Senior Program Officer, Technology Solutions – PATH – Seattle, WA, USA

PATH is an international organization that drives transformative innovation to save lives and improve health, especially among women and children. We accelerate innovation across five platforms—vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, and system and service innovations—that harness our entrepreneurial insight, scientific and public health expertise, and passion for health equity. By mobilizing partners around the world, we take innovation to scale, working alongside countries primarily in Africa and Asia to tackle their greatest health needs. Together, we deliver measurable results that disrupt the cycle of poor health.

The Technology Solutions Program at PATH develops, advances, and facilitates commercialization of health technologies for low-resource settings. PATH teams conduct collaborative research and development with universities, manufacturers, and other institutions to develop products that are appropriate and affordable for developing-country use. PATH’s goals in these collaborations are to achieve maximum sustainable public health benefit and to facilitate global technology access.

The Vaccine and Pharmaceutical Technologies Group within the Technology Solutions Program at PATH focuses on three portfolios of work (formulation, delivery, and supply systems and equipment) to improve vaccine and pharmaceutical products and their distribution within developing countries. PATH seeks a Senior Program Officer to work in the Vaccine and Pharmaceutical Technologies Group to advance PATH’s global work to ensure that vaccines and related technologies reach those who need them in developing countries and are optimized for the contexts in which they will be used. The Senior Program Officer will work on multiple project teams under the direction of the Vaccine and Pharmaceutical Technologies Director and the relevant Portfolio Leader and will serve in a leadership capacity for some projects. Project teams are multidisciplinary and generally include members with technical/scientific, administrative, public health, communications, business/commercialization, health economics, and administrative support expertise.

Specific responsibilities include: 

• Conducting needs assessments in collaboration with national immunization programs and other stakeholders to inform priorities and investments in appropriate solutions.
• Leading or coordinating operational research with national immunization programs and other stakeholders to assess new vaccine management policies or approaches to inform global and local decision-making.
• Leading or coordinating specific scopes of work to assess immunization technologies in developing countries, including human factor analyses, design-stage evaluations, field evaluations, pilot introductions, knowledge attitudes and practices surveys, and post‑market surveillance. Technology interventions may include novel cold chain equipment, temperature monitoring technologies, vaccine packaging, or delivery devices.
• Providing technical assistance to PATH staff members in country offices to bolster their ability to serve as local resources to national immunization programs to improve immunization coverage, effective and safe delivery of vaccines, and system-cost effectiveness.
• Assisting with advocacy efforts and national immunization program improvements working with PATH staff members in headquarters and country offices, collaborators, interns, and consultants to carry out the work.
• Developing qualitative and quantitative research protocols, implementing/conducting research, analyzing data, and drafting reports and journal publications summarizing findings.
• Ensuring that all required local, national, and institutional approvals are obtained for planned research.
• Conducting background research as requested to inform protocols and policy recommendations and to contribute to global dialog on key issues.
• Preparing reports and presentations and sharing findings with international agencies, donors, industry, and other stakeholders.
• Serving as an immunization specialist/public health representative on multiple teams within the Vaccine and Pharmaceutical Technologies Group. Assisting with strategic planning, improved internal knowledge management, continuous improvement, and cross-program collaboration.
• Representing PATH at global or national level meetings as requested.
• Assisting other PATH projects and initiatives, as needed.
• Leading or assisting with grant applications, business development, and project monitoring and evaluation.
• Potentially serving as a supervisor or mentor to other staff members.

Required Skills

• Ability to design complex technical projects using scientific methodologies, and plan and execute the projects in low-resource and diverse geographical settings.
• Ability to assess end-user needs in low-resource settings and to effectively harness resources and work with local and global stakeholders to meet those needs.
• Proven effectiveness and diplomacy in interacting and collaborating with leaders in international organizations, governmental organizations, industry, and academia.
• Ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams and successfully navigate a matrix organization.
• Demonstrated ability to work as a team player, honoring the opinions and expertise of others.
• Effective written and oral communication as well as organizational and interpersonal skills.
• Strong project management capabilities.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 35 percent time and work within diverse cultures.
• Competency in additional languages, especially French, is highly desirable.

Required Experience Candidate should have a Masters’ degree and training or work experience in relevant public health and technical fields (e.g., public health, product development, supply chain, engineering) to include a minimum of twelve years of relevant international health experience with at least three years in a leadership capacity. Previous work experience in developing-country immunization settings and knowledge of immunization delivery, vaccine management, and supply chain systems. Previous work experience evaluating technologies or conducting operational or scientific research. Experience with ethical review processes for human subjects research and experience working with global immunization stakeholders—including international and donor agencies—is highly desirable.

Candidate must have legal authorization to work in the United States or Geneva, Switzerland. 

Click here for more information.