Surveillance Senior Technical Advisor at Jhpiego

Jhpiego

Position: Surveillance Senior Technical Advisor

Job Time: Full-Time

Job Type: Contract

Place of Work: Addis Ababa, Amhara, Afar, or Tigray - Ethiopia

Posted date: 3 months ago

Deadline: Submition date is over

Overview

Jhpiego seeks a Surveillance Senior Technical Advisor to provide overall technical and programmatic oversight of indicator-based, community, and event-based surveillance activities for a USAID-funded global health security project in Ethiopia. This five-year project aims to reduce the impact of infectious disease outbreaks on morbidity and mortality through building resilient One Health (OH) surveillance, diagnostics, and workforce development capacities.

This role can be based in Addis Ababa, Amhara, Afar, or Tigray.

This position is contingent upon an award from USAID. Qualified Ethiopian nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical oversight for the implementation of community-based and laboratory-based surveillance activities
• Ensure a robust working knowledge of the local epidemiological context, to quickly analyze epidemiological trends, including drawing upon global data and trends, identify gaps, and develop responsive action plans.
• Design and implement the strategic vision for the integration of animal and human health surveillance modalities to analyze, report, and visualize time-sensitive data in support of the Ethiopian government to prepare for and respond to outbreaks
• Develop and implement strategies for community-based surveillance systems to monitor health trends and detect outbreaks at community levels.
• Ensure that surveillance strategies are culturally appropriate, community-centric, and sustainable.
• Lead the digital transformation of community surveillance processes to improve data collection, analysis, and reporting, and oversee the development and deployment of digital tools and platforms to enhance real-time infectious disease surveillance capabilities.
• Support surveillance data analysis to identify trends, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and inform public health decisions.
• Work effectively and collaboratively with local and national government counterparts and engage in local-level planning.
• Foster a culture of data for decision-making across all project teams, partners, and local stakeholders.
• Ensure all activities are evidence-based, adapted to local context, and reflect state-of-the-art knowledge and best practices.
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with USAID and the Government of Ethiopia and related national government agencies (including those in the One Health space e.g., animal health/veterinary sciences, agriculture, environment, and biodiversity management); public health or One Health partners, and local research institutions to share knowledge, maximize resources and avoid duplication of effort.
• Foster cross-sectoral collaboration to implement One Health approaches in surveillance and response activities.
• Engage stakeholders from human health, animal health, and environmental sectors to create integrated health solutions to improve disease detection, AMR diagnosis, and outbreak response.
• Provide guidance and support for capacity-strengthening efforts for national government counterparts.
• Improve the capacity of local government health authorities to conduct evidence-based and epidemiological analysis of local health systems for decision-making to inform strategic and programmatic direction.
• Advise on and contribute to the development of health policies related to surveillance, digital health, AMR, and One Health.
• Advocate for the adoption of best practices and evidence-based strategies in public health surveillance.
• Work with Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) staff to develop M&E frameworks and effectively track data/results.
• Ensure project activities are aligned with the project goal and objectives and national policies and frameworks.
• Work with the Technical Director on annual work planning and provide strategic inputs including on the Performance Monitoring Plan.
• Work closely with the MEL Advisor and the M&E team to analyze data, adjust implementation, and put in place course corrections.
• Represent the project in public and professional circles through meetings, conferences, and presentations and act as an active member of relevant technical groups.
• Work with project and financial staff to prepare and track the progress of project and activity budgets.
• Train and mentor local health workers and stakeholders on effective surveillance techniques, digital tools, and data management.

Required Qualifications

• An advanced degree in any of the following fields of expertise: applied or field epidemiology, biostatistics, tropical medicine, public health, health informatics, monitoring and evaluation, implementation science, or similar
• At least 7+ years of experience implementing monitoring and evaluating progress towards the target in infectious diseases preferably in Ethiopia
• Demonstrated experience in establishing surveillance monitoring and evaluation systems and training others in their usage and implementation.
• Proven experience in public health surveillance, digital health initiatives, and community-based surveillance
• Strong analytical skills and experience with statistical software and data analysis
• Skilled in at least two or more of the following technical areas: indicator-based surveillance, event-based surveillance, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery projects, implementation science, and geospatial mapping.
• At least 5 years of relevant experience with USAID, other US Government, or donor-funded health programs.
• Professional experience interacting with host country governments and counterparts; international donor organizations; civil society; and the private sector.
• Demonstrated strong management, coordination, teamwork, and planning skills with proven ability to function effectively with multiple host-country counterparts in both the public, NGO, and private sectors
• Excellent diplomacy skills and a proven ability to establish and maintain interpersonal and professional relationships with USAID, host-country counterparts, and representatives from other key stakeholders such as NGOs, CSOs, and the private sector
• Demonstrated strategic thinking, organizational, team-building, and representational skills
• Excellent skills in facilitation, team building, and coordination
• Excellent verbal, written interpersonal, and presentation skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office365 operations
• Ability to travel nationally as needed