Senior Manager, Alliance Coordination

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together implementing country and donor governments, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of more than 981 million children and the prevention of more than 16 million future deaths.

BACKGROUND

The Country Programmes Delivery (CPD) department works in close liaison and coordination with national counterparts, Alliance partners, Civil Society Organisations and other relevant stakeholders, in order to achieve maximum impact through Gavi’s vaccine implementation, better results in vaccine coverage and equity and long-term sustainability of interventions. The department supports Gavi eligible countries through the entire portfolio management process from applying for support to implementation, evaluation, monitoring, and risk mitigation. The department consists of five teams: High-Impact Countries, Fragile Countries, Core Countries, Health Systems and Immunisation Strengthening, and a Programme Support Team.

The Programme Support team (PST), launched in October 2021, supports core grant and programme management processes across the portfolio that are critical to achieving the goals of Gavi. The role of the PST is to coordinate flexible and consistent back-end support across all administrative processes supporting Gavi’s programmes; standardise and monitor operational engagement with partners at country level; optimise knowledge and data management; ensure optimal and effective grant management are in place to operationalise and monitor grants and support stronger and more consistent communications on Gavi’s programmes (within Secretariat, with partners and countries). The team is relatively new to Gavi and the Country Programmes and continues to grow in its roles, responsibilities, and scope accordingly.

THE ROLE

Please note this is a temporary role, until 31st December 2025.

The Senior Manager will coordinate and develop approaches, systems and processes that enables the strengthening of the relationship of Gavi secretariat and the alliance at country, regional and global level.
Key functions and deliverables
Acting as the Secretariat focal point for Alliance coordination and relationship management, the Senior Manager will be responsible for enabling oversight of the Alliance health and coordinating the different key strategic engagements across the Gavi Alliance. This position will be responsible for the overall coordination of the Alliance health and managing the Alliance relationship to foster good relationships that drive results at the country level.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and strengthen systematic engagement and relationship management with Alliance partners;
• Coordinate the roll out and implementation of Alliance roles and responsibilities and document good practices at the country, regional and global level;
• Ensure coordination, robust analytic, evidence-generation and communications between Gavi and alliance partners;
• Internal Coordination of the Alliance engagement across Gavi to ensure holistic support to partners;
• Monitoring of key issues/ promising practices from Alliance engagement at country, regional and global levels, follow up and coordination of action plans (from Partnership Team engagement);
• Track, monitor and document achievement of the relevant key deliverables as set by the cross-alliance teams in multiple platforms;
• Lead engagement and alignment with cross-Alliance Management team on key priorities such as PEF funding and focus areas;
• Support the engagement and strategic vision of utilising the holistic PEF funding mechanisms, Targeted Country Assistance, Strategic focus Areas and Foundational Support;
• Work with internal and external stakeholders to input into strategic engagement for the alliance including, alliance leadership engagement, regional working groups, Alliance working groups and internal coordination bodies.

Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not exhaustive of the job responsibilities; other duties may be assigned consistently with the department needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

ACADEMIC

• Advanced university degree in public health, finance, business administration or equivalent.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 8 years of professional experience in the development, public health or other relevant field, with ideally experience in developing countries;
• Demonstrable experience in project management, managing partnerships and multi-stakeholder task forces ideally in both a private and public environment;
• Experience in working with and engaging senior leaders (C-level) essential;
• At least two years working in grant management with a results-focused funding organisation preferred;
• Previous experience working on vaccine programme management, health systems, research, evidence-based planning, and/or internal policy development a plus;
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships, both within and outside the Alliance;
• Previous experience working in or with large international agencies like Gavi, WHO or UNICEF;
• Excellent identification with Gavi’s mission and a convincing familiarity with programme global public health/immunisation issues.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES

• Structured strategic thinking with excellent knowledge of Global Health and development;
• Exceptional people skills including relationship development at senior levels, and ability to influence outside of formal hierarchical structures;
• Excellent analytical and finance skills with experience driving evidence-based decisions;
• Problem-solving skills, with the ability to think strategically;
• Prioritisation, planning, and project coordination/management skills;
• Team building, including a priority on positive and constructive culture;
• Excellent oral communication, writing and presentational skills, diplomacy and tact;
• Ability to influence others by listening respectfully and presenting persuasive arguments to address the concerns, wants and needs of others;
• Ability to build productive relationships in an international, multicultural, multi-partner environment;
• Collaborate effectively and build consensus with a range of internal and external stakeholders;
• High proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

LANGUAGES

• Fluent English;
• French is an asset.

CONTACTS

• Gavi Secretariat;
• Gavi-eligible countries;
• WHO, UNICEF, WB, CDC; and other NGOs;
• Bilateral Donors and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation;
• The Global Fund.