Job Vacancy at Jhpiego, Tanzania October 2026

Technical Director – Malaria

Organization: Jhpiego
Project: AFGHS-Jhpiego
Location: Tanzania – Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar
Employment Type: Full-Time
Application Deadline: 12 October 2026
Job Reference: 8223

About Jhpiego and the Project

Jhpiego, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, is an international health organization working to improve the health of women, children, and families through evidence-based health programs and stronger health systems.

The AFGHS-Jhpiego project is funded by the U.S. Department of State (DoS) to support the delivery of lifesaving, comprehensive maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and malaria services across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. The project aims to improve service and data quality, strengthen health-system integration and resilience, facilitate effective transition, and promote local ownership and accountability for sustained health outcomes.

Jhpiego works closely with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the Reproductive and Child Health Section (RCHS), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme (ZAMEP), and Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) structures.

Job Overview

The Technical Director – Malaria will provide overall technical leadership, coordination, and oversight for comprehensive malaria interventions under the AFGHS-Jhpiego project.

The position will provide subject-matter expertise in integrated vector management, malaria diagnosis and treatment, preventive therapies, surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation. The Technical Director will work closely with the project’s Senior Technical Team to coordinate technical inputs and ensure coherent, evidence-based approaches aligned with national guidelines and standards across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

The role will also collaborate closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) and Community-Based Health Services (CBHS) teams to ensure the availability and use of high-quality data for surveillance, performance improvement, and adaptive management.

The Technical Director will serve as a key technical point of contact with national malaria program units, research institutions, technical partners, national technical forums, and Jhpiego’s Global Malaria Team.

A major component of the position will be providing technical leadership for the sustainability and transition of malaria services by working with government counterparts to progressively institutionalize project-supported interventions within government policies, plans, budgets, systems, and routine service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Leadership and Quality

• Provide overall technical direction and oversight for malaria interventions, ensuring alignment with national policies, project objectives, and global evidence.
• Provide technical leadership for the design, planning, implementation, and scale-up of malaria activities to ensure effectiveness, quality, and consistency across regions.
• Work closely with the Project Director and Senior Technical Team to establish technical priorities and respond to technical needs identified with government counterparts and other stakeholders.
• Lead the identification and implementation of effective facility- and community-based strategies for malaria prevention, diagnosis, treatment, preventive therapies, and control.
• Provide targeted technical input to national malaria strategy development, guideline updates, and technical standards in collaboration with NMCP and ZAMEP.
• Position the project as a trusted technical resource for malaria programming.
• Align malaria activities and technical support with approved project milestones and payment-linked deliverables.
• Monitor progress and address gaps to ensure timely achievement, verification, and payment of milestones.

2. Institutional Capacity Strengthening and Quality Improvement

• Lead institutional capacity strengthening across key malaria thematic areas, including:
  • Integrated vector management.
  • Malaria diagnosis, treatment, and preventive therapy delivery.
  • Surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation.
  • Malaria service delivery and data quality systems.
• Strengthen national, regional, council, facility, and community-level capacity to implement, supervise, monitor, and continuously improve malaria services.
• Provide technical guidance to project technical teams to ensure consistent application of national standards, evidence-based approaches, and quality improvement methodologies.
• Strengthen government technical leadership, mentorship, supportive supervision, and quality improvement systems.
• Support the progressive reduction of dependence on project-supported technical assistance.

3. Surveillance, Data Use, Research, and Performance Monitoring

• Collaborate with MERL staff to strengthen and apply existing government systems to track malaria-related results.
• Analyze malaria data to support decision-making and adaptive management.
• Promote routine use of surveillance, service delivery, and quality data by national and subnational government counterparts.
• Support identification of performance gaps, targeting of interventions, and monitoring of corrective actions.
• Manage and coordinate technical inputs from research institutions leading surveillance activities.
• Define scopes of work and monitor technical performance in collaboration with NMCP and ZAMEP units.
• Ensure surveillance, research, and learning activities contribute to national priorities.
• Strengthen government capacity to generate, interpret, and use evidence for malaria programming.

4. Government, Partner, and Technical Coordination

• Serve as a key technical point of contact with:
  • National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP).
  • Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme (ZAMEP).
  • Malaria implementing partners.
  • Research institutions.
  • U.S. Department of State (DoS).
  • Jhpiego malaria technical teams.
• Represent the project in malaria technical working groups, task forces, and national and subnational technical and coordination forums.
• Maintain strong collaborative relationships with government counterparts, implementing partners, DoS representatives, and other technical stakeholders.
• Coordinate with MERL, CBHS, and other project technical teams to ensure malaria interventions are integrated and complementary across facility and community platforms.
• Serve as the link between the project malaria team, national technical forums, and Jhpiego’s Global Malaria Team.
• Facilitate technical alignment, knowledge exchange, and access to specialized technical expertise.

