Global Health Security Advisor

Position description

The Global Health Security Advisor will primarily support the Health Team of the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, Office of Regional Sustainable Development as a GH-TASC Institutional Support Contractor (ISC). In this role, the selected candidate is responsible for supporting USAID’s efforts to advance GHS across the LAC region. The Global Health Security Advisor will work in close collaboration with teammates in the Health Team and across the LAC Bureau, the Emerging Threats Division in the Bureau for Global Health, as well as other USAID Bureaus, including the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. They will support outbreak response, provide technical support to USAID Missions with GHS programs and activities, conduct regional analyses on key GHS priorities specific to the LAC region, lead strategic and technical to USAID missions tailored to unique complexities the LAC region, and conduct program analyses, reviews, and assessments.

More specifically, the objective of this position is to provide country backstopping, coordination, and programmatic support to promote successful implementation, monitoring, and reporting on GHS and new, emerging, and re-emerging infectious diseases across the LAC region. Successful completion of this objective will require intensive networking, collaboration, and coordination with a wide array of stakeholders including USAID missions across the LAC region, government partners, key regional institutions, various ministries across multiple sectors, U.S. Government (USG) inter-agency, multilateral partners, academia, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other implementing partners.

Full salary range for this position is $94,900 to $147,940 per year, with the starting salary determined based on candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, as well as budget availability.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Be an Agency-wide Resource for Global Health Security Issues:

• Provide guidance to Agency, Bureau, and Mission leadership on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases across the LAC region, providing technical support to advance strategies and programs that protect health, including and especially programs that prevent, detect, and respond to pandemic threats.
• Attend and contribute to interagency technical meetings and discussions on global health security priorities, particularly focused in the LAC region; actively consult and coordinate with relevant organizations internal and external to the USG.
• Participate in interagency global health security response activities for the LAC region; ensure that during disease outbreak situations, USAID resources and assistance are well coordinated and aligned to support USG, partner government, and local community priorities and needs; help to ensure that necessary support (personnel, information, resources, relationships) is available to effectively respond.
• Ensure that global health security programming and outbreak response activities are appropriately represented in communications; that leadership is well-informed on programming and implementation issues; and that all affected bureaus are appropriately engaged.
• Provide coordination and technical expertise to USAID to prepare, develop, implement, and monitor activities associated with global health security in the LAC region, with responsibility for overseeing the production of key deliverables and ensuring their approval. Provide technical guidance on development assistance activities in the areas of GHS and infectious diseases at Bureau, Mission, Agency, interagency levels, including by reviewing and analyzing data, developing strategies, analytical models, and methodologies, and providing assistance and advice on sectoral issues.
• Coordinate with Missions and grantee organizations in the application of USAID priorities and strategies to regional and country infectious disease and GHS programs.

Be a Geographic Area/Regional Technical Resource for Infectious Disease Issues:

• Serve as liaison between the LAC Bureau and the Bureau for Global Health to ensure that the LAC context is applied to GHS strategic planning, design, implementation, and evaluation and to facilitate coordination with USAID/Washington and Missions, the USG interagency, regional bodies, local organizations, and other partners.
• Participate in monitoring the expansion of GHS program initiatives throughout LAC Advisor and support Missions and USAID/Washington on courses of action; review Mission policies and project planning documentation for coherence, relevance, and programmatic realism; advise Missions on defining program content and identify resources within or outside USAID; and support Missions in briefing national government partners, including ministers, permanent secretaries, and prime ministers on global health security programming and accomplishments.
• Consult with other USAID bureaus and other USG counterparts on region-specific interventions. In conjunction with the Bureau for Global Health, monitor, backstop, and direct Mission requests for strategy development and support for major global health security investments.
• Serve as a country backstop for at least three GHS countries. Activities may include, but are not limited to, supporting the country Mission’s development of the annual work plans for GHS projects including the GHSA; reviewing country reports; briefing various stakeholders on GHS projects and GHSA activities; and liaising with the other USG agencies involved.
• Share LAC Bureau perspectives with senior-level and other host-government officials, as well as representatives of regional, and local entities. Advise senior Bureau management on key issues/constraints to program development. Advise Bureau, Office, and Mission staff on a variety of program and project issues. Provide strategy and development support on the design and implementation of LAC/RSD GHS approach, as well as and GH/ETD’s support in the LAC region.

Provide Centralized Project Management Support:

• Coordinate and evaluate centrally managed grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts as required. Serve as Activity Coordinator for GHS activities led by the Bureau for Global Health. Work closely with other staff on work assignments, usually in terms of the end project desired.
• Conduct international and domestic travel up to 25-35% of the time. 
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree with 6 years of relevant experience, Bachelor’s degree with 8 years of relevant experience, Associate’s degree with 10 years of relevant experience, or high school graduate with 12 years of relevant experience.

Other Qualifications:

• Demonstrated ability to understand the strategic purpose and goals of multiple organizations from different sectors (e.g., public health, animal health, environment), identify and solve problems, and coordinate and support activities that lead to mutual success across the different sectors.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate highly technical information related to human health, animal health, and environment to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with monitoring and evaluation methodologies, including frameworks, data quality assurance, analysis reporting and best practices in data dissemination in international/resource-challenged settings.
• Knowledge of USAID policies, procedures and reporting requirements desired.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Knowledge of the LAC political and social context.
• High degree of judgment, ingenuity, and originality to interpret strategy and to analyze, develop, and present work results.
• Fluency in English required. High-level professional proficiency in Spanish is desired (spoken and written).
• Ability to travel internationally and domestically up to 25% – 35% of the time.
• U.S. Citizenship with the ability to obtain and maintain Secret Clearance is required.

Application instructions

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