Director, Newborn Health

Overview

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 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 skill sets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with the 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 Overview

 

Each year, approximately 2.3 million newborns die globally, and an additional 1.9 million babies are stillborn. More than half of neonatal deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where newborns face roughly a ten-fold higher risk of death than those born in high-income countries. Prematurity, birth asphyxia, neonatal infections, and preventable maternal infections in pregnancy together account for the vast majority of these deaths and adverse outcomes. The tragedy is not a lack of solutions. Proven, cost-effective interventions exist across this continuum — the barriers are policy, system, supply, and workforce gaps that keep effective care from reaching mothers and babies at the moments that matter most.

 

CHAI’s Women and Newborn Health (WNH) cluster is working to close those gaps. Across more than 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, our country teams and global team work with governments to ensure that newborns and their mothers can access the commodities, clinical care, and health system support they need to survive and thrive. Our newborn health portfolio encompasses work on preterm respiratory care, congenital syphilis elimination, and country-led initiatives addressing other drivers of newborn mortality and morbidity — with an ambition to grow into a comprehensive, evidence-driven newborn health program over the coming years. Our strategy focuses on areas where CHAI has distinctive value to add — through market shaping, commodity access, clinical quality improvement, health systems strengthening, and the translation of global evidence into government-owned programs at scale.

 

The Director, Newborn Health will lead this agenda. This is one of the most consequential roles in the WNH cluster, requiring someone who can operate at the intersection of clinical and technical depth, strategic leadership, and hands-on execution — and who is motivated by the opportunity to shape CHAI’s contribution to reducing preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths at scale.

 

This is a team that is building, not maintaining. The Director will inherit strong foundations and will be expected to accelerate progress, expand scope, and position CHAI as a leading contributor to global efforts to reduce neonatal mortality and preventable stillbirths.

 

Role Overview

 

We are looking for a Director who will serve as CHAI’s global newborn health lead, with primary accountability for the existing preterm respiratory care and congenital syphilis elimination workstreams and a mandate to develop the strategy and support fundraising for a comprehensive newborn health portfolio over time. The right candidate will combine genuine technical depth in newborn or maternal health with the strategic and managerial capability to lead a complex, multi-country program.

 

The Director will own programmatic outcomes — working with country teams to drive measurable improvements in clinical quality and commodity access, while engaging actively in global partner networks, influencing the sector, and building the evidence and relationships needed to expand CHAI’s neonatal ambition.

 

The Director will manage a team of program staff, report to the VP for Women’s and Newborn Health, and work closely with other WNH leads across maternal health, commodity security and financing, and AI-enabled diagnostics, as well as with CHAI’s market shaping team, M&E/research colleagues, and country-based staff across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Responsibilities

Set Strategy

• Build a programmatic vision that extends beyond current workstreams to address the leading drivers of neonatal death comprehensively, and that positions CHAI for impact at scale across its program countries.
• In line with this vision, define and evolve CHAI’s global newborn health strategy, in close collaboration with the WNH VP, country teams, and key partners — determining priorities across the newborn mortality continuum, sequencing investments, and identifying where CHAI adds the most distinctive value.
• Provide strategic leadership and technical direction for the existing preterm respiratory care and congenital syphilis elimination workstreams, while supporting country-led initiatives in other areas of newborn health.
• Work with country teams to identify entry points for portfolio expansion into new areas, including birth asphyxia and neonatal infections, building the evidence base and partnerships needed to move from opportunity identification to funded programs.
• Stay at the frontier of newborn health; bring relevant clinical, epidemiological, market, and programmatic insights into CHAI’s strategy.
• Treat strategy as a living document: build in regular review points and adjust course decisively based on evidence and evolving conditions.Execute Programs and Support Country Teams.
• Lead execution of global newborn health workstreams, ensuring technical quality, country relevance, and measurable impact across the portfolio.
• Provide hands-on technical support to country teams across program areas, including on clinical intervention roll-out, commodity access, government procurement planning, provider training, health information system strengthening, and demand-side programming.
• Support country-led newborn health work across a range of program areas by providing thought partnership, technical resources, and connections to global evidence and partner networks.
• Provide strategic direction to inform market shaping activities for key newborn commodities and diagnostics, collaborating closely with CHAI’s market shaping team and external partners.
• Oversee the development, validation, and application of impact models and cost-effectiveness analyses to support program prioritization, funder engagement, and government decision-making.
• Identify and develop new programmatic opportunities across the newborn health portfolio, moving from landscape analysis to actionable strategy and resource mobilization.

