Senior Program Officer, Integrated Surveillance for NTDs

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 Global Health division uses innovation, data, and partnerships to reduce global disease burdens and expand access to health services in low- and middle-income countries. The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) team focuses on the control, elimination, and eradication of selected high-burden diseases recognized by the WHO, and on building integrated, sustainable delivery platforms that strengthen health systems more broadly.

The NTD team is structured around two closely connected functions. The Upstream team drives innovation through product development, operational research, and modeling/analytics (including the use of AI) to evidence-based policy and program decisions. The Downstream team translates this into practice through direct engagement with country programs, including the deployment of digital tools, data use activities, and implementation support. The two teams work in close collaboration: upstream innovations are designed with downstream operability in mind, and downstream experience generates the learning that sharpens upstream strategy.

The NTD team operates at a pivotal moment. Many NTD programs are approaching or have achieved transmission control milestones — creating both an opportunity and an obligation to design post-validation surveillance systems that are sensitive enough to detect resurgence, efficient enough to be domestically sustainable, and integrated enough to serve the broader health system. At the same time, the global health financing landscape is contracting sharply, with declining ODA accelerating the need for surveillance architectures that do not depend on parallel, vertically-funded systems.

The Senior Program Officer (SPO), Integrated Surveillance for NTDs will sit within the NTD Upstream team and lead the innovation agenda for post-validation NTD surveillance. The SPO will be responsible for conceptualizing the research, generating the evidence and driving consensus-building across the community to define the evidence-based strategies for integrated, post-elimination surveillance of NTDs. The SPO will define and shape the investments needed to enable progress.

This role carries a dual mandate: driving disease-specific surveillance innovation that meets the precision requirements of NTD control and elimination programs, while ensuring that the systems and tools developed are designed to contribute to and benefit from the integrated surveillance infrastructure that will serve all disease programs from a shared backbone.

The SPO will work closely with Upstream team colleagues who are responsible for product development, operational research, and modeling workstreams.

The SPO will work in close collaboration with NTD Downstream colleagues who are engaged directly with country programs and responsible for deploying the digital tools and data use activities that this role helps to design and validate. The SPO will support the Downstream team’s efforts to integrate NTD activity planning, execution and monitoring within wider campaign-based delivery systems.

The SPO will also collaborate actively across the foundation and with external partners who are innovating in integrated surveillance, digital health, and AI-enabled decision-making to ensure NTD investments are connected to and contributing to the broader frontier of what is possible.

This role requires a technically rigorous innovator who can translate scientific evidence into investment strategy, engage effectively with Ministries of Health and global partners, and align the NTD surveillance innovation agenda with both the foundation's disease-specific goals and the broader movement toward integrated, domestically sustainable health systems.

This is an 18-month Limited Term Employment position, relocation support to Seattle will be provided.

1. NTD Surveillance Strategy — Disease-Specific and Integration-Ready

• Develop and steward an evidence-based strategy for post-elimination surveillance (PES) for each of the Foundation's six priority NTDs. Determine, for each disease, the minimum surveillance architecture needed to detect resurgence and sustain elimination, considering the optimal use of all existing integrated surveillance platforms alongside minimal use of disease-specific vertical surveillance. Define the optimal use of AI to enhance the efficiency and precision of post-elimination surveillance.
• Steward global consensus for integrated PES through active engagement and co-creation with partners (notably, endemic countries). Connect the strategy to investments being made across Foundation global health programs and by external partners in integrated surveillance and digital health, ensuring NTD post-elimination surveillance is shaped by and contributes to the broader frontier of what integrated systems can deliver.

2. Operational Research Design and Leadership

• Define the evidence base required to answer the questions that matter most for NTD surveillance integration: e.g. What is the minimum reporting cadence and geographic resolution needed to detect resurgence? What are the trigger thresholds that should prompt a programmatic response, and what certainty is needed for treatment cessation? What are the sampling algorithms that leverage surveillance data from non-NTD-specific platforms to contribute to efficient monitoring of NTDs, and what residual NTD-specific surveillance will continue to be needed?
• Design and oversee a portfolio of operational research studies that address the technical and operational gaps impeding evidence-based surveillance of NTDs post-elimination or post-annual mass drug administration, and the ability to integrate NTD surveillance.
• Generate evidence that informs global standards: contribute to WHO guidelines, ESPEN technical frameworks, and cross-disease surveillance standards in ways that reflect the empirical evidence.
• Engage with multilateral agencies, bilateral donors, and global health financing institutions — including the Global Fund, WHO, UNICEF, and World Bank — to align co-investments and influence NTD surveillance funding architecture, including advocating for integration conditionality in country grants where appropriate.

3. Country Partnership and System Integration

• Collaborate with the Downstream team to engage with national programs and regional bodies in Africa to co-develop integrated NTD post-validation surveillance strategies and frameworks tailored to country needs — including NTD contributions to National Health Information Systems Interoperability Frameworks and national surveillance integration roadmaps. A particular focus on support to Ethiopia, Nigeria and DRC are anticipated.

4. Stakeholder Engagement and Representation

• Represent the foundation at high-level convenings, technical working groups, and donor consultations focused on NTD post-validation surveillance, integration, and sustainability.
• Serve as the foundation's voice in global conversations on NTD post-validation surveillance and integration ensuring NTD evidence and interests contribute to cross-disease standards.
• Build and maintain active partnerships with external innovators who are advancing the tools and methods that NTD post-validation surveillance programs can adopt.
• Communicate NTD surveillance innovation priorities and findings, both internally across the foundation and externally, to drive alignment, attract co-investment, and influence global discourse.
• Serve as an internal expert and point of contact on portfolio-related issues for key internal groups and foundation leadership.

• Advanced degree (PhD, MD, MPH, or equivalent) in epidemiology, public health, infectious disease, or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in global health, with proven expertise in NTD or other campaign-based health programs, disease surveillance, and multi-disease integration in Africa.
• Demonstrated track record designing and leading operational in African contexts.
• Demonstrated engagement with digital health infrastructures for surveillance and the application of AI or epidemiological modelling to support public health decision-making.
• Experience collaborating within and driving change through the global health ecosystem, including WHO HQ and AFRO
• Extensive experience working successfully with Ministries of Health and National Public Health Institutes in Africa. Keen understanding of health systems across multiple countries in Africa.
• Track record of influencing health policy and driving innovation across complex stakeholder environments.

• Exceptional strategic thinking, communication, and leadership skills.
• Deep experience working in matrixed organizations and across multicultural teams.
• Proven ability to navigate ambiguity and lead through influence.
• Commitment to health equity, local capacity strengthening, and inclusive global health approaches.
• Ability to work effectively across disease program boundaries; building shared understanding and aligned action across NTD, malaria, immunizations, HIV, TB, and emergency response teams toward a common surveillance infrastructure goal.
• Support inclusive culture through modelling behaviors and actions; escalate issues in a timely fashion to appropriate stakeholders.

*Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. This includes direct company sponsorship and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (e.g.: H-1B, O-1, L-1, E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.).

The salary range for this role is $238,400 to $369,400 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $262,200 to $406,400 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hires salaries are typically between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

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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

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact [email protected] with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.