The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems.

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

CHAI is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and is committed to providing an environment of fairness, and mutual respect where all applicants have access to equal employment opportunities. CHAI values diversity and inclusion, and recognizes that our mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people with diverse experience, backgrounds, and culture.

Program Summary 

Unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions drive high rates of preventable mortality and morbidity in low and middle income countries (LMICs). CHAI’s Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) program aims to ensure that all individuals are empowered to access information, products and services that will meet their sexual and reproductive health needs. We aim to significantly reduce unmet need for modern contraception and the incidence of unsafe abortions in program countries within the next 5 years.  To accomplish our goals, we’re pursuing 3 strategic objectives: 

• Scale up access to new and underutilized products to increase choice for women and better meet their needs and preferences.  

• Increase SRH commodity security through global and country supply chain strengthening and improved financing for SRH products.  

• Design and strengthen client-centered service delivery models that will reach key populations with SRH services.  

We pursue global and country-focused market shaping opportunities for SRH products to create an enabling environment for the introduction and scale up of quality-assured products and services in LMICs. At the global level, we are working to ensure that a diversified supplier base can meet demand for key products and ensure commodities are affordable and of high quality. We also coordinate donors and partners around global product strategies. At the country level, CHAI works with governments to develop national SRH scale-up plans with clear targets; use data to coordinate partner resources against the plan and achieve targets; strengthen national forecasting and quantification; address supply chain bottlenecks; improve health worker training; and strengthen performance management for the health system.  

The Sexual & Reproductive Health (SRH) Team works across the CHAI matrix to support the application of global learning and best practices and provide thought-partnership and technical assistance to programs implemented by in-country teams who own our valued relationships with partner governments and who possess critical knowledge of local context and operating conditions.  Underlying our approach is our commitment to achieving sustainable, transformational change at scale by working in a way that strengthens health systems and government capabilities to improve SRH outcomes.  

CHAI is currently supporting the introduction of several reproductive health products globally, including medication abortion (MA), subcutaneous injectable contraceptives (DMPA-SC) and hormonal IUD. As part of this effort, CHAI manages a mechanism that pools funds from several donors to fund product introduction activities at the country level. The Catalytic Opportunity Fund (COF) funds high-impact product introduction activities that cannot be funded by in-country resources, as identified through the country’s planning and resource mapping processes. This model allows for rapid deployment of funding for strategic gaps in a country’s product introduction plan.  

Position Summary 

Are you someone that thrives working as part of a highly collaborative team? Do you have a penchant for attention to detail and ensuring that everything is well-organized? Do you enjoy thinking about process design and ensuring smooth flow of operations? Are you passionate about making a positive impact on women’s sexual and reproductive health? If so, this job opportunity may be for you.  

The Senior Associate, Catalytic Opportunity Fund is a critical member of the SRH team who supports the day-to-day operations of a small-grants funding mechanism that supports rapid deployment of funds for reproductive health products across low-and middle-income countries. The Senior Associate will support the overall coordination, implementation, and maintenance of a range of activities that underpin the pre-award and post-award life cycle of grant investments. The Senior Associate will be responsible for executing day-to-day responsibilities for managing two funding streams of a grantmaking fund. We are seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial individual with exceptional attention to detail, project management acumen, problem solving skills, penchant for operational tasks, communication abilities, and analytical skills to synthesize and consolidate information and draw connections when executing grantmaking activities. The Senior Associate must also be able to function independently, balance multiple priorities simultaneously, and work effectively across a range of stakeholders.    

The Senior Associate will drive a consistent approach to uphold the integrity of the funding brand and achieve operational excellence of the maintenance of the fund. Their responsibilities include facilitating the fund’s pre-award and post-award processes, managing communications with applicants and grantees, updating systems and tools with key information across the grant life cycle, maintaining integrity of data in relevant grants management systems, ensuring strong record-keeping and document storage practices, facilitating the grant contracting and reporting processes, and coordinating across various internal and external stakeholders. In addition, the Senior Associate will review application materials, consolidate feedback from reviewers and translate it for applicants, synthesize revisions and feedback in order to independently develop recommendations for COF reviewers and elevate key questions, coordinate across the team to gather necessary input to facilitate review and decision-making, and develop key materials for grant recommendations. The role will distill program knowledge into grantmaking activities, perform other administrative and project management functions to ensure smooth execution of the funding streams, lead data reporting, contribute to implementation of COF strategic priorities, and support projects on the COF team. The Senior Associate will cultivate knowledge of program and product strategies to ensure day-to-day operations are operationalized closely in service of programs goals.  

