Deputy Director - Health Systems Strengthening, Nigeria at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. 

We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Deputy Director - Health Systems Strengthening, Nigeria

Job Requisition ID: B020849
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Job type: Full time

The Team

• The focus of the Nigeria Country Office (NCO) team is to enable collective impact for the foundation in Nigeria by informing policy and finance towards key development priorities, strengthening capacity and enabling systems for delivery, and innovating and leveraging cross-cutting enablers for impact at scale. 
• With over a decade of experience working in Nigeria, the Foundation has made significant progress and developed critical relationships with federal, state, and private sector actors; civil society organizations; traditional leaders; development partners; and nongovernmental stakeholders. 
• While we have made progress on output and outcome milestones, Nigeria still has challenges (e.g. highest disease burden as a single country globally, 10% of global maternal mortality, low cereal yield compared to African peers, >50% unbanked adult population). 
• Progress has been limited in driving improvement in key impact measures such as smallholder farmer income, access to financial solutions, and maternal & neonatal mortality. Addressing gaps in Nigeria is key to advancing the foundations’ global mission of creating a world where every person can live a healthy, productive life.

Your Role  

• The Deputy Director - Health Systems Strengthening, Nigeria will lead the development and implementation of the Nigeria team’s strategies in health systems strengthening (HSS), including a focus on primary health care. 
• This role will work collaboratively with programmatic, functional, and cross-division partners within the country office team and across the foundation, to develop and lead a portfolio of grants at the country, regional and global level to achieve results. 
• The focus of the Nigeria team is to enable the work of foundation teams that are involved in the development, testing and scale-up of high impact and cost-effective solutions to achieve sustained impact at scale across Nigeria. 
• S/he will serve as a member of the leadership team, playing a critical role in shaping the direction of the foundation’s HSS work and team management in Nigeria.
• The postholder will be based at the foundation’s NCO in Abuja, and report to the Director, NCO.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the development and implementation of HSS strategies, action plans, and budgets in partnership with other country office deputy directors, the foundation’s Program Strategy Teams (PSTs) and Global Policy and Advocacy (GPA). 
• Work with leadership to ensure that HSS strategies align with the foundation’s goals in Nigeria and contribute to long-term sustainability and impact. Set priorities, allocate resources, and lead analyses of the portfolio for annual strategy reviews and adjustments. 
• Anticipate trends, evaluate potential strategic trade-offs, and guide decision-making.
• Oversee the development of complex grants and contracts, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities. Provide strategic guidance for crafting grants and contracts requiring complex research or analytics.
• Design, implement, and monitor health system strengthening strategies that link and contribute to improvements in Primary Health Care, as well as Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCH-N) outcomes. Ensure that strategies are integrated with broader foundation goals and collaborate across teams to drive impact.
• In partnership with other Deputy Directors and relevant program officers in charge of country impact at the foundation, design and oversee the implementation of integrated strategies to accelerate the achievements of joint (foundation and others) health and nutrition goals in Nigeria.
• Monitor financial and programmatic indicators continuously, collaborating with internal teams to adjust strategies as needed. Identify portfolio risks and develop mitigation and contingency plans.
• Represent the foundation to key health-related committees, government platforms, and stakeholders. Advocate for health system reforms and improvements that align with the foundation’s goals. Ensure high quality interactions and clear and consistent communications with government officials, foundation staff, and leadership, grantees and partners.
• Manage key external relationships with grantees, stakeholders, and government officials. Conduct site visits, convene meetings, and monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of grants. Ensure effective governance mechanisms for all critical external relationships.
• Hire and manage the talent needed to achieve the foundation’s goals. Foster an inclusive team culture and provide leadership to ensure that all team members can thrive and meet performance expectations. Model and coach equitable decision-making and inclusive behaviors. Serve as a senior member of the NCO, overseeing performance management, teamwork, internal communications and contribution towards foundation-wide priorities.
• Act as a subject matter expert in public HSS (including health care financing, governance and performance management, human resources for health, supply chain, data, and service delivery).
• Serve as a key representative internally in interactions with PSTs and other teams. Advise, mentor, and support colleagues within the foundation and grantees in project design and implementation.
• Ensure strategies have clear outcomes, well-defined goals, and measurement activities to track progress toward impact. Develop and implement learning and evaluation activities to assess strategy performance and adjust approaches accordingly.

Requirements

• The ideal candidate will preferably hold an Advanced Degree in Medicine, Public Health, Health Economics, Public Policy, or similar fields (e.g., MSPH, MHA, MPH, MD, PhD). Certification in epidemiology will be an advantage.
• 15+ years of proven experience in HSS at country level that leads to programmatic improvements (e.g. immunization, FP, MNCH). 
• The candidate should also have an in-depth understanding of the global health and international development environment; and have experience working in and living in Africa, on health-related work.
• In-depth experience in public health with experience of integration across disease areas and in health systems in a low-middle income country. Experience/familiarity with Nigeria (national and sub-national) is preferred.
• A track record of leading high performing teams of staff and consultants, managing multimillion budgets and portfolio management.   
• Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared/joint objectives, both internally and externally. Ability to orchestrate effective decisions across a broad range of issues and partners, assess progress, analyze gaps, and make necessary changes.
• Strategic thinking - seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into strategies, concrete theories of change and actions. Ability to think/act like an investor and a creative problem solver. Innovative and open-minded approach; ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners in a constructive manner.
• Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems – especially in managing relations. Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, highly matrixed, fast-paced environment both in country office and at headquarters.
• Communicating in complex situations in a clear and concise manner with a broad and diverse audience.
• Managing teams of successful self-directed professionals and acting as a partner to team members managing specific portfolios.
• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people; holds diverse international working experience.
• Demonstrated ability to function successfully in a politically demanding environment.

Other Attributes:

• Sense of humor and positive attitude required.
• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people and a deep commitment to development issues and high standards of personal integrity.
• Ability to travel up to 40% domestically and internationally. 

Application Closing Date
6th April, 2025.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Important Information

• Hiring Requirements: As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
• Candidate Accommodations: If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Note: When applying, please ensure you include either in your CV or in a cover letter, your specific skillset and experience in health systems strengthening and what results your work contributed to.