Senior Program Officer, Gynecology

Gates Foundation•Seattle, WA

3d•Remote

About The Position

The Foundation is the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity globally. The Gender Equality Division's mission is to ensure women and girls in Africa and South Asia can enjoy good health, make their own choices, earn their own money, and be leaders in their societies. The Women’s Health Innovations (WHI) team within the GE Division is a newly established group focused on developing and accelerating the introduction and scale-up of interventions that disproportionately affect the health and economic outcomes of women and girls. WHI prioritizes three key areas: family planning and contraceptive technologies (CT), gynecological health, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In addition, the team focuses on two cross-cutting areas: product introduction and market access, and strengthening the women’s health R&D ecosystem. The Senior Program Officer, Gynecology (SPO) will lead a portfolio of investments and partnerships to support development and introduction of products to address high burden gynecologic conditions for women and girls in Low Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The SPO will collaborate with private sector partners, researchers and their institutions, global health organizations, professional societies, and government agencies, to align innovation with needs of women and girls within LMIC health ecosystems. We are seeking a technically skilled and strategically driven Senior Program Officer to lead initiatives that transform the landscape of the understanding and interventions for heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) for women and girls in LMICs. The ideal candidate will bring strong clinical perspectives for gynecologic care for HMB, have research and data generation expertise, product development experience, and a passion for addressing health barriers for women and girls in LMICs.

Requirements

Advanced degree (MD and/or PhD) in gynecology, or adjacent area.
10 + years’ experience in women’s health product development (e.g. therapeutics and/or diagnostics), research of gynecologic conditions, and/or gynecology clinical care, including assessment of and treatment of HMB, BV, and other priority GYN conditions.
Demonstrated experience with design and implementation of clinical trials to support product development of solutions, preferably in the field of HMB.
Critical assessment of epidemiological, population and clinical trial data.
Strong knowledge of relevant global networks and professional societies (i.e., FIGO)
Strong program and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to coordinate diverse stakeholders, including NGOs, industry, academia, and private sector.
Demonstrated ability to translate technical knowledge into actionable strategies, influencing investment decisions.
Demonstrated ability to navigate highly sensitive or politically complex environments and operate effectively in ambiguous situations with limited information; comfortable executing and making decisions amid uncertainty.
Experience in product development, conducting research, or clinical care in LMIC’s, and understanding of LMIC healthcare systems is desired.

Responsibilities

Serve as an internal subject matter expert in gynecologic etiologies of heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and the relationship to anemia, as well as other key gynecologic conditions, such as vaginal dysbiosis.
Develop a strategically aligned portfolio of investments focused on HMB
Identify and seek concepts for investments that align with WHI GYN strategy
Closely manage a diverse portfolio of investments
Work with grantees to ensure optimal output and impact of these investments.
Lead WHI initiatives for HMB and gynecology/menstrual health (MH).
Collaborate with data team to assess and address gaps in understanding of HMB etiology, prevalence, and burden, focusing on association with anemia and well-being
Assess efficacy of existing HMB treatments in reducing sequelae
Identify and address barriers to HMB treatment uptake and access to services
Support development of evidence-based HMB treatment guidelines/ policies
Lead clinical assessment and development of point of care (POC) AI-guided ultrasound for gynecologic use cases, including evaluation of etiologies of HMB, in collaboration with internal matrix technical collaborators (EDGE, MNCNH).
Drive collaboration with internal matrix partners (RHT, Discovery) and own investments to advance the understanding of the biologic mechanisms of key gynecologic conditions (i.e. HMB, bacterial vaginosis) to inform product development.
Develop network with organizations and maintain current with cutting edge innovations and innovators in these fields, actively engaging with key stakeholders in the ecosystem.
Collaborate on workstreams with external partners on investments to develop, assess, and introduce new tools focused on addressing HMB/anemia
Assess and develop perspective on opportunities for WHI engagement in other gynecologic conditions such as adenomyosis, fibroids, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), menopause, and female genital schistosomiasis as outputs of the gynecologic learning agenda.