Senior Program Officer, Vaccine Forecasting & Financing

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 Global Development (GD) Division includes a diverse range of programming areas focused on finding creative ways to ensure solutions and products get into the hands of people in low-income countries. We focus on areas with the potential for high-impact, sustainable solutions that can reach millions of people. Our strategies include Emergency Response, Immunization, and Polio Eradication. A common theme across these programs is focus on innovative delivery, including an emphasis on strengthening primary health care systems. Our teams work in close partnership with our Country Office Teams to align the foundation’s health and development equity agenda with the government’s broader priorities.

Vaccines are a core priority of the Gates Foundation and can save millions of lives a year when delivered effectively. The mission of our Immunization Program Strategy Team (PST) is to urgently reach children, adolescents, and adults -- no matter where they live -- with the vaccines they need. Our goal is a world free of vaccine-preventable diseases, and we do this by working with countries, development partners, and civil society organizations, to make sure that vaccines and immunization are effectively prioritized and delivered. Robust and resilient immunization programs are critical to achieving the promise of vaccination and are a cornerstone of primary health care, and we work to ensure that there are sufficient, affordable supplies to meet demand. We seek to bring new perspectives to challenging problems as we focus on results that can be delivered at scale. All our work on vaccines and immunization contributes to ia2030, which is a vision and commitment by the global community to extend the full benefits of immunization to all by 2030.

Your Role 

As the Senior Program Officer, Vaccine Forecasting & Financing, you will lead the design, implementation, and improvement of vaccine forecasting processes and systems, and financing approaches that strengthen immunization sustainability in low- and middle-income countries. The role will support countries, Gavi, UNICEF, and other partners to strengthen forecasting and budgeting processes, improve vaccine prefinancing and co-financing mechanisms, increase domestic financing for immunization, and develop innovative financing approaches that accelerate equitable vaccine access.  You will serve as connection between the team’s wider access-oriented efforts across an important continuum of topics (upstream market shaping efforts, procurement system strengthening, and downstream supply chain performance optimization). You’ll work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders including the Gavi Alliance partners, vaccine financiers and country immunization programs. 

What You’ll Do 

Improve Global Vaccine Forecasting and Planning Systems

• Collaborating with Gavi and UNICEF to drive continued improvements in forecasting, supply planning, and allocation processes.
• Strengthen global and country-level demand forecasting, budgeting, and funding source identification.
• Work across partners to improve forecasting accuracy, transparency, and decision-making.
• Lead analysis and process improvements to address systemic forecasting challenges affecting vaccine availability and financing.

Optimize Financing Solutions to unlock Vaccine Procurement

• Support efficient utilization of vaccine procurement and pre-financing mechanisms.
• Monitor and strengthen Gavi co-financing performance and tracking systems.
• Design and evaluate financing solutions for campaigns, cold chain equipment, and other immunization investments.

• Explore financing mechanisms for novel vaccines and other priority immunization products.

Strengthen Domestic Financing for Immunization

• Collaborate across country offices, regional (ARO) and global teams (DPAF, PAC, SIF) to maintain