Director, Program Development, Global Health (Remote)

Do you believe that everyone deserves access to affordable, quality healthcare? Are you driven by creativity, bold ideas, and disruptive innovation? Are you inspired by exceptionally talented, diverse, impact-oriented colleagues? Do you thrive in a dynamic, high-growth, fast-paced environment? Then consider a job with ThinkWell.

ThinkWell is a growing, flexible health systems organization, with both global influence and local grounding. Our focus is on driving transformation in the global health space by always questioning and disrupting conventional wisdom about what works or what can or cannot be done. We develop solutions tailored to a client’s context and political realities and do not replicate global models and all-purpose solutions and believe in pragmatisms over ideology. We know that to drive change, we must focus on how the world could be, rather than making excuses for the status quo.

The Director, Program Development – Global Health, is a full-time position that will drive ThinkWell’s growth strategy and new business functions. The Director will identify and deliver new collaborations and partnerships, to leverage existing work and unlock new funding streams and foster innovative ways of addressing old challenges within health systems. This will be attained through facilitating strategic, collaborative thinking with the program teams and designing innovative, financially sound programs in direct support of ThinkWell’s mission and objectives. The Director will be a proactive networker and play a major role in external engagement with global actors and facilitation of country team engagement with both regional and national actors. Leveraging from our existing strengths in health systems, growth areas will include commercial sector engagement, innovations and technology, with a focus on determinants of health.

Currently, we have four main pillars of growth which are led by our program and design teams;

• Maintaining and leveraging existing work as led by Program Directors and their teams
• Adjacent areas of growth which pivot from existing work; this is a collaborative with Program Directors and Design lab
• Seeking new opportunities that are directly related to our core domain areas of analytics, advisory, capacity building, strategic facilitation, and program implementation; this is led by Design lab in collaboration with program teams
• Designing new and innovative areas for diversification of our portfolio of programs, which is led by design lab.

The Director reports to the Managing Director, Programs and leads the Design Lab team, the ThinkWell hub for designing and creating technical programs, while contributing actively to various leadership groups within the organization.

The position is fully remote and can be based anywhere, preferably in the United States or Switzerland.

What you’ll do:

Growth Strategy and Program Development

• Proactively facilitate the growth of our program portfolio while infusing creativity and innovation at all stages from design to delivery;
• Drive program expansion in new domain areas and secure new funding sources through a range of strategies including: spinning off innovations from our existing portfolio, and productizing scalable approaches, developing complementary partnerships and leveraging existing partnerships;
• Embrace and represent the technical aspects of our work externally and serve as a key ideation expert, to design innovations for non-traditional areas of work and leverage opportunities within existing traditional projects to ideate innovations for non-traditional funders;
• Co-lead with country directors for new business development in order to expand in existing and new areas for comprehensive, transformational impact for existing countries;
• Maintain awareness of major funding opportunities for core areas of ThinkWell’s interests;
• Apply technical background in health systems development to identify new business opportunities and approaches with practical insight;
• Put pen to paper to frame and write technical proposals when needed;
• Bring forward a no-holds-barred, entrepreneurial, creative approach to developing new business.

Design Lab Leadership

• Serve as a ThinkWell ambassador both internally and externally through networking with donors, program partners, and other stakeholders at technical meetings/events;
• Work with the Communications director to develop external communications materials that enhance our visibility and profile;
• Work with Program directors to identify innovative approaches within their portfolios that could serve as seeds for future fundraising, actively support design, concept development and proposals with teams;
• Oversee the Design Lab team, and provide mentorship and training to project teams on ideation, capture, business development strategies, and submission of quality proposals;
• Work closely with ThinkWell’s contracts, finance, and administration teams to ensure coherent working arrangements for all procurement and adherence to due diligence requirements for new business submissions.

We Are:

ThinkWell core values are our fundamental organizational guiding principles. They define our corporate culture, influence our behavior at work and help us achieve our mission. Our values are:

• Think big
• Influence the conversation
• Empower others
• Be exceptional
• Always question
• Relate authentically
• Evolve by learning

You Are:

ThinkWell core competencies are foundational skills and behaviors that align with our values and are expected of all employees.

An entrepreneurial, results-oriented ‘do-er’ with a willingness to take risk, think big and challenge conventional wisdom.

A change maker who reaches independent judgement with an open mind, influences the conversation, and seeks innovation.

Able to help create an empowering environment in which everyone feels free to take initiative, be accountable and fail intelligently (learn from mistakes).

A collaborative colleague who engages constructively with people from different cultures, orientations, and perspectives and maintains positive relations in a virtual world.

Principally motivated by a growth mindset, meaning the pursuit of knowledge, experience, and self-improvement. You always question and continuously learn.

Authentic, honest, direct, self-aware and open to giving and receiving feedback.**

Requirements:

• University degree in international health, health economics, or equivalent and 12+ years experience or graduate degree and 10+ years experience;
• Significant technical knowledge in health systems and substantive work experience in health and adjacent sectors;
• Extensive experience working with traditional bilateral donors, foundations and philanthropy groups;
• Demonstrated skills in strategy development and implementation, leadership, capacity building, fundraising, impact investing and problem solving;
• Demonstrated team and people management abilities with a focus on growing staff, mentoring and coaching junior professionals;
• A senior leader with an entrepreneurial mindset who is able to rally staff around ThinkWell’s mission and priorities;
• A thoughtful systems thinker with grounded, pragmatic understanding of the complexities of our work;
• Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with external strategic partners, donors, and stakeholders;
• Outstanding cross-cultural communication skills, including the ability to relate respectfully with staff at all levels, ages, genders, nationalities and orientations as well as across work areas;
• Excellent spoken, analytical, and writing skills in English and preferably a second language (eg, French);
• Ability and willingness to travel up to 20%.