Overview
RTI International’s Global Health Division is currently accepting applications for a Technical Director for an anticipated USAID-funded malaria program in Tanzania. Under this activity, USAID/Tanzania will fund malaria case management, malaria in pregnancy (MIP) through quality improvement initiatives and malaria surveillance, MERLA, entomological monitoring, drug efficacy monitoring, and monitoring of other drug-based interventions. RTI anticipates this activity will also seek to improve private sector engagement and strengthening the existing linkages between community health services/ community-level leadership and facilities/District Health Teams that promote malaria prevention, detection, and treatment in households.
The Technical Director will provide primary support to the functions of the Chief of Party (COP) in supervising and assuring the quality of technical activities, including management and oversight of technical staff. With the COP, the Technical Director will be responsible for ensuring that all technical assistance provided under the project is strategic, high quality and supports the achievement of project objectives. The position will be based with RTI in Dar es Salaam and local travel will be required.
Responsibilities
- In close collaboration with COP, provide overall technical leadership and quality assurance for technical assistance and activities necessary to achieve objectives, outputs, services, and products expected under the program.
- Supervise the implementation of integrated delivery and scale up of proven malaria interventions, including vulnerable groups of pregnant women and children under 5 years of age, and other activities required under the Contract to ensure that performance schedules are observed, and outputs are completed according to schedule.
- Oversee activities to improve access to rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and quality artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) at facility and community levels as well as ensure state-wide training and follow-up in the public and private sectors.
- Oversee activities to ensure the provision of MIP services, including consistent delivery of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) – at ANC clinics.
- Support the MSDQI system for comprehensive supervision of malaria service delivery in health facilities
- Work with surveillance data and other health information for decision-making and coach internal project and external stakeholder teams to work with data.
- Provide technical oversight of the work undertaken by subcontractors and grantees.
- Together with the COP, provide direction and support for the preparation of annual work plans and strategies.
- Support COP and project staff with the production of project materials, including the development of policy briefs, technical reports and training materials ensuring technical quality and relevance for programmers and policy makers.
- Liaise with other critical Government of Tanzania and development partners working in malaria such as the Ministry of Health Social Welfare, Gender Elderly and Children (MOHCDGEC), National Malaria Control Program, GFTAM, WHO, UNICEF, DFID, SDC, RBM etc.
- Represent RTI in national level technical working groups, committees, and other meetings related to malaria, etc.
- Directly supervise technical team members and help facilitate and coordinate their liaison work with senior counterparts and stakeholders at national and subnational levels.
Minimum Qualifications
- PhD or medical degree with additional relevant training in on or more of the following areas: public health, biological sciences, entomology, environmental sciences, malariology, or parasitology.
- Minimum of 8 years’ experience working in the field of malaria prevention and control in Tanzania; demonstrated success leading technical teams for USAID and/or other development partner-funded health projects highly preferred.
- Demonstrated senior-level expertise in malaria prevention and control preferred including experience with implementation and scale up of case management and MIP services and iCCM.
- Experience supporting collaborating learning and adapting (CLA) and other monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities to improve technical project performance.
- Demonstrated capacity to build and maintain productive working relationships with a wide network of local partners and stakeholders. Experience with capacity building of local partners considered desirable.
- Strong experience with Microsoft Office applications.
- Excellent English language ability and strong interpersonal, written, and oral presentation communications skills.
This position is contingent upon award and funding; the anticipated award date is June 2022. To apply, please upload your resume to the RTI Careers Page. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. RTI is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
RTI does not permit any payment requests demanded during any part of the hiring process. If such requests are made, please report it to the RTI Ethics Office via HRethics@rti.org. Any candidate making any payment will be disqualified from consideration for future employment with RTI.