Public Health Specialist at Malaria Consortium

Line Manager: Senior Technical Coordinator

Scope of Work

• The Public Health Specialist will work closely with the Country Technical Coordinator (CTC) to support programme design, planning, implementation and epidemiological field activities, including technical inputs in development of protocols, data management, analysis, interpretation of findings and writing of progress and scientific reports.
• The post-holder will follow up on technical support to facility level and community-based health service delivery programmes. S/he will actively contribute to M&E, Knowledge Management and internal capacity building for MC staff.

Key Accountabilities
Technical contributions (60%):

• As part of the Senior Country Team, work in collaboration with Country Technical Coordinator (CTC) to provide technical support to the portfolio of malaria consortium projects to ensure global best practices are utilized in programme design and roll out.
• Work with CTC to support projects in MCN in the area of design, implementation and interpretation of results frameworks.
• Lead the effort of the country office in the development of plans of action for project evaluations and coordinate the evaluation of country projects
• Lead statistical analysis of research and M&E data, and contribute to reports and publications to disseminate to national stakeholders
• Contribute to the planning of field activities and development of standard operating procedures
• Contribute to the design of data collection tools and database systems for the entry, storage and retrieval of epidemiological data
• Work with M&E officers across projects in the development / strengthening of routine and supplementary disease surveillance systems
• Provide technical assistance in the analysis and interpretation of results from surveys conducted and surveillance systems
• Contribute to the design of technical proposals
• Contribute to Malaria Consortium Knowledge Management content and strategy at National, Regional and Global levels
• Contribute to on-going operational research work across the Nigeria portfolio of projects
• Work with the M&E team in the planning, design, and implementation of health-related surveillance systems or epidemiologic studies and participate in the development of field testing of innovative tools and approaches in surveys, rapid assessments, routine data collection and surveillance

Strategic Contributions (20%):

• Support the institutionalization of MCN’s guidance for Programme Technical Quality Assurance
• Work with CTC in strengthening and expanding the internal learning platforms within MCN and support capacity building for relevant technical staff across MC’s Nigerian portfolio on public health and disease epidemiology
• Ensure regular planning and implementation of the quarterly cross-learning forum

Programme Management (15%):

• Work as part of the Nigerian Technical team to provide technical assistance to country requests
• Provide technical support to project managers in review of consultancy and donor reports to ensure compliance with MC’s technical standards
• Organize and participate in technical update meetings between projects and the CTC and follow up of actions
•  Support CTC to collate periodic Technical Assistance Forecasts from projects to develop TA forecast for the CO

Communication and Advocacy (5%):

• Draft manuscripts as identified by the technical team for peer-reviewed journals
• Contribute to documentation of lessons learnt from the organization’s work including production of learning briefs, learning papers, general documentation and contribution to publications

Qualifications and Experience
Essential:

• Postgraduate Degree in Public Health with focus on Epidemiology / Bio-Statistics or Demography;
• A minimum of 8 years post-graduate working experience in public health;
• Substantial Experience in the development, implementation, monitoring, review, documentation, reporting and dissemination of public health interventions.
• Mid-level management experience in planning and implementing large sized health projects in Nigeria
• Experience working on maternal and child health programmes, including community health delivery
• Extensive experience in research design and implementation
• Excellent writing and presentation skills
• Flexibility and ability to work independently
• Full professional proficiency in English (written and spoken) required

Desirable:

• Experience managing donor grants or contracts such as BMGF, DFID, GFATM or USAID/PMI.
• Demonstrable skills in manuscript writing for peer-reviewed journals

Work-Based Skills:

• Significant knowledge in communicable disease control and child health
• Good technical knowledge of malaria control
• Excellent programme management skills, with proven ability to implement high quality projects on time and within budget
• Ability to remain compliant with organisational and donor policies
• Ability to manage and prioritise high workload and multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines
• Excellent writing and presentation skills in English
• Excellent problem solving skills
• Capable of establishing strong working relationships with colleagues from different functions and cultures
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Word and Excel
• A team player, with a friendly attitude

Salary
Competitive