Chief Technical Officer

Based in Geneva, the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECR) supports UNOPS offices throughout the region through: management, financial and programmatic oversight of global and country-specific portfolios, clusters and operations centres, including hosting services; fund and management advisory services; project implementation; procuring goods and services; and managing human resources.

ECR ensures that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between business units and projects across the entire region.

RBM Partnership to End Malaria

The past fifteen years have seen tremendous gains in reducing the burden of disease and progressing towards malaria elimination. Since 2000, global malaria deaths have been cut by more than half, saving 7 million lives, primarily among children less than five years of age. Expansions in financing, strong political commitments, novel diagnostic and preventative measures, and multi-sectoral coordination have facilitated this progress. Since 1998, RBM Partnership to End Malaria has been central to the global fight against malaria. It has been essential to mobilizing resources and scaling up innovative interventions, putting the world onto a path towards eliminating malaria. The Partnership comprises more than 500 partners committed to end malaria, including malaria endemic countries, their bilateral and multilateral development partners, the private sector, nongovernmental and community-based organizations, foundations, and research and academic institutions.

The RBM Partnership's Vision is of a world free from the burden of malaria.

The RBM Partnership is based in Geneva and hosted by UNOPS.

The incumbent will work under the guidance and supervision of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to achieve the core objectives and strategic priorities of the RBM Partnership, and specifically the Country and Regional Support with the integrated Data Initiative. 

The incumbent will lead the Secretariat work in these areas, through facilitation and coordination of high-level country and partnership engagement and an integrated management of the Data Initiative and Country and Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC).

The incumbent is expected to be willing and able to travel up to 40% of their time. 

High-level country and partnership engagement

• Promote and support regional approaches to the fight against malaria anchored in existing political and economic platforms such as regional economic communities.

• Lead  the coordinated Secretariat support through the CRSPC to malaria endemic countries to effectively implement malaria prevention, control and elimination activities.

• Improve collaboration and communication across stakeholders to both expand and deepen the relationships, and to help leverage the full range of services to strengthen national malaria control and elimination efforts.

• Maintain a close relationship with the leadership of malaria-endemic countries, implementing partners, donors and other key stakeholders at national, regional and global level in the fight against malaria, through the CRSPC, to adopt and prioritize  impactful approaches and solutions to identified bottlenecks.

• Facilitate the convening of partners around data sharing to strengthen the linkages between the RBM Global Malaria Dashboard and country and regional support.

• Lead coordination of partners through the RBM CRSPC work streams and other mechanisms to leverage synergies and avoid duplication.

• Attend and represent the RBM Partnership and CEO in national and international conferences, meetings, and speaking engagements.

• Provide high-level strategic expertise  of the Secretariat through the CRSPC to countries and regions to reinforce the importance  of effective and efficient usage of available resources, and for the development of resource mobilization strategies with a close monitoring on the agreed actions to assure timely identification of possible issues or gaps and initiate the needed corrective actions. 

• Lead the implementation of Board decisions through the alignment of the various CRSPC stakeholders, and responsible within the Secretariat for prioritizing and targeting interventions at country level through the use of data for the purpose of maximizing disease control results and “value for money” within the context of national strategic plans.

• Coordinate and facilitate technical assistance and implementation support to countries to:

  • Adopt, implement and share best practices.

  • Complete comprehensive programmatic and financial gap analyses. 

  • Develop funding proposals (including Global Fund Concept Notes) and other investment requests, including exploring flexibilities within existing major donors, increasing public and private domestic resource commitments and expanding innovative financing approaches.

  • Foster country coalitions, as appropriate, to focus on key malaria issues within each country and region.

  • Coordinate between country, regional and global-level donors to enhance understanding and collaboration, jointly resolve key bottlenecks and work to fill funding gaps.

  • Empower countries, communities and individuals to defeat malaria in the context of Zero Malaria Starts with Me!

  • Promote innovation and facilitate uptake of new malaria prevention and control tools for greater impact.

  • Promote and advocate for sustainable financing at global and national levels to support malaria-endemic countries to implement their national plans, including through increased domestic resource allocations.

• Bring additional management and technical capacity to the RBM Management Team and facilitate smooth operation of the Secretariat’s programmatic activities including through the supervision of the management team technical staff.

Integrated management and leadership of the Data Initiative and Country and Regional Support Partner Committee (CRSPC)

• Lead the integration of the Data Initiative within the CRSPC to optimize the effectiveness and impact of country and regional malaria control and elimination efforts. 

• Strengthen ongoing collaboration across partner organizations to facilitate improved data management and integration, including alignment and harmonization of data to improve sharing and interoperability.

• In collaboration with partners, support the endemic countries to strengthen national data and information systems capacity, and ensure that the Global Malaria Dashboard builds on and complements these efforts.

• Work closely with the CRSPC Co-chairs to promote and coordinate with partners the adoption and use of new digital or information technologies and other innovative approaches to facilitate data-driven management, reporting and advocacy.

• Reach out and coordinate with the main global malaria partners to promote open data policies, standards and platforms that enhance transparency and accountability through the RBM Global Malaria Dashboard.

• Ensure coordinated support to build the capacity needed to analyze and utilize data in close collaboration with partners on the ground. 

• Oversee the Data Initiative to ensure that malaria indicators related to supply chain management, intervention coverage, epidemiology, and other areas are captured and issues identified are elevated to the attention of national and sector leaders. 

• Lead the negotiation of data sharing agreements with malaria partners to contribute additional data sources to the Global Malaria Dashboard.

• Monitor the Partnership’s progress toward key targets and provide the CEO and the Board with updates on progress, including identified bottlenecks and constraints.

Other

• Within the delegation of authority, oversee and manage the work of assigned personnel, distributing assignments to facilitate smooth and effective use of human and financial resources; training, motivating and coaching personnel, as well as evaluating performance and facilitating career development.

• Perform other related responsibilities as assigned, including replacing and backstopping for others as required. 

• A Master’s degree in public health, business management, public administration, science, social science or another relevant field is required. A M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) degree and/or PhD in biology, parasitology or other relevant specialization will be considered an asset.

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in the development, implementation and/or management of health projects, of which 5 years has been at senior management and/or leadership level is required.
• 5 years of experience in the public health sector, in particular with malaria is required. 
• Documented high-level advocacy or other experience with national and health-sector leaders is required. 
• Experience working in challenging and politically complex situations is required.

• Experience in multi-stakeholder partnerships management and engagement.  
• Substantial experience or knowledge of multi- and bilateral financing with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and/or other international health financing institutions.
• Experience managing data projects or digital and information technologies projects.
• Experience working in the UN system and/or in a developing country. 
• Proven ability to manage and motivate senior staff located in different geographical locations.
• Specialization, experience or demonstrated understanding of international development related to malaria is preferred.

• Full working knowledge of English is essential.
• Working knowledge of French, Spanish or another UN language is an asset.

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  
• The position maybe based in Geneva, Switzerland or Nairobi, Kenya. The exact location will be determined prior to the finalization of the recruitment process.
  
  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.