Practice Director, Infectious Diseases
Location: Boston, MA or Arlington, VA
Position Category: Direct hire, paid in US
Posting Date: 05/08/2025
Deadline Date: 05/21/2025
Salary Range: $166,090-$230,681 Commensurate with experience and location.
Description
Organizational Overview
JSI is a global nonprofit dedicated to improving lives through better health and education outcomes for individuals and communities. JSI works with government agencies, the private sector and local nonprofit and civil society organizations to identify and implement solutions to public health and education challenges. These partnerships enhance the quality and accessibility of systems and lead to better health and education outcomes both in the U.S. and globally. JSI has more than 1,000 employees across eight offices in the U.S. and 20 countries worldwide.
Position Overview
The Practice Director, Infectious Diseases will play a pivotal role in leading JSI’s infectious diseases global practice. This position will provide mentorship, supervision, and/or matrixed management oversight to a global team of infectious diseases specialists. The Director will be responsible for establishing JSI’s comprehensive infectious diseases approach, including developing cross-cutting quality standards and supporting their adoption across JSI’s International Division in the context of program implementation, strengthening JSI’s global thought leadership in infectious diseases and representing JSI in global fora, and fostering internal knowledge sharing and learning for infectious diseases. The Practice Director, Infectious Diseases, will also establish norms and standards for the infectious diseases component of new business development activities, including program design considerations.
The Practice Director will also ensure successful implementation of projects within their practice area, while leading and growing project leaders and practice team members. This full-time position will report to the Vice President for Technical and Program Excellence and will be based in JSI’s Boston or Washington, D.C. office.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Lead and manage JSI’s global infectious diseases practice team, through direct supervision mechanisms as well as through matrixed-management approaches. Provide direction, support, capacity strengthening, and professional development opportunities to enhance team performance and cohesion. Establish clear roles, responsibilities, and performance metrics for team members, ensuring alignment with organizational goals. Foster a collaborative team culture that values being respectful, entrepreneurial, and responsive.
- Collaborate with the VP for Technical and Program Excellence, other technical teams, and other key ID stakeholders to develop, implement, and monitor ID strategic plans.
- Collaborate with the BD team to develop, implement and monitor ID-wide BD plans and drive strategic growth and development for infectious diseases programs.
- Lead and support proposal development efforts in collaboration with the BD team, the F&O team, the program support team and others as required.
- Collaborate with the communications team to develop, implement and monitor ID-wide thought leadership plans, including representing JSI’s infectious diseases practice at conferences, workshops, technical meetings, and online.
- Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including funders, host country counterparts, and partners to promote collaboration and knowledge sharing. Represent JSI’s infectious diseases practice at conferences, workshops, and meetings, advocating for evidence-based practices and policies in international development.
- Supervise multi-country, TA, and bilateral project directors/activity managers outside of Tier 1 geographies leading projects focused on infectious diseases.
- Collaborate with the program support team to ensure effective implementation and monitoring of programs and projects.
- Support the technical assistance resource allocation process by collaborating with projects to determine needs for infectious diseases support, allocating team members to technical support opportunities in a transparent and equitable manner, and using feedback to help improve performance.
- Monitor the quality of infectious diseases-related technical support to projects via an agreed ID monitoring process and provide feedback to service providers and projects as needed.
- Develop a quality framework and standards for technical work related to infectious diseases programs and projects.
- Work with other ID leaders to implement technical quality standards and frameworks.
- Prepare, manage, and report on budget associated with infectious diseases team and workplan, including labor and non-labor activity tracking related to external engagement, internal communications, new business development, internal technical assistance, and project implementation.
- Monitor staff billability and make staffing adjustments in collaboration with People & Culture as required.
QUALIFICATIONS
- MD or PhD in public health, epidemiology, or related field required.
- 15+ years’ experience leading infectious diseases projects or practices in the global public health sector.
- 5+ years of demonstrated leadership and people management skills, including management of distributed and cross-functional teams.
- An established thought leader in infectious diseases with current leadership roles in technical working groups, associations, or guiding bodies, with ability to envision and apply innovative practices in complex and evolving health systems.
- 5+ years of experience as a COP, resident advisor, or other senior project leadership position. Experience managing multi-country teams/programs is an added advantage.
- Understanding of JSI’s core business and market space within the infectious diseases market, including knowledge of the public health sector, current trends and priorities.
- Proven track record of identifying, tracking, and winning bilateral, multilateral, and/or private sector solicitations.
- Significant experience with new business development, including depth of knowledge re: donor landscape, priorities, and actors; demonstrated strong relationships with donors and strategic partners; willingness to lead, coordinate, and execute new business development activities; proven record writing successful proposals, particularly the Gates Foundation, UN Agencies, Gavi, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and bilateral government donors.
- Experience in managing and leading large scale infectious diseases teams across multiple locations and settings.
- Strong relationship-building skills with a range of stakeholders, including local communities, government entities, and international partners.
- Experience managing budgets and labor allocation.
- Strong management skills including financial management, initiative, maturity of judgement, and the ability to make sound decisions under pressing conditions.
- Exceptional interpersonal and diplomatic skills and an ability to work across disciplines, audiences, and in diverse locations internationally.
- Exceptional oral and written English communication skills, including presentation, public speaking, and facilitation skills. Fluency in a second language is preferred.
- Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally as necessary (~10-15%).
Interested candidates should submit their resumes and cover letters online by 05/21/2025.
