Director, Global Health Security

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. Gavi brings together developing 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. This is a complex alliance ecosystem. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organisations that fund Gavi’s work here: https://www.gavi.org/investing-gavi/funding/donor-profiles. 

Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines for the poorest communities in the world. Gavi brings together the public and private sectors with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the poorest countries.

Gavi is committed to working with its partners to protect the next generation and realise its mission to save lives, reduce poverty and protect the world against the threat of epidemics. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of and the prevention of more than 16.2 million future deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 lower-income countries and creating economic benefits of over $185 billion for the countries in which it operates. At the Global Vaccine Summit in June 2020, world leaders pledged US$ 10.5 billion to ensure Gavi can continue to amplify this work and immunise 300 million children between 2021 and 2025.

The Role

The Director for Health Security will lead Gavi’s new Health Security function and team, which includes coordinating and aligning across the Gavi Secretariat, the Alliance and broader players across the pandemic preparedness prevention and response (PPPR) ecosystem, to enable Gavi and the Gavi Alliance to prepare and effectively respond to future public health emergencies (PHE). 

Gavi’s 5.1 strategy entails an evolution of the Alliance’s role in Pandemic Preparedness and Response (PPR). As outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) will only become more likely and frequent in the future, Gavi is building on its current role and experience through the establishment of a dedicated Global Health Security team and will deepen its engagement in responding to VPD outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. 

This Director is responsible for leading and delivering on the GHS objectives, including developing the function, its role and leadership within Gavi and the Gavi Alliance. The Director will lead and manage a team to develop and implement Gavi’s health security strategy. 

The Director will engage with the broader international and regional health security and PPPR leaders and stakeholders to influence and enable Gavi and the Gavi Alliance’s comparative advantages and capabilities to contribute to an effective global public health response that meets countries’ requirements in VPD outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics. 

The Director will achieve this through their cross-functional leadership capabilities across the Secretariat as well as the Alliance, and support for the Managing Director for Vaccine Markets and Health Security, to establish and represent Gavi’s positions and voice within the rapidly evolving Global Health Security architecture. The Director will have primary responsibility for translating international policy discussions on PPPR into actionable programmes which can be delivered at the country-level, working through Gavi’s delivery partnerships to develop health security and pandemic preparedness. 

Under the leadership and direction of the Managing Director for Vaccine Markets and Health Security, the GHS team will: 

•Develop and establish Gavi’s Health Security function, role and leadership within Gavi and the Gavi Alliance;

•Engage with the broader international and regional health security and PPPR architecture and stakeholders to enable an effective response, including leveraging Gavi and the Gavi Alliance’s comparative advantages and capabilities, that meets countries’ requirements in VPD outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics;

•Lead the technical and programmatic aspects of Gavi’s health security work including pandemic readiness. This will require coordination with other Gavi teams engaged in health security and pandemic preparedness, including but not limited to country-facing resilient health systems; innovative financing and resource mobilisation; policy; market shaping; legal; financing; communications; and advocacy; 

•Design, establish, and oversee an end-to-end view and coordination within the Gavi Secretariat and with Alliance partners for tools and activities in prevention, preparedness and rapid response to a range of epidemic/pandemic scenarios in which vaccines are part of effective countermeasures. This is necessary to sustain and continue evolving Gavi’s approach to health security and response in light of the evolving global health architecture and Gavi’s comparative advantage; 

•Reflect Gavi’s response to the effects of climate change on outbreaks and epidemics, recognizing that associated changes in geography and epidemiology will require changes in preparedness and response;

•Develop actionable, partnership-based plans for outbreak, epidemic, and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, building upon Gavi’s regular programmes and investments. 

Main Duties and Responsibilities

The Director for Health Security’s key functions and deliverables are:

•Advocate, represent and influence externally and internally to establish Gavi and the Gavi Alliance as a key convenor / contributor for the vaccines counter measure in the international and regional PPPR architecture;

•Establish matrix / cross-functional leadership across the Secretariat, with Alliance (and non-Alliance) partners to leverage expert capabilities, partner strengths and power of the Alliance-model toward common goals in PPR and effective response in public health emergency (PHE);

•Translate global policy processes into the creation of an Alliance-wide plan with partners, and drive their implementation (including coordinating with partners for a holistic, global vaccine prevention and response plan);

•Collaborate and align with cross functional Directors, in particular Policy, Public Policy Engagement (PPE), Resource Mobilization (RM), Vaccine Programmes (VP) and Country Programmes (CP), to develop and implement Gavi’s health security strategy and objectives;

•Design and implementation of decision-making frameworks and approaches for Gavi’s response and involvement during public health emergencies (PHEs), including guiding the governance and subsequent execution of the response;

•Manage a team of staff and consultants;

•Support the Managing Director in their role on advocacy, representation, coordination, governance within the Secretariat, and across the Alliance;

•Represent Gavi and contribute to the discussions on PPPR at international level (e.g. WHO, thinktanks etc);

•Oversight and responsibility for completion of COVAX and COVID-19 related activities (e.g., audit, evaluation, reporting, and legal and financial matters);  

•Supervision of data, monitoring and learning agenda for the Vaccine Markets and Health Security function;

Note: The responsibilities listed in this section are not exhaustive; other duties may be assigned consistent with the department needs.

Candidate Profile 

Qualifications

•Advanced university degree in public health, health economics, development, or related field, or other relevant qualification;

Experience

•Minimum of 15 years of professional work experience in public health at national, regional or international levels, with relevant experience in health policy, public health emergencies, pandemic preparedness and response,  vaccines and immunisation, or other health interventions;

•Demonstrable experience of setting strategy, and execution to achieve results;

•Multilateral partner experience, including at senior levels, with a track record for convening, representing, influencing, and aligning positions across multiple stakeholders, in complex environments, to achieve common goals. Substantial exposure to multilateral global public health and political contexts;

•Developing country and / or regional institution experience;

•Knowledge of the intersection of climate change and public health emergencies is desirable.

Languages

•Gavi operates in an English language environment, consequently fluency in spoken and written English essential;

•The ability to communicate in spoken and written French is an asset.

Competencies

The Director for Health Security will demonstrate the key competencies and behaviours identified below:

•Drive for results: 

Entrepreneurial: takes ownership and initiative, and makes things happen; 

Execution and delivery-oriented; meets deadlines;

Creative and flexible thinker; 

Ability to manage competing priorities and uncertainties, ambiguity; 

Lead and inspire team members;

Develop and coach team members.

•Analytical: 

Ability to analyse complex situations, identify areas for intervention and action to achieve objectives.

•Strategic:

Record of developing strategic approaches and follow through to implementation with diverse collaborators. 

•Collaboration:

Successfully worked across institutional or team boundaries, establish productive working relationships, and utilise expertise of colleagues to achieve results; 

Demonstrated experience of working in and delivering through multi-partner environments;  

Successfully led matrix-style management structure.

•Communication and stakeholder management: 

High level of persuasive communication and presentation skills, including at Board, global public health, political and senior decision making forums;

Ability to influence and build trust with stakeholders at all levels, particularly senior level stakeholders; 

Demonstrated capacity to successfully manage situations of considerable complexity and political sensitivity.

Contacts & Stakeholders

•Gavi Secretariat;

•World Health Organisation; 

•Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations;

•UNICEF; 

•The World Bank;

•Donors and governments;

•Civil society;

•Regional bodies, e.g. African Union, PAHO;

•Vaccine and Pharmaceuticals Industry. 

How to Apply

To apply, please send your CV and supporting statement to responses@russellreynolds.com by Friday 16 February 2024, quoting the role title in the subject heading of the e-mail. All applications will be acknowledged. Your supporting statement should succinctly highlight your motivation, experience, and skills against the requirements of the role.

Please note that as a vaccine organisation and in order to provide duty of care towards its employees, Gavi requires its new employees to confirm that they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition for pursuing employment. You can find out more by visiting this link.  

In support of Gavi’s commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion, we hire globally and welcome applications regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, national origin, family status, sex, gender identity or expression, physical characteristics, race, religion, spirituality or sexual orientation. Gavi has zero tolerance towards sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse as well as any form of discrimination or harassment. Everyone at Gavi is expected to conduct themselves with integrity and respect towards each other. Gavi is committed to creating a work environment that is safe and professional, therefore all selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference checks. Read more here.

Gavi brings together the public and private sectors to save lives and protect people’s health by increasing equitable and sustainable use of vaccines against 18 infectious diseases. You will be joining an organisation at the centre of the international COVID-19 response, at the most critical time in global health in a lifetime. You will work in a culturally diverse environment with over 70 nationalities. You will collaborate with partners such as WHO, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank – and from business, civil society and government. And you will work in the first global health organisation to receive equal gender salary certification. Your unique experience, skills and talents can help us achieve our vision of leaving no one behind without the life-saving power of vaccines.