Senior Immunization Technical Advisor-COVID

Overview

Summary Statement

Credence Management Solutions employs hard-working, passionate individuals who bring innovation, accountability, and a growth mindset to the many missions we support across the US Federal Government. Employee empowerment is part of the fabric of our corporate culture through which we emphasize opportunity, recognition, reward, and retention. At Credence, we follow the principles of servant leadership and believe that serving and supporting others is critical to both our individual and collective achievements. We have only one measure of success. Yours.

We are hiring for positions under the Global Health Training, Advisory, Support Contract (GHTASC) in support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Global Health (GH). These roles deliver institutional support services in a wide range of technical areas at the junior, mid-, senior, and expert levels.

We are a diverse, enthusiastic family of subject matter experts, business professionals, and practitioners who all share a common goal of providing excellent services to our government customers. If you want to work in a dynamic and fast-growing environment with highly motivated colleagues, then Credence is the right place for you!

Credence Management Solutions is seeking a Senior Immunization Technical Advisor. See below for more information on this exciting opportunity and apply to join Credence today!

Note: This is a term-limited position through September 30, 2023

Position Summary

Over 6.4 million people have died from the COVID-19 pandemic. It has further disrupted access to essential services including immunization and put tens of millions at risk of contracting vaccine-preventable diseases. The Biden Administration has called on the world to collectively end the COVID-19 pandemic as soon as possible and has introduced ambitious targets in three critical areas for ending this pandemic and preventing and preparing for the next: Vaccinate the World; Save Lives Now; and Build Back Better. As noted in the COVID-19 Global Response and Recovery Framework (GRRF), the U.S. government (USG) has committed to supporting the target of vaccinating 70% of the world population by the end of 2022.

To meet the ambitious goals set by the Biden-Harris Administration and the GRRF, the Bureau for Global Health joined forces with the Agency’s COVID-19 Task Force (CTF) to launch USAID’s COVID-19 Vaccine Access and Delivery Initiative (VADI) to support the USAID Administrator’s Global VAX commitments including: overseeing the historic rollout of more than a billion vaccine doses; working closely with USAID Missions to coordinate, supply, and strengthen country readiness and delivery; and managing our partnership with COVAX; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF); the World Health Organization; and others.

The key to controlling the pandemic lies in implementing a comprehensive public health and clinical strategy in every country. To prevent transmission and expand access to evidence-based, high-quality care and treatment for patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 infections, the Global Health Bureau has launched the Saving Lives Now agenda. Saving Lives Now aims to reduce morbidity and mortality, mitigate transmission, and strengthen health systems, including to prevent, detect, and respond to pandemic threats to respond to COVID more broadly.

The Senior Immunization Technical Advisor will primarily support the Vaccine Access and Delivery Initiative USAID office as a Credence Institutional Support Contractor (ISC). In this role, the selected candidate will provide technical advisory support/recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine introduction and scale-up in approximately 100 countries globally.

The Senior Immunization Technical Advisor will deliver exceptional, high-quality technical recommendations for USAID support to countries in the readiness and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. The Senior Immunization Technical Advisor will collaborate across VADI under the direction of the Technical Team Lead.

Responsibilities

The Senior Immunization Technical Advisor will work on COVID-19 vaccine access and delivery and provide: 1) Global technical support by influencing policies and programs; and 2) Technical assistance to country-level COVID-19 vaccination programs.

Global COVID-19 Immunization Leadership (50%)

• Stay abreast of new policy recommendations, emerging evidence, best practices, technical and programmatic developments, and data sources, in the area of immunization related to COVID-19 vaccine preparedness and delivery and support interpretation, communication and application
• Provide state of the art technical guidance through the Vaccine Weekly, other updates and summaries of new policies and new clinical information (including in the areas social and behavior change; promoting gender equity, service delivery, reaching priority populations, human resource planning, microplanning, data systems for vaccination etc.);
• Participate in interagency, domestic and global meetings, consultations, working groups, and negotiations related COVID-19 vaccine technical assistance;
• Provide technical assistance for the Global Health Bureau and the COVID Task Force in global discussions related to COVID-19 immunization with international partners;
• Prepare and contribute to briefers or other documents to summarize progress in COVID-19 immunization; conduct regular data review and trend analysis for USG focal countries; contribute to advance COVID-19 vaccination global priorities;
• Prepare and present technical presentations at meetings and workshops as appropriate;
• Prepare briefers, talking points, and information memos
• Monitor and analyze equity trends and issues related to COVID-19 immunization and apply these analyses to global, regional and country level COVID-19 programming supported by USAID;
• Support and contribute to the Implementing Partners’ Forum

