Operations Associate, Global Sexual & Reproductive Health

Overview:

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.

Program Summary

Unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions drive high rates of preventable mortality and morbidity in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). CHAI’s Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) program aims to ensure that all individuals are empowered to access information, products and services that will meet their sexual and reproductive health needs. We aim to significantly reduce unmet need for modern contraception and the incidence of unsafe abortions in program countries within the next 5 years.  To accomplish our goals, we’re pursuing 3 strategic objectives:

Scale up access to new and underutilized products to increase choice for women and better meet their needs and preferences.
Increase SRH commodity security through global and country supply chain strengthening and improved financing for SRH products.
Design and strengthen client-centric service delivery models that will reach key populations with SRH services.
 

We pursue global and country-focused market shaping opportunities for SRH products to create an enabling environment for the introduction and scale up of quality-assured products and services in LMICs. At the global level, we are working to ensure that a diversified supplier base can meet demand for key products and ensure commodities are affordable and of high quality. We also coordinate donors and partners around a global product strategy and to shape the broader SRH ecosystem. At the country level, CHAI works with governments to develop national SRH scale up plans with clear targets; use data to coordinate partner resources against the plan and achieve targets; strengthen national forecasting and quantification; address supply chain bottlenecks; improve health worker training; and strengthen performance management for the health system.

The Global SRH team’s current grant portfolio (non-exhaustive) includes investments by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the U.K. Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and SEMA Reproductive Health. 

The Global SRH Team works across the CHAI matrix to support the application of global learning and best practices, and provide thought-partnership and technical assistance to programs implemented by in-country teams who own our valued relationships with partner governments and who possess critical knowledge of local context and operating conditions.  Underlying our approach is our commitment to achieving sustainable, transformational change at scale by working in a way that strengthens health systems and government capabilities to improve SRH outcomes.

Position Summary

Are you someone that thrives working as part of a highly collaborative team? Do you have a penchant for attention to detail and ensuring that everything is well-organized? Do you enjoy thinking about process design and ensuring smooth flow of operations? Are you passionate about making a positive impact on women’s sexual and reproductive health? If so, this job opportunity may be for you.

The Operations Associate is a critical member of the Global SRH team who supports the day-to-day operations of a small-grants funding mechanism that supports rapid deployment of funds for reproductive health products across low-and middle-income countries. The Associate will support the overall coordination, implementation, and maintenance of a range of activities that underpin the life cycle of grant investments. They will drive a consistent approach to uphold the integrity of the funding brand and achieve operational excellence of the maintenance of the fund. This includes responsibilities such as managing communications with applicants and grantees, updating tools with timely information on applicants’ status, ensuring application materials are saved and logged appropriately, facilitating the grant contracting and reporting processes, and coordinating across various internal and external stakeholders. In addition, the Associate will also support the team in reviewing application materials and reports as well as consolidating feedback from application reviewers.

This role will report to the Operations Manager and will work in close partnership with other team members of the small-grants team, as well as the wider Global SRH Team. The Operations Associate can be based in the United States or a CHAI program country in Africa, pending Country Director approval.

Application and Grant Coordination

• Support the day-to-day operations of the small-grants fund, including tracking deadlines, following-up with relevant stakeholders, storing applicant information and providing timely responses to inquiries and questions
• Update tools with timely information regarding applicants’ and grantees’ status in the application and grant-life cycle
• Coordinate the end-to-end grants and contracts processes with internal and external parties
• Support the process of consolidating application feedback from reviewers and returning this to applicants for iteration
   

Systems and Tools

• Support development and/or revision of applications, reporting materials and processes as required
• Contribute ideas towards strengthening processes and creating efficiencies wherever possible
• Proactively flag risks associated with processes, applicants or subgrantees
• Support development of a knowledge management and best practices platform, systems, and tools
   

External Engagement

• Manage the small-grants fund inbox ensuring all communications are adequately responded to
• Participate in external stakeholder calls as needed in order to provide updates on applicants and grantees
   

Data Analysis and Dissemination

• Support documentation and dissemination of successes and learnings arising from the COF
• Analyze and synthesize key information for internal and external audiences
• Collect and track outcomes of COF investments in order to support impact analyses and evidence generation
   

General

• Communicate effectively in a matrixed work environment across various stakeholders
• Other responsibilities as needed
• Option to travel internationally 1-2 times per year

• Bachelor’s degree with 3+ years work experience in an operations, contracts, finance or administration capacity
• Excellent written and oral English communication skills, French a plus
• Proficient in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint
• Excellent diplomatic, relationship building, and interpersonal skills
• Exceptional attention to detail
• Exceptional organizational skills and ability to multi-task across various stakeholders
• Practical project management acumen to keep projects on track
• Ability to prioritize tasks and maintain deadlines in a remote work environment
• Willingness to adapt to changing priorities and handle unexpected challenges
• Critical thinking skills to improve processes and workflows
• Ability to work independently and as part of a complex team effort
• A strong desire to create positive change on a big scale and views operations work as directly linked to, and supportive of, the organization's impact and vision
• A deep sense of collegiality and eagerness to work with a remote, geographically dispersed team across multiple time zones
• Strong commitment to principles of diversity, equity and inclusion
• Previous experience in managing small-scale investments a plus
• Previous experience working in reproductive health a plus
   

Benefits:

Depending on base location, work remote policy giving you the flexibility you need to work from home
Monthly mental health days
Bi-annual in-person retreats
Generous PTO

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