Health Security Specialist

Job Description:

The Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Health Transformation is an eight-year program funded by the Australian Government, with an investment of up to A$130 million to strengthen Indonesia's capacity for health security, including human and animal health policy development, strategic planning, and managing health threats. The program aims to enhance Indonesia’s preparedness for and response to emerging health security risks, drawing from lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and addressing gaps in veterinary services. The focus is on building a robust and resilient health system that can manage and mitigate both human and animal health threats, ensuring better outcomes for public health and broader regional stability. 

 
The Health Security Specialist will play a pivotal role in supporting these objectives, focusing on strengthening Indonesia's capacity to manage disease outbreaks across the human and animal health sectors, contributing to the overall resilience of the country’s health security system.

Candidate Specification:

Skills and Experience: 

• Strong background in designing, implementing, and advising on health security policies, with a focus on systems strengthening in both human and veterinary health in Indonesia.  

• Proven ability to address gaps in human and veterinary services and enhance disease control capabilities, particularly in under-resourced areas. 

• Experience in applying the One Health approach to health security issues, including effective communication, collaboration, and coordination between different sectors such as animal health, human health, and environmental health. 

• Track record of successfully navigating cross-sectoral dynamics to achieve integrated health security outcomes. 

• Strong knowledge of climate-informed risk assessment, multisectoral planning, and disease prevention strategies. 

• Ability to develop and lead scenario planning activities and to provide technical guidance on assessing and mitigating health threats. 

• Demonstrated experience in capacity building for health workers, including designing and delivering training programs to enhance health security at local and national levels. 

• Experience in strengthening public health and veterinary health systems, particularly in the context of prevention and early detection of zoonotic diseases. 

• Proven experience working with government authorities, multilateral organizations, and stakeholders to build consensus and integrate health security initiatives into broader health system strategies. 

• Ability to work flexibly and effectively beyond traditional government structures, engaging in complex partnerships and working with diverse stakeholders. 

• Experience in ensuring that health security projects incorporate gender equality, disability, and social inclusion principles, with a commitment to equity in health outcomes. 

Qualifications: 

• Advanced Degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, Health Policy, or a related field. 

• At least 7-10 years of experience in health security, policy development, and systems strengthening, with an emphasis on laboratory strengthening. 

• Experience with One Health initiatives and cross-sector collaboration. 

• Experience working on international development projects, ideally funded by ODA or involving multilateral donor collaboration. 

• Proven ability to work with government authorities and adapt to complex structures and environments. 

• Certifications or specialized training in health systems strengthening, disease prevention, or risk management are advantageous. 

• Strong communication and leadership skills, with the ability to work effectively in culturally diverse and dynamic environments.  

Job Profile:
The Health Security Specialist will focus on building a robust health system capable of mitigating acute and emerging health threats through preventive measures, strategic policy development, and capacity strengthening particularly laboratory strengthening. This role emphasizes long-term resilience building, integrating public health and veterinary health efforts into a cohesive national health security framework.

Key responsibilities include: 

• Provide advisory support to national and subnational authorities to develop robust health security policies and strategic plans. This includes strengthening Indonesia's veterinary services, with a focus on policy and program design to enhance resilience against emerging threats. 

• Promote the One Health approach by ensuring effective communication, collaboration, and coordination between human health, animal health, and environmental sectors. Strengthen cross-sectoral partnerships to tackle emerging zoonotic threats. 

• Oversee monitoring of implementation of Joint One Health plan, with a focus on laboratory strengthening. 

• Enhance the capabilities of veterinary services, focusing on disease prevention, outbreak surveillance, and containment, particularly at the district and sub-district levels. Address critical gaps, such as underfunding and lack of technical capacities, to build a resilient animal health sector. 

• Lead initiatives to develop and implement multisectoral risk assessment methodologies that incorporate climate change impacts on health security. Provide technical support for scenario planning and risk assessment activities. 

• Strengthen the technical capacities of public and animal health workers in outbreak preparedness and risk mitigation. This includes training and upskilling personnel at both the national and local levels to enhance health security measures. 

• Facilitate collaboration with local government bodies, international partners, and multilateral organizations to ensure effective implementation of health security interventions. Lead initiatives to align national health security frameworks with regional and global standards. 

• Ensure that all health security activities are gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, and consider social equity at every stage of program implementation.

We can offer (subject to Company’s policy):

- Agile and safe working environment

- Competitive annual leave and sick leaves

- Group incentive scheme

- Group term life insurance, Workmen’s compensation and Group medical insurance coverage

- Short and Long-term Global employment opportunities

- Global collaboration and knowledge sharing

- Digital Innovation and Transformation

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We put equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our business, seeking to promote fair employment procedures and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all. We encourage individual expression in our workplace and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels they have the opportunity to contribute.

Agile working

At Mott MacDonald, we believe it makes business sense for you and your manager to choose how you can work most effectively to meet your client, team and personal commitments. We embrace agility, flexibility and trust.