Health Specialist - Adolescent Health, P-4 at UNICEF

How can you make a difference?

As Health Specialist (Adolescent Health), you will provide strategic leadership, technical expertise, and programmatic guidance to advance adolescent health and well-being as a core component of UNICEF's global health agenda. Working closely with governments, development partners, UNICEF Regional Offices and Country Offices, you will support the design, implementation, monitoring and scale-up of evidence-based programmes that strengthen adolescent-responsive health systems and services. 

You will contribute to the development of global frameworks, technical guidance, quality standards and programmatic tools, while promoting integrated and multisectoral approaches across adolescent health priorities, including sexual and reproductive health, mental health and psychosocial well-being, substance use prevention, and the prevention and management of communicable and non-communicable diseases

Join UNICEF's Global Programme Division and help shape the global agenda for adolescent health and well-being. As a Health Specialist (Adolescent Health), you will provide strategic leadership, technical expertise and programmatic guidance to strengthen adolescent-responsive health systems and services across countries. Working with governments, development partners, UNICEF Regional and Country Offices, you will support the development, implementation and scale-up of evidence-based programmes that advance equitable and sustainable outcomes for adolescents. 

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Capacity Development & Institutional Strengthening
• Quality Improvement at Scale
• Policy Reform & Systems Transformation
• Evidence, Data & Knowledge for Action
• Equitable Access
• Programme Management & Results Monitoring
• Strategic Partnerships, Resource Mobilization and Grant Management
• Global Advocacy, Knowledge Leadership and Cross-Sectoral Collaboration

Through this role, you will help strengthen national policies and service delivery platforms, support global guidance and quality standards, foster innovation and learning across countries, and contribute to UNICEF's leadership in advancing adolescent health and well-being worldwide.

Minimum requirements:

• Education: An advanced university degree in public health, global health, adolescent health, health systems and services, epidemiology, health policy and management, medicine
• Work Experience: A minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible professional experience in adolescent health, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (MNCAH), health systems strengthening, primary health care, public health, or related fields is required.
• Skills:
  • strategic thinking
  • ability to develop and operationalize frameworks and guidance
  • strong partnership-building and coordination skills across sectors and institutions
  • communication skills for advocacy, technical writing, and presentation
• Language Requirements: Knowledge of English language at a Proficient level is required.

Desirables:

• Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language.
• Demonstrated experience in the design, implementation, management and monitoring of adolescent health programmes, including one or more of the following areas:
  • Sexual and reproductive health,
  • mental health and psychosocial support,
  • school health,
  • communicable/non-communicable diseases,
  • substance use prevention.
• Proven experience providing technical and strategic support to governments, UN agencies, development partners and country programmes, including policy development, programme planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and knowledge generation.
• Demonstrated experience supporting health systems strengthening and service delivery across primary health care, school, community and digital platforms.
• Demonstrated experience managing multi-country grants, programme budgets and donor-funded initiatives, including strategic planning, resource allocation, financial oversight, performance monitoring, donor reporting and partnership management.
• Experience supervising professional staff, consultants and/or multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience supporting programmes in low- and middle-income countries, including humanitarian and fragile settings.