Senior Technical Advisor, Health Financing at ThinkWell

Description

Determined to transcend the status quo, ThinkWell was founded in 2011 to provide bold, creative, and practical solutions to helping low- and middle-income countries achieve universal health coverage. While our core area of work is health financing, we take a “whole-of-systems” approach, specializing in five practice areas that intersect with health financing: governance, human resources for health, private sector, public financial management, and research and evaluation.

ThinkWell Kenya provides technical support to strengthen health financing and improve how funds are allocated to achieve the goal of universal health coverage. ThinkWell Kenya is about to embark on a new project that aims to support Kenya in advancing its strategy towards the elimination of cervical cancer. We are seeking a Senior Technical Advisor to lead the implementation of this new project, as well as other health financing work. This is a full-time position, initially for a year, and will be based at ThinkWell’s office in Nairobi. The Senior Technical Advisor will report to Kenya’s Country Director.

Technical Leadership

• With support from the global and local teams, lead economic evidence generation to support the development of a cervical cancer elimination strategy for Kenya, including an investment case, funding gap analysis, and other relevant analyses.  
• Lead technical advocacy efforts to support policy change, resource mobilization, and efficient resource allocation to catalyze progress towards cervical cancer elimination in Kenya.
• Provide direct technical assistance to Kenya’s national cancer control team, EPI, and other government agencies involved in cervical cancer prevention.
• Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in developing a cervical cancer elimination strategy.
• Establish and maintain relationships with key stakeholders in the cervical cancer elimination field in Kenya, building ThinkWells’ reputation as a trusted partner of the government and its key partners and donors in this field.
• Identify and leverage political and practical opportunities to influence priority setting, and convert cervical cancer elimination strategy and policy into action.
• Develop high-quality, compelling technical and advocacy briefs, tailored to different technical and non-technical, public and private sector audiences.
• Contribute to donor and internal reporting requirements.

Organizational Leadership and Development

• Communicate with other ThinkWell directors and project managers globally to build, share, exchange and disseminate technical knowledge.
• Represent ThinkWell with partners, donors and stakeholders at external meetings and forums at global and country level, actively engage key stakeholders, cultivate new business partnerships and concepts.
• Publish papers, articles, and blogs. Present at conferences, and participate in technical working groups, build ThinkWell’s reputation as a thought leader in the field.
• Play a firm-wide leadership role, participate in company initiatives and teams to build intellectual and human capital in the technical area of specialization.
• Mentor junior and mid-level technical staff members to support their growth, and support recruitment, as necessary.

You Are:

• ThinkWell core competencies are foundational skills and behaviors that align with our values and are expected of all employees.
• An entrepreneurial, results-oriented ‘do-er’ with a willingness to take risk, think big and challenge conventional wisdom.
• A change maker who reaches independent judgement with an open mind, influences the conversation, and seeks innovation.
• Able to help create an empowering environment in which everyone feels free to take initiative, be accountable and fail intelligently (learn from mistakes).
• A collaborative colleague who engages constructively with people from different cultures, orientations, and perspectives and maintains positive relations in a virtual world.
• Principally motivated by a growth mindset, meaning the pursuit of knowledge, experience, and self-improvement.  You always question and continuously learn.
• Authentic, honest, direct, self-aware and open to giving and receiving feedback. 

Requirements

• Master’s degree in health economics, health financing, management, public policy, public health, or another relevant field with 7+ years of experience or a PhD with 6+ years of experience;
• Substantive, relevant work experience in the specific area of technical expertise: health, cancer and/or immunization financing, health policy expertise, and advocacy;
• Experience developing health-related strategies;
• Demonstrated track record of designing and implementing technical advocacy projects;
• Experience in navigating complex multi-stakeholder projects, influencing national level dialogue, effectively and strategically engaging stakeholders at all levels within government, private sector, partners, and other individuals;
• Adept at communicating technical information to non-technical audiences;
• Knowledge and experience of managing donor-funded projects;
• Demonstrated interest and ability in growing staff, mentoring and coaching junior professionals;
• New business development, proposal writing and fundraising experience preferred;
• Full English fluency required;
• Outstanding 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;
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 20%.