Job Board
Senior Program Officer - Contraceptive Development
Date Posted: 6/20/2011
Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Location: Seattle, WA
Description of Organization:
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
Position Responsibilities:
The Family Planning Team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is launching a contraceptive technology initiative in 2011 to accelerate contraceptive uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA) through development of new and adaptive technologies that can help women meet their reproductive health intentions. We prioritized high impact technologies for investment that address barriers women cited for not using family planning. We are recruiting a Senior Program Officer (SPO) to lead our contraceptive technology initiative. The responsibilities for this position include the following: provide leadership and strategic direction for new and existing investments in contraceptive research and development; evaluate clinical research protocols; engage with grantees conducting contraceptive development clinical trials and acceptability studies; conduct results driven grant making; and monitor and evaluate the impact of grant making in this area.
The position will also be a liaison between Family Planning and other strategic program teams within the foundation to ensure that products in development are achieving milestones on their critical path for registration and country launch. The position will work with our prequalification experts to examine regulatory issues including stringent regulatory approvals needed for donor procurement including WHO prequalification and work with product development specialist to examine business approaches to lower the cost of products. In collaboration with the Discovery team, the SPO will support translational research, assisting with the selection and evaluation of contraceptive technologies and leads for Grand Challenges Exploration grants. In addition, the SPO will work with a cross foundation team to advance the development of a multipurpose product for women that can potentially prevent pregnancy, STD, and HIV acquisition.
Qualifications:
- Demonstrated knowledge and expertise of clinical trial methodologies including study design, protocol development, study implementation, safety monitoring and data analysis for new and adaptive contraceptive technologies; Minimum of 10 years in field required. 15 plus years of experience highly preferred
- Expertise in development of hormonal contraceptive methods (injectables, implants, vaginal rings and emergency contraception) and non-hormonal female contraceptives;
- Experience collaborating with international donors, private sector industry, research institutes, and other foundations working in the global health arena;
- Track record introducing new family planning products in Sub-Saharan Africa and/or South Asia;
- Ability to examine and evaluate a range of new biological targets, drugs, products, and delivery systems for contraceptives;
- Demonstrated excellence in scientific writing and data analysis, written and oral communication skills, and experience advocating and communicating with a broad and diverse audience;
- Demonstrated ability to work with diverse teams including scientists, business analysts, program implementers and developing country stakeholders is required;
- Strong knowledge and experience with licensing, registration and manufacturing of health products for the developing world is desirable;
- Experience working on dual protection products (pregnancy and HIV prevention) is preferred.
Academic background: reproductive biologist, endocrinologist, obstetrician/gynecologist, biochemist or a biomedical engineer with a contraceptive research and development background including MD and/or PHD.
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