Senior Officer, Health Systems Strengthening Delivery Enablement - 12 Months LTE at Gates Foundation in Nairobi

Job description

The Foundation We are 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. The Team The Africa Team works to enable the foundation’s high-reaching goals of scaling evidence-based interventions that target a range of diseases and socio-economic conditions which are endemic across Sub-Saharan Africa. The team drives its responsibility through direct country engagement to deploy interventions and delivery models, and by building the partner architecture to replicate successful interventions and models across multiple countries Application Deadline: 14/9/2026 Your Role You are responsible for developing and managing a portfolio of investments (grants and contracts) aimed at improving primary health care through health systems design and financing. You provide research and analysis across a range of technical areas, working in coordination with other teams through strategic communications and advocacy. You contribute to the continued development of the team's strategic vision, build key partnerships internally and externally, represent the foundation externally as needed, and serve as a trusted colleague and collaborator to internal partners. What You'll Do Negotiate, execute, and manage a complex portfolio of grants or performance-based contracts. Review letters of inquiry and grant proposals and provide clear, concise, and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding. Consult with grantees and other partners to maximize project impact and ensure grants are meeting strategy goals. This may include site visits, providing operational guidance, and convening meetings of key stakeholders. Develop, manage, resource, and implement a program that aligns with foundation strategy and is operationally integrated with other foundation programs. Contribute to the design of new strategies, collaborations, and implementation plans to ensure long-term sustainability and impact. Manage relationships with multiple government counterparts holding distinct mandates (e.g., implementation vs. policy bodies), ensuring all engagement remains strictly non-partisan and technical in nature, consistent with foundation advocacy guidelines. Represent the foundation to key program-related external constituencies, as appropriate , on committees related to area of expertise and responsibilities of the position. Oversee sub-awardee performance, including budget disbursement, deliverable tracking, and compliance with expenditure responsibility requirements. Coordinate and monitor implementation across multiple subnational sites/regions simultaneously, working through in-country consultants and mentorship networks to maintain visibility and momentum. Provide rigorous analysis and thoughtful solutions to complex systems problems for both internal and external audiences, drawing on working knowledge of national health information and financial management systems (e.g., DHIS2, PlanRep , FFARS, eLMIS ) and how interoperability across these systems supports performance management. Coordinate with disease-specific technical teams (e.g., malaria, MNCH) to ensure system-strengthening investments translate into measurable service-delivery outcomes for tracer programs. Communicate strategy effectively and make linkages as needed to support the work through key co