The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

Overview of CHAI’s Vaccines Program

CHAI’s Vaccine Markets Team works with vaccine manufacturers and procurers, the Gavi Alliance and other global and reginal stakeholders to improve availability, affordability, and supply security of vaccines.

Inequalities in access to vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic, have motivated efforts to establish a commercially sustainable vaccine manufacturing footprint in Africa. CHAI aims to help address this issue by applying the techniques it has used successfully in working with suppliers and procurers to optimize the African vaccine ecosystem.

A transition to African regional procurement of vaccines is currently being discussed by the Africa CDC, UNICEF, and others. To date, centralized procurement through UNICEF of a majority of LMIC vaccine volumes has been instrumental in driving global supply security and healthy markets. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that the transition to regional procurement is designed to minimize negative impacts on vaccine markets and coverage. This includes considerations around whether, when, and how Gavi-funded volumes would transition, as well as the design of the regional procurement mechanism.

At this early stage of discussions, CHAI has been asked to evaluate the potential market impacts of regionalizing vaccine procurement in Africa – including analyses of the key benefits, costs, and risks associated with the transition – and to propose concrete design principles and strategies to mitigate these risks (e.g., procurement system requirements, enabling environment requirements, coordinated buying strategies, etc.).

The Vaccines Markets team is seeking an experienced Project Lead to manage the project delivery and lead a team of two Associates.

We are seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding analytical, strategic, communication and teamwork skills. Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Lead the creation of an insight-oriented procurement fact base on the current state of global vaccine procurement, including insights and comparisons by region, vaccine, procurement entity, and funding source; an overview of UNICEF’s procurement model and analysis of its market-shaping power; as well as case studies of global pooled procurement initiatives.
• Design and oversight of qualitative research and analyses on regional procurement model motivations and aspirations with key stakeholders at the global level, at the continental and sub-regional level (e.g., Africa CDC, ECOWAS, SADC), with vaccine manufacturers and their associations globally and in Africa, as well as with governments.
• Design and conduct a benefit-risk assessment of adopting a regional procurement model, with a focus on market and programmatic implications.
• Identify and assess potential transition scenarios to a regional procurement entity in Africa.
• Manage the day-to-day collaboration with an external project partner and act as integrator to bring together both workstreams in a cohesive way.
• Lead preparation of presentations, reports, and other analyses to be shared with external stakeholders.
• Guide and oversee a team of two associates, including providing hands-on guidance and expertise in technical matters, sharing your deep knowledge to assist the team in overcoming technical challenges and making informed decisions.
• Foster a collaborative and innovative team environment, ensuring that each team member understands their roles and responsibilities within the context of the broader organizational goals.

• Analytical – You are comfortable working with large amounts of quantitative and qualitative data and effectively extracting logical conclusions and recommendations from this analysis.
• Insightful – You draw cogent conclusions from large amounts of analysis, sharing what is relevant for real-world challenges in the African vaccine manufacturing ecosystem.
• Intellectually Curious – You proactively seek out knowledge and are interested in developing innovative solutions rather than accepting existing strategies or statements at face-value.
• Practical – You demonstrate judgment in how you allocate your efforts when balancing multiple priorities, focusing on the most decision-critical aspects, and dynamically changing these priorities as required.
• Communicative – You respectfully and effectively navigate varied and sensitive stakeholder environments.
• Responsible – You take pride and ownership in your work and have high standards for what you produce, creating rigorous analysis that can stand up to the scrutiny of internal and external parties.
• Passionate – You are passionate about helping improve the vaccine markets as much as possible.

Requirements:

• Minimum Advanced Degree with strong academic performance.
• Minimum 8 years of professional experience including in a fast paced, results-oriented work environment (e.g., strategy consulting, pharmaceuticals, health financing).
• Proven project management skills and the ability to work independently and handle multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to build strong relationships with individuals of varying levels of seniority.
• Clear strategic thinker with very strong problem-solving skills.
• Available for up to 20-30% travel.
• High level of proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• English language fluency, both written and verbal.

Advantages:

• Experience working remotely with a decentralized team.
• Experience in vaccines, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and/or procurement.
• Experience working in or supporting low- and middle-income countries.
• Prior knowledge or experience of global health partners within the vaccine ecosystem.
• Fluency in other languages is a plus.