Stakeholder Engagement and Sector Influence

• Build and sustain trusted relationships with key stakeholders across the newborn health landscape, including WHO, bilateral and multilateral partners, implementing organizations, academic institutions, and national governments.
• Represent CHAI in global fora on newborn health, congenital syphilis elimination, and related areas, contributing to how the sector prioritizes resources and approaches these challenges.
• Actively contribute to relevant WHO technical processes and working groups, providing market data, programmatic evidence, and technical coordination.
• Coordinate with partner organizations to align strategies, share learning, and build a coherent ecosystem of support for country programs.Resource Mobilization and Donor Management.
• Engage funders to ensure the newborn health portfolio is appropriately and sustainably resourced, developing high-quality concept notes and proposals across a diverse set of prospective and current donors.
• Manage relevant grant components, ensuring high-quality reporting, proactive risk management, and disciplined use of resources.
• Identify and cultivate new funding opportunities as CHAI’s newborn health program expands in scope and ambition.

Team Leadership and Organizational Collaboration

• Manage and develop a team of program staff, providing strategic direction, technical guidance, and meaningful investment in professional growth.
• Work in close partnership with other WNH team leads to ensure coherence across the cluster portfolio, including where newborn health intersects with maternal health, commodity security and financing, and AI-enabled diagnostics.
• Collaborate with CHAI’s market shaping team, M&E/research colleagues, and country-based staff, recognizing that durable global strategies are built on the insights and relationships that country teams bring.
• Contribute to WNH team culture, operations, and organizational initiatives including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree in public health, medicine, or a related field.
• Ten or more years of progressive experience in global health, with demonstrated deepening of responsibility over time; substantive experience in maternal or newborn health, or in adjacent areas such as diagnostic or commodity access programs.
• In-depth understanding of the newborn health landscape, including leading causes of neonatal mortality and morbidity, the evidence base for key interventions, and the health system and supply chain conditions that determine whether those interventions reach babies at scale.
• Experience with cost-effectiveness analysis, impact modelling, or other quantitative approaches to program prioritization and investment case development.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute strategy in complex, multi-country environments — translating high-level goals into actionable plans, sequencing investments across competing priorities, and adjusting course as conditions evolve.
• Proven experience engaging with and influencing multilateral organizations, bilateral donors, and global health partners.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to engage rigorously with epidemiological, programmatic, and market data to support decision-making.
• Excellent communicator, able to distil complex clinical and programmatic information into clear, compelling narratives for diverse audiences, from Ministry of Health counterparts to senior funders.
• Proven track record of managing and developing teams in a matrixed, multicultural environment.
• Strong work ethic, integrity, credibility, and dedication to CHAI’s mission.
• Fluency in English required; French is a significant asset given CHAI’s program footprint.

Advantages

• Experience living and working in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Technical expertise in one or more areas of newborn health, including preterm care, neonatal infections, birth asphyxia, or maternal infections with newborn consequences.
• Experience working on sexually transmitted infection programs, eMTCT, or triple elimination, including familiarity with the WHO Triple Elimination agenda and its country-level implementation.
• Experience with market shaping, commodity access, or health commodity procurement in LMICs.
• Experience developing investment cases or enabling environment strategies for diagnostic or therapeutic product introduction.
• Experience working with WHO technical working groups or contributing to global guideline development processes.
• Demonstrated success in fundraising from major donor organizations, including developing and winning competitive proposals.
• Experience building out a new or expanding programmatic area — identifying entry points, building strategy, and mobilizing the resources needed for growth.
• Experience working remotely with a geographically dispersed team.

Attributes

• Deeply mission-driven: motivated by the prospect of substantially reducing neonatal deaths and stillbirths through interventions that already exist, and by the opportunity to build the programmatic infrastructure that makes that possible at scale.
• Entrepreneurial mindset: energized by building, creating, and embracing innovative approaches.
• Execution-focused, with a bias for moving from analysis to action and a track record of turning strategy into results.
• Strategically adaptive: able to hold a long-term vision while adjusting tactics as the clinical, programmatic, and funding landscape evolves.
• Comfortable making directional calls in the face of uncertainty.
• CHAI fit: collaborative, analytically rigorous, grounded in country realities, and committed to government ownership and sustainable impact over the long term. Possess humility and integrity.
• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence: builds trust across diverse cultural contexts, institutional settings, and stakeholder groups.
• Comfortable with breadth and complexity: this role spans neonatal clinical care, market dynamics, government systems, global partner coordination, and fundraising — and requires someone who thrives at that intersection.
• Willingness to travel approximately 25-35% of the year to program countries and global convenings.

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