Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Senior Principal Technical Advisor at Management Sciences for Health (MSH)

• The MEL Senior Principal Advisor works under the direction and supervision of the SI lead on the Strategic Information (SI) Team, in very close collaboration with the MEL Manager

The MEL Senior Principal Advisor supports SI in the strategic leadership and accomplishment of MEL functions related to supply chain and pharmaceutical system strengthening activities, including but not limited to the following:

• Brings domain expertise in MEL for supply chain and pharmaceutical system strengthening.
• Leads and mentors on MEL sections of proposals, including developing Theories of Change and thought leadership on MEL methods.
• Leads and mentors the development and implementation of MEL plans and systems, with a focus on using data to strengthen projects and for decision making.
• Provides strategic direction to project learning agendas and oversees learning across a suite of supply chain and pharmaceutical system strengthening projects and activities.
• Oversees staff to develop and track indicators through dashboards and other compelling data visualizations.
• Oversees data quality assurance processes.
• Coaches projects to prepare for, and actively participates in routine project technical performance reviews.
• Organizes across projects to compile, analyze, and document aggregated results at output, outcome and impact levels from a portfolio of MSH projects.
• Brings a data-driven approach to supporting projects with knowledge management and learning activities.
• Promotes and facilitates a culture of data use for decision making and adaptive management within projects and across the organization.
• Provides through partnership to project MEL Directors.
• Directly manage staff in SI.
• Mentor and groom SI staff, building internal SI capacity in MEL for supply chain and pharmaceutical system strengthening.
• Contributes to MSH MEL strategy, thought leadership, and annual planning, especially in the areas of supply chain and pharmaceutical system strengthening.

Specific Responsibilities Include:
MEL Project Support (40%)

• Serves as SI Liaison to pharmaceutical system strengthening and supply chain projects, including:
• Foster an environment where data-driven decision making is prioritized.
• Provide direct project support in MEL throughout the project lifecycle, including developing and implementing MEL plans, ensuring data quality, promoting data use, actively monitoring work plan implementation, and building the capacity of project teams.
• Strategically guide field projects in the areas of MEL and HMIS, providing expert advice and support to ensure the effective implementation of monitoring, evaluation, and data management activities.
• Collaborate with teams to contribute to work planning and budgeting for MEL activities within projects and at the home office level.
• Undertake additional duties as assigned within the domains of expertise in Strategic Information.

Business Development (40%)

• Lead business development for supply chain and pharmaceutical system strengthening in designing robust MEL approaches that align with programmatic rationale and technical approaches.

Organizational Initiatives (40%)

• Contribute to SI guidance documents.
• Participate in Scientific Committee reviews, acting as the reference/technical expert for PSM related efforts.
• Supervise technically PSM related initiatives such as OR/IR, evaluations, special studies.

Staff management and SI leadership (10%)

• Directly manage SI staff.
• Represent the SI Lead on specific activities.
• Contribute to other SI Team activities as requested.

Qualifications
What do you need to apply?
MSH employs people of passion, we seek those individuals who dream of a better world. We look for professionals who combine experience, local knowledge, and an understanding of international best practices. Individuals who share our values of treating everyone with respect while being equitable and holding all of us accountable to make an impact.
Required Education:

• Required: Master’s Degree in pharmacy, medicine, public health, or other related field (e.g., population health, epidemiology, biostatistics, demography)
• Preferred: Doctoral degree in a related MEL or public health discipline preferred.

Required Experience:

• At least 15 years of related experience in MEL, with a strong focus in MEL for pharmaceutical system strengthening or supply chain.
• Leadership level experience providing MEL support to large, complex global health projects implemented in low-resource settings, including designing and supervising MEL plans at the project level and managing MEL staff.
• Leadership and expertise in designing and developing MEL systems at the proposal development stage, including leading the theory of change, selecting indicators, describing data flows and learning approaches.
• Leadership experience implementing the MEL system during the project, including developing the MEL Plan, developing data collection tools, and analyzing data.
• Expert in designing and delivering face-to-face and virtual workshops, including learning agendas, theory of change, research ethics, protocol and instrument development, and approaches to enhancing utilization of MEL findings.
• Expert experience leading and mentoring on data management and analysis (quantitative and qualitative).
• Experience developing MEL guidance documents to guide MEL at the organizational level.
• Experience providing MEL mentorship.
• Experience in managing MEL staff.
• Experience living and working in LMICs.

Knowledge And Skills

• Advanced evaluation and study design skills, including complexity-aware monitoring.
• Advanced skills in quantitative and qualitative data analysis for international/global health projects, especially supply chain and pharmaceutical system strengthening.
• Demonstrated experience leading the MEL section of proposals and coaching junior staff on proposal development.
• Proven skills in at least one statistical package software for quantitative data analysis (SPSS, STATA, R, etc.).
• Experience with at least one statistical package software for qualitative data analysis (Nvivo, Atlas.ti, Dedoose, etc).
• Experience with designing and implementing electronic surveys is desirable.
• Understanding of and experience using HMIS databases (especially DHIS2) and understanding the value of interoperability.
• Experience writing and presenting research results.
• Familiarity with USAID indicators and metrics in specific content areas.
• Enjoys learning and teaching. A team player and a self-starter who can use her/his own initiative to identify useful work.
• Full proficiency in English.
• Preferred: Full proficiency in French.

COMPETENCIES

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with professional colleagues from multiple units and within various socio-cultural contexts.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with and/or managing staff in a matrixed organization.
• Excellent writing, analytical, organizational and communications skills including organizing, scanning, summarizing and presenting information
• Demonstrated flexibility and openness in responding to changing work priorities and environment and working under tight deadlines.
• Demonstrated competence to assess priorities and solve problems using innovative, evidence-based solutions.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Travel requirements: 20-30%