Specialist, Surveillance, Strategy, Investment & Evidence Division - GL D - Defined

Countries are building national data architecture to provide surveillance and health intelligence data to inform national regional and cross-border preparedness and response to ongoing epidemics, such as HIV, TB, and malaria, and new and re-emerging outbreaks, such as Ebola, cholera, and Mpox. However, even where countries are strengthening core surveillance systems and capacities, they often lack the governance arrangements, data system interoperability, and technical capacity to share and use health data in real time at country, regional, and sub-regional (cross-border) levels.

Strengthening disease surveillance and health intelligence systems, including early warning surveillance and the integrated use of surveillance, program, laboratory, logistics, climate, and other relevant data, is therefore a priority area for RSSH-PPR.

Working under the supervision of the Senior Specialist, Surveillance and Health Information Systems, the Specialist provides technical coordination and support across two discrete, related, and complementary objectives: strengthening country-level capacity for health intelligence through operational data governance and more integrated, interoperable, and actionable use of priority health and disease surveillance data; and supporting a strategic initiative/catalytic investment in regional health intelligence capacity intended to enable timely, trusted, and comparable data use for cross-border risk assessment, outbreak and epidemic intelligence, and coordinated regional and sub-regional response.

The Specialist provides technical assistance focused on disease surveillance, including data governance, information exchange, data lifecycle management, and use of priority data for health intelligence. This includes supporting country-led operationalization of data sharing agreement principles into practical workflows for prioritized, standardized data sharing across epidemic-prone notifiable diseases, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and other diseases of public health importance, while ensuring that regional data use reinforces rather than substitutes country systems, ownership, and decision-making capacity.

The Specialist works in close collaboration with the Senior Specialist, other specialists in the Surveillance and Health Information Systems team, other teams in RSSH & PPR, disease teams, in supporting Country Teams (CTs) in GMD and other cross-organizational operational teams such as IT Dept., Community, Rights and Gender, Supply Operations, and Health Finance.

The position requires knowledge and experience in infectious disease surveillance, health information systems, digital health, data governance, public health intelligence, coordination of health programs, surveillance system design and methodologies, relevant normative frameworks, development of tools, implementation and analysis, report development and presentation skills, monitoring and evaluation of health programs, multi-stakeholder management, and ability to work well with cross-cutting teams in a fast-moving environment.

• Provide grant portfolio-facing surveillance and health intelligence technical advice by developing analysis, drafting inputs and technical recommendations for Country Teams and technical departments under the guidance of the Senior Specialist; identifying gaps and needs, prioritizing investments, reviewing funding requests and grant documents, and strengthening implementation arrangements.
• Contribute to grant design, implementation and oversight by preparing technical inputs on surveillance and health intelligence governance, data system architecture,…