvement approaches to improve global health programs
• Experience leading multi-stakeholder technical groups; demonstrated virtual and in-person activity facilitation skills are highly desirable
• Experience engaging and collaborating with national governments, multilateral organizations, and donors
• Excellent written and verbal communications abilities in English; professional proficiency French is highly desirable
• Grant management experience desirable, but not required
• Experience leading development of peer-reviewed manuscripts is desirable
• Willing and able to travel internationally up to 25% of time

How to apply

Please submit your resume and cover letter on our website here: Senior Technical Advisor, PPA Initiative