This role will report to the Catalytic Opportunity Fund Manager and will work in close partnership with other team members of the small-grants team, as well as the wider SRH Team. The Senior Associate can be based in the United States or a CHAI program country in Africa, pending Country Director approval. 

Please note this is a full-time, fixed-term position for 12 months. 

Application and Grant Coordination 

• Support the day-to-day operations and implementation of the small-grants fund, including leading execution of pre-award and post-award processes for two product funding streams 

• Bring project management skills and exceptional attention to detail to execute day-to-day grantmaking activities and usher a high volume of applications through the pre-award and post-award lifecycle 

• Track and adhere to key deadlines throughout the grant lifecycle  

• Manage record-keeping and accurate document storage 

• Update grants management softwares and systems with timely data regarding applicants’ and grantees’ status in the application and grant-life cycle; maintaining strong data accuracy  

• Coordinate the end-to-end grants and contracts processes with internal and external parties  

• Support application reviews including eligibility checks, consolidate reviewer feedback and distill feedback to applicants and grantees  

• Synthesize application revisions and feedback and prepare recommendations for COF reviewers, elevating key questions to facilitate decision-making 

• Coordinate across the team to gather necessary input to facilitate review and decision-making 

• Develop key materials for grant recommendations and update tracking systems 

• Review reports from subgrantees and ensure completion of deliverables 

• Actively cultivate knowledge of product/program workstreams (e.g. DMPA-SC, Hormonal IUD, MA combipacks, etc.) and apply to day-to-day grant operations  

• Ensure day-to-day execution is in service of product strategies and workstreams and grantmaking criteria is effectively applied and distilled to applicants and grantees 

• Facilitate the grantee award process, including developing communications to decline proposals, award proposals, and provide clear, robust feedback to applicants 

• Conduct application pre-screening and ensure required application materials are received 

• Monitor and review grant modifications, consulting the Manager as needed 

• Stay abreast of SRH rogram and product strategies  

Systems and Tools 

• Contribute ideas towards strengthening workflows, process improvement and creating efficiencies wherever possible 

• Contribute to execution of strategic priorities and time-bound projects on the COF team 

• Proactively flag risks associated with processes, applicants or subgrantees 

External Engagement 

• Act as liaison with grantees and applicants by managing the small-grants fund inbox, ensuring all communications are adequately responded to in a timely manner 

• Prepare for and participate in external stakeholder calls as needed in order to provide updates on applicants and grantees 

Data Analysis and Dissemination 

• Support documentation and dissemination of successes and learnings arising from the COF 

• Analyze and synthesize key information for internal and external audiences 

• Contribute to projects related to COF knowledge management, documentation, and monitoring and evaluation  

• Contribute to data reporting 

General 

• Communicate effectively in a matrixed work environment across various stakeholders 

• Other responsibilities as needed  

• Option to travel internationally 1-2 times per year 

• Bachelor’s degree with 4+ years work experience in an operations, contracts, grants management, project management, program operations, or administration capacity  

• Excellent diplomatic, relationship building, interpersonal skills, and professional maturity 

• Exceptional attention to detail  

• Self-motivation and comfort working independently with little oversight 

• A strong desire to create positive change on a big scale and views operations work as directly linked to, and supportive of, the organization's impact and vision 

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and ability to synthesize information and form recommendations  

• Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communication, both written and verbal   

• Exceptional organizational skills and ability to multi-task across various stakeholders 

• Practical project management acumen to keep activities and projects on track 

• Ability to prioritize tasks and maintain deadlines in a remote work environment 

• Willingness to adapt to changing priorities and handle unexpected challenges 

• Critical thinking skills to improve processes and workflows 

• A deep sense of collegiality and eagerness to work with a remote, geographically dispersed team across multiple time zones  

• Strong commitment to principles of diversity, equity and inclusion 

• Proficient in Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint 

• Previous experience in managing small-scale investments a plus 

• Previous experience working in reproductive health a plus 

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