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.

Team Overview

CHAI’s Health Systems Strengthening group is building out a Private Finance capability focused on catalysing private investment into health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. The team works between private health providers, financiers and governments to address structural bottlenecks that prevent capital from flowing to high-impact health services at scale.

The private sector already plays a critical role in health systems in sub-Saharan Africa, from retail pharmacies and primary care, to diagnostics and specialised medical treatments, supply chains, and essential non-clinical service providers such as oxygen, logistics, and energy. As donor funding declines, the role of private providers is expected to become even more important to complement public healthcare delivery and expand access to affordable, high-quality care.

Despite their critical role in health systems, many high-impact health businesses face persistent financing constraints that limit their scale. Across the region, health SMEs sit in a ‘missing middle’, too large for microfinance but too small or too risky for most development finance institutions. Where local currency debt is available, it is typically short-tenor and high-cost, while hard currency lending comes with often unsustainably high FX risk. These dynamics result in high risk premiums and under-investment, even where health impact is clear.

Position Overview

As an initial use case, the Private Finance team has supported governments across African countries to structure and execute solar electrification programs for health facilities, working with lenders, developers, and public counterparts to develop investable project pipelines and financing approaches. This has created a strong foundation in deal execution, public-private contracting, and mobilizing finance against measurable health impact.

Building on this foundation, the team is expanding into broader healthcare private finance. The goal will be to build strong relationships with disruptive private healthcare providers across SSA (starting with priority markets), identify their specific financing needs and constraints, and leverage CHAI’s network of commercial and concessional financiers to design and implement replicable financing structures to meet these needs.

This is not a traditional NGO role. The Senior Associate will help build out a scalable private finance platform that that sources high-impact health businesses, gets them investment-ready, and unlocks appropriate capital (local currency debt, growth equity, and risk-sharing structures) so they can expand access to affordable, high-quality care. The role offers high autonomy, exposure to senior stakeholders, and the opportunity to build a scalable model for crowding-in private capital for health impact in Africa.

We are seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial individual with outstanding analytical capabilities, problem-solving ability and communication skills. The Senior Associate must be able to function independently in a remote environment and have a strong commitment to excellence. CHAI places great value on relevant personal qualities: resourcefulness, humility, responsibility, tenacity, independence, energy, and work ethic.

This position may be based in Nairobi, Kenya; Kigali, Rwanda; or Lagos, Nigeria. Other CHAI program countries in sub-Saharan Africa may be considered, subject to leadership approval and work authorisation.

The role will require an ability to travel internationally up to 25-30%, meeting stakeholders and coordinating across regions.

The Senior Associate will play a core role across investment sourcing, execution, diligence, and deal structuring to support high impact private health companies across sub-Saharan Africa to expand their reach, while working closely with commercial investors and development finance institutions to design and stand up financing mechanisms that can be replicated across markets and subsectors.

(i) Develop an in-depth understanding of high-potential health companies and key financing constraints in the private health market in sub-Saharan Africa

• Build and manage a sourcing and screening pipeline, including clear investment-readiness criteria and triage processes to prioritise the highest potential businesses across focus markets.
• Engage with businesses across priority health areas (e.g., primary care, diagnostics, oncology, oxygen, pharmacy, and supply chains) to understand market dynamics, identify disruptive business models and technologies, and identify recurring constraints in access to capital and scaling.
• Build relationships with financiers across the capital spectrum (e.g., microfinance institutions, local commercial banks, impact investors and development finance institutions), to understand barriers in underwriting healthcare investments and constraints in deploying capital.

(ii) Design, pilot and scale blended finance and risk-sharing mechanisms that unlock investment in health systems

• Work with commercial and concessional financiers, donors, and governments to design replicable financing structures tailored to overcome key constraints in access to capital for healthcare, and coordinate de-risking arrangements required to support these structures.
• Pilot mechanisms to validate design assumptions and enable initial capital deployment.
• Support development of light-touch M&E frameworks to track financial performance and health impact at the mechanism level.
• Translate financing designs into implementable structures, including standardised term sheets, eligibility criteria, governance arrangements, and monitoring frameworks.

(iii) Provide targeted transaction support to high impact companies

• Work directly with founders and management teams to build/refine financial models, unit economics, and fundraising materials (e.g., data room, investor memo, capital plan), and run targeted investor/bank outreach through to term sheet/credit approval.

(iv) Support communication and strategic projects related to CHAI’s Private Finance work

• Develop clear, structured presentations and materials to inform decision-making by governments, donors, investors, and CHAI leadership.
• Support strategic projects related to CHAI’s Private Finance work, including scoping new financing opportunities, developing concept notes, and advising CHAI teams on opportunities to mobilize private capital for health impact.

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Business, Economics, Finance, or a related field; CFA or equivalent a plus.
• 4-7 years of full-time experience in venture capital, growth equity, investment banking, private equity, corporate finance, transaction advisory, or structured finance, with demonstrated experience in deal execution, capital raising, or investment readiness advisory. Prior experience working directly with SMEs or growth-stage businesses in emerging markets strongly preferred.
• Prior work experience in sub-Saharan Africa strongly preferred, or demonstrated experience working in emerging markets and with growth-stage businesses in resource-constrained settings.
• Demonstrated ownership of complex Excel-based modeling work with expertise in financial modelling and financial statement analysis.
• Hands-on experience in corporate/project finance structuring, including exposure to debt, equity, or blended finance transactions.
• Comfortable working with imperfect information and “messy” SME financials, and able to impose structure quickly.
• Demonstrated track record of supporting companies or projects through capital raising, investment readiness, or transaction execution, with ability to show tangible outcomes (capital deployed, deals closed, or material improvement in investment readiness).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English; experience developing Microsoft Powerpoint presentations for senior executives.

Attributes:

• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills: able to independently build and maintain complex, flexible, auditable models in Microsoft Excel to inform decision making.
• Entrepreneurial mindset: self-starter who thrives in fast-paced, unstructured environments and consistently delivers high-quality outputs.
• Detail-oriented and structured thinker: skilled at working through complexity and uncertain operational challenges with resilience and adaptability.
• Strong interpersonal skills and collaborative approach: able to build relationships and interact with confidence, humility and respect with diverse partners, including government officials, private sector representatives, and NGOs.
• Commercial and investor-facing maturity: comfortable engaging confidently with founders, commercial banks, Development Finance Institutions, and investors, and able to translate between health impact goals and commercial financing requirements.

What success looks like (first 6–12 months):

• Strong network of health businesses and financiers developed across priority markets and service delivery areas.
• Robust understanding of key systemic constraints in healthcare investment in SSA.
• 2-3 high impact financing mechanisms designed with stakeholders aligned and plan for execution.
• Capital raising support provided to 3-5 high impact health businesses.

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