Overview
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance.
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.
CHAI’s global malaria and neglected tropical disease (NTD) program provides direct technical and operational support to countries around the globe to strengthen their programs and reduce the burden of preventable, treatable diseases. We support governments to scale up effective interventions for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance, with the goals of sustainably reducing the number of illnesses and deaths worldwide in the short-term and accelerating progress towards elimination of malaria and NTDs in the long term.
Summary of Position:
CHAI seeks a highly qualified entomologist to support CHAI country programs on work streams related to entomology and vector control. Entomological data is critical to making informed decisions on malaria vector control, and as such, entomological surveillance has been identified as an important priority across many country programs. The entomologist will help to shape CHAI’s strategy in entomology at a global level, while supporting malaria programs through CHAI country teams with their own entomological strategy and workplans, as well as executing against those plans.
Typical country support includes supporting local entomological capacity, development of SOPs for entomological data collection and analysis, designing evidence-based strategic plans, and providing dedicated day-to-day operational support to ensure execution of effective, high-impact programs. The entomologist will be expected to develop and manage strong relationships with CHAI country programs, government programs, and relevant country partners.
Candidates should be familiar with malaria vector species, bionomics, and insecticide resistance challenges across Mesoamerica, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. This entomologist will be responsible for advising malaria programs on vector control and entomological investigation, monitoring, and surveillance, including through the use of digital tools, and providing guidance on how to interpret data results. They will be translating evidence, current research, and normative guidelines into practical and feasible programmatic and field operations, considering innovative approaches in places where current vector control strategies have not been proven effective (e.g. for outdoor biting or resting vectors).
The position requires a highly motivated individual with outstanding analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and communication skills. They must be able to manage multiple tasks and drive multiple work flows forward. They must exhibit a passion for results and commitment to excellence. CHAI places great value on the following qualities in its staff: resourcefulness, responsibility, patience, tenacity, humility, independence, energy, and work ethic.
Preference is for this role to be based in a CHAI program country in Africa or Southeast Asia, pending GMAL and country team leadership approval. Applicants should be open to frequent travel, up to 50%.
Responsibilities
- Serving as a trusted adviser to CHAI country teams and regional technical leads, and national malaria programs, on issues related to malaria entomology;
- Developing and leading the execution of CHAI’s entomological strategy;
- Working through CHAI country teams to support malaria programs with developing their entomological strategies, including understanding key programmatic questions, consideration (and deployment, when relevant) of new approaches, data collection oriented to answering programmatic questions, and making vector control decisions based on entomological data;
- Answering questions from CHAI teams and malaria programs related to the bionomics of key malaria vectors across Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Mesoamerica;
- Staying abreast of WHO technical guidelines and the latest scientific advances regarding malaria entomology, and translating scientific evidence into country programmatic decisions, standard operating procedures, data collection forms, manuals, and guidelines;
- Understanding novel and traditional malaria vector control tools, and advising on the entomological data that would support introducing and monitoring these tools;
- Supporting CHAI country teams and government programs to implement strong systems for vector control insecticide resistance monitoring;
- Identifying key impediments to achieving entomological programmatic goals and helping devise targeted solutions to them;
- Providing technical support for conducting programmatic entomological activities of malaria vectors including, but not limited to, capturing vector species, biting and resting behavior, oviposition, breeding dynamics, and susceptibility to insecticides;
- Providing technical and operational support for the implementation of entomological and vector control studies including, but not limited to, guidance on best practices for collecting larval and adult vectors, preserving and transporting samples, selecting survey or sentinel sites, evaluating the quality of indoor residual spraying, measuring the residual efficacy of insecticides, and the timing of such studies;
- Participating in the analysis and interpretation of entomological data collected routinely or during entomological surveys;
- Supporting strong entomological data management, including integration of entomological data into malaria information systems and deployment of digital tools as appropriate;
- Developing malaria program budgets for entomological infrastructure and surveillance activities;
- Synthesizing results in slide decks and reporting and communicating them within CHAI;
- Leading trainings for CHAI teams and country programs on entomology best practices and new information;
- Representing CHAI at external technical meetings, acting as the face of our organization to academic/technical partners, including via the dissemination of findings through high-quality presentations, reports, and publications;
- Building strong relationships with stakeholders across governmental, non-governmental, public health, and academic organizations;
- Working with CHAI’s technical teams, country teams, and regional managers to develop and implement coordinated program support; and
- Any other tasks identified.
Qualifications– PhD in medical entomology or related field strongly preferred; or Master’s degree with exceptional experience
- Minimum five years of experience in applied field entomology and malaria vector control
- Ability to perform molecular and biochemical techniques for mosquito species identification and detection of insecticide resistance allele frequency and mechanisms
- Strong experience in conducting field entomological activities such as larval collections, human landing catches, pyrethrum spray catches and CDC light traps as well as familiarity with the standard procedures for conducting these collections
- Solid experience in coordination of field work and data collection
- Exceptional problem-solving solving skills and analytical capabilities
- Flexibility and willingness to adapt projects and plans as necessitated by realities in the field
- Demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively in unstructured settings and to adapt to new environments and challenges
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, especially experience working with remote teams
- Skilled in making persuasive presentations and written reports
- Strong organizational abilities and detail-oriented approach
- Experience managing multiple projects
- Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships in a multicultural environment
- Patience and thoughtfulness even in high-pressure, stressful situations
- Experience training teams on entomology and drafting standard operating procedures on entomology
- Ability to translate scientific knowledge into actionable insights for decision-making
- Strong supervision skills (insectary and lab staff) as well as strong mentorship skills
- Strong spoken and written English
- Willingness to spend approximately up to 50% of time traveling, including field support
Advantages:
- Ability to speak, read, and write professionally in French, Spanish, and/or Portuguese
- Experience working in low or middle income country context
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