Program Officer, Digital

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The India Country Office (ICO) is central to the foundation’s commitment to advancing equitable health outcomes and strengthening India’s health innovation ecosystem. The Digital Innovation, Health R&D, and AI (DHAI) cluster is a core enabler for key goals of the ICO across our portfolio.

On the health innovation front, the cluster is focused on new products such as diagnostics, vaccines, drugs and devices, including AI-enabled, diagnostics, modeling, and other data science approaches that are crucial to many programs. On the diagnostics front we aim to accelerate the discovery, development, and deployment of high-quality, affordable, and accessible in-vitro diagnostics and diagnostic devices for infectious diseases that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations. We work with the Government of India, state governments, academia, private sector, and global networks to build effective diagnostic tools as part of a broader strategy to reduce disease burden and improve health equity. The foundation has also been partnering with the Department of Biotechnology, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, Indian Council for Medical Research and private sector players, to strengthen vaccine R&D in India. Our aim is to help India serve as a credible source of supply for life-saving diagnostics, vaccines, and pharmaceutical products for diseases that affect the poorest.

Our Digital for Development (D4D) & AI work continues to focus on unlocking the transformative potential across our portfolios and our approach is continuously evolving to reflect the expanding opportunities and cross-sectoral relevance of these tools. We aspire to work on ethical and responsible D4D & AI adoption, ensuring that advancements in D4D & AI drive positive impact, reduce inequities, and support the strategic goals of governments in India as well as select countries in the South and Southeast Asia region. Our D4D & AI work primarily includes technical assistance support to key central government Ministries / Departments / Agencies and focus geography state governments in the development, rollout and scale-up of digital architecture in health, gender, and poverty reduction, and helping to study impact.

Your Role

The Program Officer, Digital is part of an expert six-person D4D & AI team within the larger cluster, which partners with various program teams and functions to achieve concrete outcomes aligned with the respective program priorities, especially the health and nutrition related program teams.

This role entails building strong relationships and acting as an advisor to external partners, particularly government(s) and their supporting institutions. S/he will manage relationships with national and state government(s), private sector players, grantees, and development partners as needed, to ensure coordination and collaboration for greater collective impact. The postholder is expected to build a good understanding of the goals and strategies of each of the stakeholders and bring thought leadership in how best Digital & AI can play a supporting role.

You will be based at the foundation’s ICO office in New Delhi, and report to the Senior Manager - D4D.

What You’ll Do

Key responsibilities include:
- Work closely with key government stakeholders (in relevant line ministries at the central government level, as well as in the priority States for the foundation, professional bodies, and private sector players, on key digital programs and priorities that impact national and state-level outcomes for the foundation.- Drive independently the core bodies of work on digitally enabled healthcare workforce, especially in our priority States in India, including appropriate AI interventions in partnership with the Senior Officer - AI and the relevant AI Taskforce members.- Collaborate with other program teams across various vertical initiatives, cross-functional teams, and innovation driving teams based in other geographies, offering input and review on investments that include digital components.- Develop, advise, and manage well-scoped, well-structured investments (grants and/or contracts) to execute against the bodies of work related to digital,