fhi 360 Recruitment 2021

The position will be based in Accra, Ghana and will involve in-country travel. Administrative and technical responsibilities include working with the global and regional leadership, in-country partners and US-CDC to implement agreed upon strategies to enhance laboratory networks as well as the broader surveillance systems, and capacity building of the detection of COVID-19 and other priority diseases.

Job Description

Job Title: Laboratory Technical Officer

Key Responsibilities Administrative Responsibilities:

• Provides administrative support to technical components of country-level project activities.
• Contributes to a variety of financial, administrative and logistics support needs as requested by the project.
• Contributes to the annual work planning and budgeting processes.

Technical Responsibilities:

• Provides technical assistance to project staff to implement activities/interventions to support enhancements in support of the country national action plan for health security and improve JEE scores.
• Participates in the implementation of in-country laboratory enhancement activities.
• Supports national stakeholders in developing or updating national laboratory strategic plans, SOPs and policies.
• Provides technical support based upon expertise with laboratory system strengthening, methods and strategies, current best practices, and established laboratory and operational standards while also being locally relevant and sustainable.
• Helps build capacity in local laboratory stakeholders and leaders to identify and oversee enhancements in laboratory networks.
• Provides support and training to facilities as part of overall capacity building and continuous improvement programs.
• Assists in writing and revising laboratory SOP’s and other laboratory documents.
• Provides technical support to improve laboratory systems to support surveillance of infectious diseases.
• Will be required to work with a diverse group of national organizations including the Government and other diagnostic network leaders, development partners, other regional and global project staff and local CDC staff.

Minimum Requirements:

• A minimum of a BSc in biological or laboratory science or an equivalent with a specialty in microbiology, virology or immunology.
• At least five years of experience in laboratory strengthening and capacity building.
• Knowledge of infectious disease outbreaks and experience in the diagnosis of infectious diseases including COVID-19 and specific hands-on diagnostics experience.
• Competent in current diagnostic methods for infectious diseases including point-of-care tests and molecular methods.
• Experience in developing or updating national laboratory strategic plans, SOPs, policies and guidelines.
• Knowledge and experience with strengthening laboratories to achieve international quality standards including against ISO 15189 and/or SLMTA/SLIPTA.
• Familiarity with GHSA Action Packages and IHR (2005) core capacities
• Understanding of evidence-based priority actions based on JEE and National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) to improve health security.
• Awareness of the mechanisms and strategies that are being deployed under the GHSA and other similar mechanisms to combat emerging infectious threats.
• Sound knowledge and experience in clinical diagnostics (on-the-bench experience), laboratory networks and quality management systems.