Senior Program Officer – Market Shaping

About the Market Shaping Practice:

How do we increase access to a cheap drug that could save millions of children’s lives yet remains widely unavailable in certain markets? This is among the unique and powerful questions R4D’s Market Shaping practice answers on a daily basis. Using practical and business-driven

approaches — from increasing market transparency to increase manufacturers’ engagement, to improving demand forecasting to prevent stockouts, to increasing competition to lower prices, to developing purchasing and value chain strategies, and to crafting cost-effectiveness and financing gap analyses — our work ensures that millions of lives are saved and improved in a sustainable manner through more efficient markets essential health, nutrition and education products.

If our work ignites your imagination, we’d love to tell you more and explore how we can work together!

Some current MSP projects include:

• Transforming markets for maternal, newborn, and child health medicines and devices

• Identifying underlying market challenges and opportunities to address severe acute

malnutrition

• Co-creating advocacy and market shaping roadmaps to scale up multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) for improved maternal nutrition and reduced risks of adverse birth outcomes.

This position is based in Washington, D.C. and will report to the Market Shaping Practice Senior Director.

R4D has a flexible work-from-home policy; this position does not mandate working from the office. However, the MSP team has two voluntary office days per month to encourage in-person collaboration and align with R4D’s DC-wide optional in-office days.

As a Market Shaping Senior Program Officer on this high-impact team, you will:

Provide day-to-day thought and technical leadership

• For some workstreams and projects in the MSP portfolio, lead the structuring of technical methodologies and the development of qualitative and quantitative analytical products, including through coaching team members
• Draw insights from analyses and lead the development of high quality and actionable government, donor and partner-facing presentations
• Identify creative ways to expand current work in close coordination with MSP and R4D colleagues, and effectively lead the development of high-quality proposals, including accompanying budgets

Effectively manage and implement high-impact projects by an international team

• Provide day-to-day project management towards developing market shaping strategies across global, regional, and country levels and approaches to catalyze implementation of these strategies to drive impact in a sustainable manner
• Develop project work plans and ensure timely execution of activities, including proactively and creatively managing problems that arise and anticipating ways to avoid them
• Lead process streamlining and efficiency improvement initiatives in the team
• Provide people management, by providing direction and support for colleagues as well as consultants
• Contribute to the continued evolution of a positive and collaborative team culture
• Prepare and manage budgets and ensure sound fiscal management across project work

Lead internal and external partner engagement

• Independently engage, cultivate, and manage relationships with a diverse range of global external partners and stakeholders (e.g. senior government officials, donors, technical experts, manufacturers, procurers, and regulators)
• Plan for and expertly facilitate stakeholder consultations to gain qualitative and quantitative insights, through a variety of formats including key informant interviews, working groups, or workshops
• Develop knowledge management and communication strategies to promote the dissemination and uptake of our work
• Represent aspects of the MSP portfolio within R4D, and actively collaborate with colleagues internally and externally

You’re a great fit if you are

• Genuinely passionate about markets-based approaches to drive sustainable impact
• A strong communicator with excellent interpersonal skills, able to vary your style based on the audience and distill complex concepts into clear messaging
• Energized by managing and executing on complex projects in global contexts, specifically in low- and middle-income countries
• Highly analytical, and a structured and creative problem solver
• A culturally sensitive relationship manager who is enthusiastic about supporting team members’ professional growth
• Collaborative, approachable, and invested in enabling a positive working environment
• Willing to travel domestically and internationally, per project need
• Participates fully as a member of R4D by contributing, assisting and participating in projects, activities, and initiatives as requested by management

Your experience should include:

• Master’s degree with 7+ years of work experience in relevant field (health or nutrition commodities, pharmacy, public health, market dynamics, public/social policy, public administration, business or similar)
• Expertise and experience in one or more of the following: conducting market analysis, developing product introduction / scale-up strategies, and/or expanding access to healthcare.
• Excellent analytic skills are required. Demonstrated experience leading the development of high-quality qualitative and quantitative analysis from conceptualization to completion and leveraging that analysis to drive action by decision-makers for ultimate impact
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to develop highly professional work products and present complicated analyses to technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity, and work in a fast-paced, open-structure, multicultural environment
• Collaborative, excellent interpersonal skills, and ability to engage with a wide variety of stakeholders and to manage relationships across public and private partners
• Approachable management style, eager to support and mentor junior staff and peers. Able to effectively set priorities and handle competing time and resource demands for self and others