Program Management and Country Support (50%)

• Assist countries to conduct and refine gap assessments for technical area support, in collaboration with teams across VADI
• Monitor and analyze key metrics to track progress of USAID-funded implementation partner support to countries
• Participate in rapid response and red teaming as requested
• Provide state-of-the-art technical and program expertise, assistance and support to the VADI, regional bureaus and USAID field Missions in the development and evaluation of COVID-19 immunization-related strategies, programs, and policies (including in the areas social and behavior change; promoting gender equity, service delivery, reaching priority populations, human resource planning, microplanning, data systems for vaccination etc.)
• Assist in developing technical content for Congressional Notifications, briefers, and policy papers related to COVID-19 vaccination
• Assist Missions and USAID/GH AOR/CORs and activity managers in implementing partner SOW development, and work plan review
• Support COVID-19 vaccine related procurement and A&A planning
• Provide guidance and support for policy development, program planning, project design and implementation in line with evolving technical needs USAID’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy.
• Provide standardized and state of the art guidance to effectively monitor, evaluate and analyze USAID COVID-19 immunization program progress to roll-out on a worldwide basis; participating in country-level activities as required
• Facilitate the gathering and analysis of COVID-19 immunization data for reporting, decision making and improving program design and monitoring
• Provide high-quality, up-to-date technical assistance to VADI team members in the area of immunization scale-up and support solutions to red flag issues
• Liaise across VADI teams as needed to understand and develop tailored response mechanisms to address bottlenecks encountered in countries with regard to scaling up immunization efforts and provide feedback to the VADI Director
• Understand the landscape of partners / mechanisms best suited to deliver technical assistance for immunization, appropriate to country contexts

Qualifications

• Minimum requirements equivalent to PhD with 8 years of relevant experience; Master’s degree with 10 years of experience, Bachelor’s degree with 12 years of experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience in the field of global public health or related field.
• Minimum 4 years direct experience managing or advising routine immunization programs including new vaccine introductions, and vaccine preventable disease specific programs such as polio eradication, measles elimination
• Demonstrated experience with COVID-19 vaccination efforts; knowledge of IA2030, Gavi 5. 0 and familiarity with global immunization policies and strategies;
• Experience in evaluation design and iterative learning, using data and predictive analysis for design, performance monitoring and decision making
• Knowledge of disease control initiatives (e.g., polio, measles, tetanus)
• Ability to work with global and country stakeholders in the formulation of policy, assessment and program design and monitoring
• Excellent interpersonal and team skills–demonstrated ability to interact professionally with culturally and linguistically diverse staff, clients, and consultants
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple tasks concurrently, and meet deadlines with attention to detail and quality
• Fluent spoken and written English; Fluency in French or Portuguese preferred
• Prior experience working in countries is an advantage
• Excellent written and oral communication and computer skills
• Willingness to travel up to 30 % of the time
• US citizenship or permanent residency with the ability to obtain and maintain Facility Access required.

Competencies/Performance Criterion

• Innovation: Employee takes initiative to propose new ideas/approaches, and demonstrates ability to find new and better ways to accomplish work.
• Customer Service: Handles customer questions and complaints, communicates with customers, handles service problems politely and efficiently, always available for customers, follows procedure to solve customer problems, understands company products and services, maintains pleasant and professional image.
• Accountability: Takes ownership of work responsibilities and holds high standards. Keeps commitments and takes appropriate actions to ensure obligations are met. Pursues efficiency and effectiveness and adheres to Organization policies and procedures.
• Interpersonal Skills: Employee demonstrates ability to work in cooperation with others and communicate effectively with co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients and other outside contacts.
• Continual Learning: Assesses and recognizes own strengths and weaknesses; pursues professional development that is aligned with organizational role, contribution, and goals. Proactively shares knowledge with others to foster learning across the Organization