Principal Advisor, Connected Leadership for Health Security - Remote (US, UK, France, Nigeria, Ethiopia)

Position description

Principal Advisor — Connected Leadership for Health Security

Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL) is a US-based, global public health organization with a mission to prevent 100 million deaths from heart disease and to make the world safer from epidemics. Resolve to Save Lives' Prevent Epidemics program works closely with Ministries of Health and national public health institutes in Africa to strengthen epidemic preparedness capacity, accelerate disease detection and response, and to use data effectively to inform action. In addition to direct partnership with governments, we also work with implementing partners including the World Health Organization, World Bank, US CDC, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator to implement programs, prototype new innovations, and ensure sustainability through increased national ownership, including domestic budget allocations.

Background

Global health security demands a sophisticated approach to leadership and partnerships to address the increasing complexity of the public health ecosystem in epidemic preparedness and response. Recent outbreaks have highlighted the limitations of managing health crises solely through national frameworks. While centralized oversight remains critical, successful outcomes require rapid, engaged local responses involving communities, local authorities, media, the private sector, and health and non-health partners. Contemporary public health leaders must navigate this complexity, securing national political support while implementing adaptive, community-centered solutions through direct and indirect authority.

The Connected Leadership Initiative addresses this critical need by developing frameworks and tools to help leaders build, manage, and navigate multilevel health governance. Building on RTSL’s existing frameworks, including the PMEP and 7-1-7, the initiative emphasizes collaboration, communication, and accountability to strengthen national capacities. Through co-design and an accompaniment approach, RTSL works with national leaders to develop and implement comprehensive strategies that transcend traditional organizational boundaries, fostering engagement across governance levels—from local communities to national authorities and global health initiatives.

This initiative operates in synergy with RTSL Prevent Epidemics’ specialized divisions: Leadership, Governance and Financing; Epidemic Intelligence; Public Health Legislation; and Resilient Health Services. Together, these teams provide the technical foundation and partnership infrastructure to prototype and scale connected leadership approaches at the country level, enhancing preparedness and response capabilities in complex public health environments.

This position offers the opportunity to contribute to this transformative work by developing and implementing strategies that strengthen global health security through innovative leadership approaches at the national and subnational levels.

Position Purpose

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Prevent Epidemics, the Principal Advisor will lead the strategic and technical launch of the Connected Leadership Initiative, a transformative effort to strengthen executive leadership and governance in public health preparedness and response. In its first year, the initiative will focus on co-designing approaches to equip public health leaders as effective change agents capable of navigating complexities, uncertainties, and pressures to ensure systems are responsive, adaptable, and sustainable. The Principal Advisor will collaborate across Prevent Epidemics teams and engage external stakeholders to drive alignment, impact, and sustainability. This is a full-time position for 24 months, with the possibility of extension. The incumbent will work remotely in GMT or US EST time zones and must be available for international travel.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

1. Strategic direction and partnerships

• Lead the co-design and implementation of the Connected Leadership imitative, including the development of tools, approaches and methodologies to accompany national and subnational leaders’ work as effective change agents to strengthen systems that support improved response
• Support the strategic alignment of emergency workforce and surge response governance with the national emergency response frameworks
• Cultivate relationships with national, regional and global partners to advance governance, leadership development, and accountability systems with an emphasis on emergency workforce and response structures

2. Learning and knowledge management

• Facilitate and strengthen peer exchange across the Connected Leadership network
• Synthesize and apply strategic learning to improve program delivery and management decision making
• Document and share lessons learned with global and regional partners to inform broader emergency response frameworks and leadership initiatives such as the Global Health Emergency Corps
• Partner with RTSL communications team to document and disseminate relevant learning and accomplishments

3. Technical support

• Advise and coach high-level country leadership in tailoring governance reform and leadership development strategies for emergency preparedness and response
• Support design and delivery of executive-level leadership training, capacity-building and peer to peer learning
• Design and implement an evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of leadership and governance systems in managing emergencies with a focus on workforce and surveillance of outbreak detection and response
• Leverage the 7-1-7 framework to collect and analyze data on early outbreak detection and response, highlighting improvements linked to leadership and governance interventions

Experience, Skills, and Qualifications

Education and experience

• Master's degree or higher in Public Health, Disaster Management or Executive Management or related field
• 10+ years at the nexus of health systems strengthening and program management in low or middle-income countries, with demonstrated expertise in complex public health emergencies
• 5+ years working closely with government entities in low or middle-income countries leading on health emergency response and operations
• Demonstrated experience leading quality improvement activities for epidemic detection and response, including analysis and development of improvement plans, evaluations and evidence-based reports (eg, tabletop exercises, simulations and after action reviews)
• Experience leveraging knowledge management systems to capture, organize, and disseminate insights and best practices
• Budget and grant management experience including donor reporting

Leadership skills

• Skilled in mentoring, coaching and advising executive leadership from diverse backgrounds
• Able to lead multifaceted, multinational projects, with and without formal authority
• Resilience and adaptability when confronted with complexity, paradox, or ambiguity
• Articulate and responsive in both verbal and written communication
• Exhibits cultural competence, empathy, humility and discernment when interacting across cultures

Training and facilitation skills

• Demonstrated capabilities and experience in instructional design and curriculum development
• Skilled in facilitating workshops and trainings for both technical and non-technical stakeholders, adapting content to meet audience needs

Preferred (not required) characteristics that will make your application stand out

• Credentials in leadership development, management or quality improvement (eg, MBA, PMI, Lean Six Sigma)
• Have worked with or within multilateral organizations (eg, WHO, World Bank, Africa CDC)
• Proficient in French

Travel: This role may require up to 25% travel.

Duration: 2 years, with the possibility for renewal

Setting: Fully remote with in-country travel; qualified candidates can be based in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Ethiopia, or Nigeria.

Compensation and Benefits

Resolve to Save Lives prides itself on cultivating a supportive, connected remote team doing work that matters. We do everything possible to ensure our employees are connected and set up for success.

The salary range for applicants based in the US is $140,000 to $168,000 annually. The exact offer will be determined by various factors, such as the candidate’s skills and experience relative to the requirements of the role. For applicants based outside the US, salaries are set according to national labor rates for the international NGO sector.

In addition to a competitive salary, Resolve to Save Lives provides a generous package of benefits, including:

• Health insurance for you and your dependents
• Contributions toward retirement
• Paid annual leave and sick leave, in addition to public holidays
• Two paid, week-long organization-wide breaks at mid-year and end-of-year
• Professional development and home office setup benefit
• Up-to-date computer equipment

Application instructions

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