5. Documentation, Learning, and Knowledge Sharing

• Document and synthesize implementation experiences, adaptations, lessons learned, and challenges.
• Use implementation learning to inform technical improvement and scale-up.
• Contribute to high-quality technical reports, presentations, and knowledge products required by NMCP, ZAMEP, DoS, and Jhpiego.
• Author or co-author abstracts, presentations, technical briefs, and peer-reviewed publications in collaboration with in-country and global colleagues.
• Identify and disseminate effective approaches and promising practices that can be institutionalized and sustained through government systems.

6. Sustainability and Transition

• Provide technical leadership for implementation and monitoring of the project’s malaria sustainability and transition approach.
• Support agreed milestones for progressively shifting technical leadership and implementation responsibilities to government structures.
• Work with NMCP, ZAMEP, and other government counterparts to institutionalize effective project-supported malaria interventions within:
  • National and subnational policies.
  • Plans and budgets.
  • Government systems.
  • Technical guidance.
  • Routine service delivery.
• Assess institutional, workforce, financing, service delivery, data and accountability, and community-level barriers to sustainability.
• Guide the development and monitoring of practical actions to address identified gaps.
• Strengthen government capacity to progressively lead and sustain:
  • Malaria planning.
  • Implementation.
  • Technical oversight.
  • Mentorship.
  • Supportive supervision.
  • Quality improvement.
  • Surveillance.
  • Data use.
  • Performance monitoring.
• Ensure malaria scale-up strategies include clear approaches for institutionalization, government ownership, financing, and transition to government-led implementation.
• Promote the use and strengthening of existing government structures, systems, tools, and processes while avoiding parallel project systems.
• Work with government counterparts to incorporate priority malaria interventions and associated resource requirements into national, regional, and council planning and budgeting processes.
• Monitor transition readiness and progress against agreed milestones.
• Identify risks to continuity, quality, or sustainability of essential malaria services and develop appropriate mitigation measures.
• Ensure transition decisions protect the continuity and quality of essential malaria services and are informed by evidence of government capacity and system readiness.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• A clinical degree in Medicine, Nursing, Midwifery, or a related clinical field.
• A Master of Public Health (MPH) is required.
• At least 9–10 years of experience implementing and/or providing technical assistance for malaria control and elimination projects.
• Specialized knowledge and experience in at least one of the following areas:
  • Malaria prevention, including malaria in pregnancy services such as intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp).
  • Malaria immunization.
  • Routine distribution of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) during vaccination clinics for children under five and antenatal care (ANC) visits.
  • Malaria diagnosis through rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs).
  • Laboratory diagnostic capacity strengthening, including microscopy.
  • Malaria case management, particularly for pregnant women and children under five.
• At least 8 years of experience implementing and/or providing technical assistance to large, donor-funded, multi-year international health-sector projects involving malaria prevention and control.
• Demonstrated experience training clinical and community-based healthcare workers in malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
• Demonstrated experience strengthening facility- and community-level case reporting.
• Experience addressing provider behaviors, conducting operational research, and strengthening technical leadership at national and provincial levels.
• Demonstrated in-depth understanding of the healthcare system in Tanzania, particularly the public health system.
• Experience living and working in Tanzania is required.
• Familiarity with U.S. Government (USG) administrative, management, and reporting procedures and systems.
• Proven track record managing project teams composed of several technical experts and fostering teamwork.
• Expertise in translating research into practice by identifying and adapting best practices to specific project contexts.

Preferred Qualifications and Skills

• Excellent diplomacy skills and demonstrated ability to establish and maintain interpersonal and professional relationships with:
  • U.S. Government representatives.
  • U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).
  • Host-country counterparts.
  • NGOs.
  • Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs).
  • Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
  • Private-sector stakeholders.
• Strong leadership skills.
• Proactive, self-motivated, and able to work with minimal supervision.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.
• Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills.
• Strong analytical, communication, and report-writing skills.

Compensation and Benefits

Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should submit their applications through the official Jhpiego Careers Portal.

Applicants must submit one document containing:

• Cover letter.
• Resume/CV.
• References.

Application Deadline: 12 October 2026

Job Reference: 8223

Important Recruitment Information

The successful candidate selected for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation.

Jhpiego is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. The organization does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, other legally protected characteristics, or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria.

Jhpiego promotes Affirmative Action for minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and veterans.

Recruitment Scams and Fraud Warning

Jhpiego advises applicants that:

• Recruiters will never ask for a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.
• All active vacancies are advertised directly on the official Jhpiego Careers Portal.
• Official Jhpiego recruitment emails will come from a jhpiego.org email address.
• Suspicious communications should be reported to Info@Jhpiego.org.

How to Apply:

To submit your application, please follow the link provided below.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY