Senior Program Officer, Health Systems Design – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates.

Our Program Teams are Global Health, Global Development, Global Policy, Advocacy & Communications, Global Growth and Opportunity, Gender Equality, and US Programs. They research and make grant & investment proposals that are aligned with a program strategy. They are responsible for ongoing management of grants and investments.

Our Operating Teams composed of Legal, Finance, and Grants & Contracts Management support program teams to design, create & execute grant & investment agreements. Our Human Resources, Global Digital Technology (IT), and Global Facilities, Events, and Travel teams provide the staff, technology and logistics that enable program teams to run effectively and work smartly around the world.

We strive to create a peak career experience. We know that by creating an environment for our employees to personally and professionally thrive and contribute at their highest potential, we will have maximum impact towards our missions.

Our missions are the outcomes that help us achieve our vision of seeing a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life:
* Ensure more children and young people survive and thrive
* Empower the poorest, especially women and girls, to transform their lives
* Combat infectious diseases that particularly affect the poorest
* Inspire people to take action to change the world

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices

Group Summary

The Global Development Program includes a diverse range of program areas aimed at finding creative ways to ensure solutions and products get into the hands of people in low-income countries who need them most. We focus on areas with the potential for high-impact, sustainable solutions that can reach millions of people. Our program strategies include: Emergency Response; Family Planning; Maternal Newborn & Child Health; Nutrition; Polio Eradication. A common theme across these programs is focus on innovative delivery, including an emphasis on strengthening primary health care systems. The Global Development Program also encompasses our India Country Office and Africa Team, with physical offices in Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, and Abuja. Our Program Strategy Teams work in close partnership with these Country Office Teams to align the foundation’s health and development equity agenda with the government’s broader priorities.

Leadership and Culture

Our culture shapes our choices about what we do and how we do it. We believe that energized people, working well together, fueled by great leadership in an inclusive environment can do extraordinary things. We expect foundation employees to intentionally and consistently embody our values of optimism, collaboration, rigor, innovation and inclusion.

Division Summary

Our efforts are aligned with India’s objectives of improving the lives of its people — working closely with India’s Central and State governments, we partner with community groups, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, the private sector, and development organizations, to achieve our shared goals. Our strong networks and ability to convene intellectual resources from many sectors and every region of the globe allows us to address complex challenges as they emerge or evolve.

Our efforts in India focus on key issues that will affect the future of India’s most vulnerable communities: reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition; urban sanitation; agricultural development; gender equality, and digital financial inclusion. With a particular focus on Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, we work with partners to develop impactful and sustainable solutions to improve the quality and coverage of key services for the poor and vulnerable. We also work in other states to support programs in urban sanitation, agricultural development, gender equality, health systems design and digital financial inclusion.

Health Systems Design

The Health Systems Design (HSD) initiative in the India Country Office (ICO) aims to conceptualize, design and support efforts by reform champions to promote medium/long-term structural reforms within the Indian health care system, drawing on international evidence and proven practices from within and outside India. Our goal is to support government to foster a health system with increased accessibility, equity, accountability, quality of care, and improved financial protection.

Position Summary

Strategy and Leadership

•  Play a leadership role in shaping the health systems design efforts of the foundation – both internally in ICO and externally. This includes conceptualizing programs linked to objectives, designing and executing grants against them, working with National Health Authority and other partners internally and externally to support mobilization of the programs and nurturing a partner ecosystem.
• Establish strong relationships with government partners at national and state level. Manage senior relationships with development partners, private sector, and civil society, both domestically and globally.

Health Financing

• Work closely with BMGF colleagues as well as our partner ecosystem to bring about measurable change in the health financing landscape in 3-5 years by using our existing grant portfolio and through design and development of new grants that will:
• strengthen health financing in India both public and private including support for the three main health financing building blocks: a) resource raising, b) pooling, and c) strategic purchasing.
•  improve effectiveness of existing health financing schemes (PMJAY, state schemes, ESIS, commercial insurance),
• support convergence and standardization across schemes,
• strengthening of oversight/governance (regulation) and expansion of effective coverage through tax/compelled financing strengthened eligibility requirements, benefit package revisions and provider payments.

Health Care Delivery

• Craft a work program to strengthen the health care ecosystem in India, both public and private. Assess national and international efforts and find opportunities for BMGF to contribute to transformative change.
• Identify programs and initiatives such as clinical protocols, fraud management, financing and payments, digital that enhance the quality of health care.

Learning Ecosystem

• Work with selected national/state governments and private players to build an “inter-state” learning eco-system.
• Connect Indian partners to international experience through exposure, learning collaboratives, and research/policy networks.
• Provide analytic support at the national level to various institutions such as NITI, MOF, NDHM, NHA.

Private Sector Integration

• Develop approaches to integrate private sector stakeholders into a unified national health system.
• Generate evidence regarding the scaling of successful private innovations within the Indian health system—and their integration into a national health insurance covered pools.

Digital

Collaborate with the Digital Team within the Foundation and selected external partners to strengthen the National Digital Health Mission, and digital solutions used for building the capacity of the state to orchestrate delivery of public health with emphasis on clinical excellence, patient experience and FLW coordination.

Core Knowledge And Skills

• Understanding of the design principles and functioning of the Indian and other middle income country health systems.
• Appreciation of the role of state capacity, public finance and digital in country health systems.
• Ability to build strong relationships and working constructively with senior stakeholders in and outside government.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills with the ability to solve problems with energy and influence without authority.
• Demonstrated ability of building trust-based relationships
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to convey messages to non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated team spirit; willing to work with humor as part of a team effort.
• Ability to travel up to 35% of the time domestically and internationally.
• Track record of analytical/diagnostic work: preparing high-quality technical reports, policy briefing materials, and presentations to influence strategic decisions.
• Demonstrated experience of using first principle-based thinking, personal credibility, and courage to bring about change in a complex multi-stakeholder environment.
•  A background in economic evaluations (cost-effectiveness; cost utility; cost studies, etc.); economic modeling, systematic reviews, meta-analyses
•  A knowledge of models of using private sector providers as part of a unified health system (Regulation, tax incentives, PPPs, contracting, payment, integration into provider payment schemes, etc.).

Education And Experience

• Master’s or advanced degree in Health Economics/ Economics/ Digital Health is preferred.
•  Ideally, 10+ years of work experience in health financing/ health economics/public health/service delivery/digital health.
• Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

All Applicants And Employees Who Are Drawn To Serve The Mission Of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Will Enjoy Equality Of Opportunity And Fair Treatment Without Regard To

• Race
• Color
• Age
• Religion
• Pregnancy
• Sex
• Sexual Orientation
• Disability
•  Gender Identity
• Gender Expression
•  National Origin
• Genetic Information
• Veteran Status
• Marital Status
• Prior Protected Activity

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates.