Senior Advisor, Impact and Evidence

Organisational context

The World Mosquito Program (WMP) is a not-for-profit group of companies owned by Australia’s Monash University that works to protect the global community from mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya. The World Mosquito Program uses naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia to reduce the ability of mosquitoes to transmit viruses that cause life-threatening disease throughout tropical countries of the world.

Following years of laboratory research, independent risk analysis and successful field trials, WMP has undertaken deployments in 14 countries around the world and has widespread support from communities, governments, and public health regulators. We are now undergoing rapid organisational change to position WMP to play a key role in scaling global access to Wolbachia and helping to protect the 4 billion people worldwide who live at risk of dengue and other mosquito transmitted viral diseases. WMP is funded by governments and philanthropists from around the world. More information about the WMP can be obtained from www.worldmosquitoprogram.org.

Position purpose

The Senior Advisor, Impact and Evidence provides technical and subject-matter expertise to support the evaluation and communication of the global public health impact of WMP’s Wolbachia deployments. The Senior Advisor, Impact and Evidence will collaborate with other members of the WMP Global Access team, Delivery team, Data and Information Management team, and in-country project teams to coordinate activities that generate real-world evidence of the effectiveness, safety, scalability and value of the Wolbachia method across different settings, and to synthesise this global evidence to support further scale-up of the Wolbachia method in existing and new partner countries.

Reporting Line: The position reports to the Director, Integrated Evidence.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Not applicable

Key responsibilities

• Coordinate activities that support the ongoing accumulation and communication of real-world evidence of the public health outcomes and broader impacts of global Wolbachia deployments
• Collate, maintain and analyse primary and secondary datasets that support the targeting and design of Wolbachia implementations in different markets, and the evaluation and communication of WMP’s global real-world evidence, impact and value; including disease burden, demographic, economic, and other relevant datasets
• Build effective relationships with WMP Global Access and Delivery teams, in-country project teams, and key internal stakeholders to integrate considerations of impact evaluation into the design of new projects; set expectations and implement minimum standards for sharing and collation of disease surveillance data; and support the monitoring and evaluation of public health impact
• Lead or support (depending on statistical proficiency) the statistical analysis of epidemiological data
• Prepare data analyses and technical written content for submissions and reports to funders, governments, and regulatory agencies, and for presentations and peer-reviewed publications
• Support the timely integration of evidence on the outcomes and impact of global Wolbachia deployments into written materials and visual content for various lay and technical external audiences
• Collaborate with WMP’s Data and Information Management team on the implementation of, and improvements to, reporting dashboards for monitoring public health outcomes and broader impacts across WMP’s global project sites
• Ensure adherence to relevant ethical and privacy requirements around data sharing and storage and compliance with all regulatory bodies

Key selection criteria

Education / Qualifications:

The appointee will have:

• Postgraduate qualifications in epidemiology, public health, data science or another relevant field, and/or
• an equivalent combination of relevant experience and education/training.

Knowledge and Skills:

• At least 5 years relevant experience working in public health or epidemiological research or program delivery
• High level quantitative, analytical and investigative skills, and the ability to source, collate, clean and manipulate large datasets, and to analyse, interpret and visualise data
• Experience in epidemiological research methods and analysis, including development and implementation of epidemiological field studies and/or experience with disease surveillance systems
• High level competence in statistical analyses of health outcomes and interventions in R and/or Stata, and preferably also with data visualisation and/or mapping expertise
• Well-developed planning and organisational skills, with the ability to work both independently and as an effective team member, prioritise multiple tasks, set and meet deadlines, and respond rapidly as needs change or evolve
• Highly developed computer literacy with familiarity across the Microsoft Office packages, database and statistical analysis software. Familiarity with mapping software would be an advantage
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write scientifically as well as for a non-technical audience; to contribute to the preparation of reports and publications; and to communicate clearly and effectively with colleagues with technical and non-technical backgrounds and across diverse geographies.
• Experience working in an international environment, and/or within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Demonstrated understanding of human research ethics and data privacy principles.

Other job-related information

• Some out-of-business-hours work will be required to accommodate time zones for meetings with global WMP colleagues and project teams
• Some international travel may be required
• Hybrid work model

IMPORTANT

• CV and Cover Letter in English are required.