Role purpose

Do you believe that everyone deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare? Are you driven by creativity, bold ideas, and disruptive innovation? Are you inspired by exceptionally talented, diverse, impact-oriented colleagues? Do you thrive in a dynamic, high-growth, fast-paced environment? Most importantly, are you fed-up with the status quo of foreign assistance in the health sector? Then consider a job with ThinkWell.  

The Strategic Purchasing for Primary Health Care (SP4PHC) project implemented by ThinkWell Institute with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is working to (1) provide country-based evidence, analysis, and technical assistance to strengthen ongoing health financing reforms and sub-national health system performance management to improve primary health care outcomes in select low and middle-income countries, and (2) capture and share learnings from these efforts to inform policy dialogue and improve policy at the local, national, and global levels.  

As its lead, the SP4PHC Project Director is responsible for solidifying the SP4PHC as a premier learning project on PHC financing and sub-national health system performance management by setting the strategic direction of the project, elevating the technical quality of in-country work, deepening learning, and expanding network of sharing insights. Working with the project leadership team, the PD will oversee a distributed team of project staff and learning partners, serving as the primary point of contact with BMGF, ensuring the timely and coordinated execution of all project deliverables, and representing the project externally. 

Major Duties and Responsibilities 

Technical leadership: The PD, in collaboration with the project team, moves forward the technical quality and impact of the project 

• Continue the evolution of the project, including the overall project vision and strategic direction, theory of change, learning agenda, and the results framework.  
• Ensure that the project possesses effective structure and talents to further strengthen the technical quality of analysis and knowledge products of the project.  
• Build and lead internal processes linking analytics and technical assistance work for impact. 
• Support cross-country learning among the team members and strengthen the culture of technical excellence among the project team members.  
• Establish a network of subject matter experts to elevate technical designs.  
• Engage with BMGF on key learnings from the project, routine project updates, project finances, and any unexpected developments (e.g. pivoting to respond to a global pandemic). 
• Position themselves as a thought leader on health financing and sub-national health systems performance management and influence in-country and global dialogue through leading strategic publication and public dissemination of knowledge products, expansion and deepening of engagement with in-country, regional, and global partners, including other BMGF grantees.  
• Mentor and support team members to establish themselves as thought leaders.  
• Cultivate new business opportunities to expand technical excellence and influence based on the project results. 

Operational oversight: The PD is accountable for the overall implementation of the project 

• Ensure timely, on-the-budget, and compliant implementation of the project by collaborating, delegating, and overseeing necessary management and operational functions among the project team members, with the Project Implementation Unit, and the Global Corporate Operation Group.  
• Oversee the development and implementation of a project communication and knowledge management strategy and plan.  
• Evolution of country strategies by country leads which ensuring technical cohesion within the project.  
• Ensure timely development of workplans, budgets, and annual reports by various team members. 

Explore  

• Ways to improve the overall performance of the project.  
• Options to enhance cross-country work within the project.  
• Opportunities for collaboration with other projects within the firm and external partners to extend and expand core project activities. 

Profile  

• Upcoming or established global thought leader in health systems strengthening in low- and middle-income countries. Strong preference for subject matter expertise or in-depth knowledge in health system performance management and/or health financing.  
• Committed to advancing the global priority of strengthening primary health care to key pathway to UHC and resilient health systems.  
• Demonstrative track record in pushing for technical excellence and impatience with technical mediocracy.  
• Thoughtful systems thinker with grounded, pragmatic understanding of the complexities of achieving development outcomes. 
• Inspiring leader who models the principles of conscious leadership and embraces facilitation and mentorship as the primary tools for leadership.  
• Committed to modeling a work culture that strongly espouses individual authenticity, radical feedback, intelligent failure, and collective impact.  
• Possesses a distaste for the status quo of the development sector with a burning desire to catalyze its transformation.  
• Strong sense of integrity in all financial and operational matters, ensuring transparency, accountability, and ethical decision-making.  
• Ability to approach team interactions with humility and a collaborative spirit and foster an inclusive and safe environment. 
• Intuitive ability to relate and connect with people from different cultures, orientations, and operating lenses (political, technical, funder, business partner, etc), with special acumen on maintaining positive relations in a virtual world.  
• Demonstrated track record in leading highly technical, complex multi-national projects in health systems strengthening, with subject matter expertise in sub-national health systems performance management. Expertise or experience in health financing is preferred.  
• Track record in influencing regional and/or global dialogue in health systems strengthening, health policy, or health financing to achieve UHC. 
• Graduate degree and at least 10+ years of relevant work experience in health financing and/or health system strengthening.  
• Recognized as a thought leader in the fields of health financing and/or primary health care, with strong professional networks.  
• Proven capacity to strategize and oversee the development of academic journal articles, reports, blogs, op-eds, webinars, and other publications on relevant topics such as strategic purchasing, health financing, and primary healthcare delivery in low- and middle-income countries.  
• Prior experience providing technical assistance to government agencies in low- and middle-income countries.  
• Prior experience leading a multi-country project, preferably involving funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  
• Strong cross-cultural communication skills, including the ability to relate respectfully with staff at all levels, ages, genders, nationalities, and orientations as well as across work areas. 

Terms of Appointment 

Benefits information will be shared with candidates upon request. 

Role Location 

This is a global search; the selected candidate can work remotely from anywhere. 

How to Apply 

To apply for this position, please ensure you click Apply and complete the Application Form by 31 January 2025 (23:59 hrs, GMT –5). It is essential that you submit your CV in English, specifically in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx), not exceeding 10MB.  

Applications in other languages or formats will not be considered. 

Rest assured, all information will be handled with the utmost confidentiality. 

SRI Executive is exclusively retained by Thinkwell to undertake this assignment.