Technical Director, SP4PHC at ThinkWell-apply!

• For the Strategic Purchasing for Primary Health Care (SP4PHC) project, ThinkWell is looking for a Technical Director (TD) to oversee the creation and execution of the learning agenda and guarantee technical excellence throughout the project.
• In the field of health financing, the TD ought to be a recognized or up-and-coming global leader. Under their direction, the SP4PHC team will investigate novel concepts, glean important insights, and introduce fresh perspectives (substantiated by solid data) into national and global dialogues on health financing. They will motivate the group to question accepted wisdom and adopt sloppy presumptions. The TD will collaborate with international partners to use project learning to impact the discourse on health systems and financing.
• In collaboration with the Project Director, the TD will determine SP4PHC’s technical course. They will play a crucial role in the Project Leadership Team by giving the Project Director and Country Leadership technical guidance and intellectual partnership. The TD bears primary accountability for the technical caliber of the SP4PHC work, developing the technical methodology, supervising the project’s communications team to ensure efficient internal and external learning, and designing and developing studies and technical outputs.
• Within the project and throughout ThinkWell, the TD will find and develop technical talent. The TD is in charge of learning partnerships with regional research groups and personally supervises a small international team of Technical Advisors that assist SP4PHC country teams. On the SP4PHC project, the TD additionally oversees the work of one or more ThinkWell Senior Fellows. Senior Fellows are renowned international part-timers who offer strategic advice to ThinkWell’s operations.
• The TD will take on a prominent role at ThinkWell, strengthening our technical leadership, expanding our scope of work, and assisting in the execution of excellent technical projects. The TD is a part of the management and program teams at ThinkWell. The SP4PHC Project Director receives reports from the TD.

This position is fully remote with a strong preference for someone based in Africa or Asia.

SP4PHC responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of the SP4PHC project learning agenda, identifying and delivering opportunities for learning to influence policy.
• Lead the SP4PHC team to explore new ideas, extract key insights and inject new thinking and robust evidence into national and international discussions on health financing.
• Supervise the development of SP4PHC learning products, providing direct technical assistance and designing and managing the quality assurance process to ensure excellence.
• Oversee learning partnerships established between country teams and country-based learning partners, and ensure scopes of work, study design, analysis and outputs meet appropriate standards.
• Oversee direct technical support to project country teams, joint learning and knowledge management, maximizing the impact of learning partnerships between countries and with external agencies.
• Mentor and support country leads on project implementation.
• Lead engagement with BMGF on key learnings from the project, proactively identifying opportunities to influence BMGF strategy.
• Support the evolution of country strategies, and the continued devolution of the project, including overall project vision, theory of change, and results framework
• Thought Leadership and Global Influence
• Identify key areas of intersection between SP4PHC policy engagement and global health financing and health systems conversations. Work with senior fellows to build partnerships with our donors and other thought leaders to prioritize critical themes for exploration. Through these partnerships, develop and implement country and cross-country research, and lead dissemination of findings to influence the global conversation.
• Publish papers, articles and blogs.  Present at conferences and participate in technical working groups. Build ThinkWell’s reputation as a thought leader in the field.
• Contribute to the development of quarterly project newsletter, the most visible communication channel for the project, and the monthly project bulletin
• Consult and coordinate with key stakeholders within government, donors, and other entities to build ThinkWell reputation

ThinkWell responsibilities

• Play a company-wide leadership role, building intellectual and human capital in health financing.
• Communicate with other ThinkWell directors and project managers globally to build, share, exchange and disseminate technical knowledge
• Recruit, support and mentor outstanding team members in health financing
• Collaborate with ThinkWell’s talent team to design technical training and development activities that will support and build professional development
• New Business Development
• Contribute to the extension and expansion of SP4PHC activities through collaboration with other projects within the firm and external partners
• Build ThinkWell’s portfolio in health financing in collaboration with Business Development, program managers and other firm and country leaders
• Additional responsibilities and duties not listed may be added.

Your qualifications

• Master’s degree in health economics, health policy or related field with 10 years of experience or a PhD and 8 years of experience.
• Recognized as a leader in health financing with a track record of high impact publications and a strong international, professional network in the field.
• Substantive, relevant work experience in the specific area of technical expertise. (e.g., ministries of health and finance experience, health financing or health policy expertise, health systems strengthening, etc.) Adept at communicating technical information to non-technical audiences.
• Track record of managing complex, multi-country projects, and extensive experience with project monitoring and evaluation in the area of technical specialization.
• Demonstrated interest and ability in growing staff, mentoring and coaching junior professionals.
• A senior leader, able to rally staff around ThinkWell’s mission and priorities.
• A thoughtful systems thinker with grounded, pragmatic understanding of the complexities of our work.
• Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with external strategic partners, donors, and stakeholders.
• New business development, proposal writing and fundraising experience.
• Full English fluency, second language a plus.
• Experience of living and working in lower and middle income countries.
• Outstanding cross-cultural communication skills, including the ability to relate respectfully with staff at all levels, ages, genders, nationalities and orientations as well as across work areas.
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 20%.