Senior Laboratory Services Adviser

Job Description

John Snow, Inc (JSI) seeks highly qualified and accomplished public health leaders and providers for the recently awarded United Sates Agency for International Development (USAID) / PEPFAR-funded Supporting an AIDS –Free Era (SAFE) Project in Zambia. The five year project which will be led by JSI in partnership with ABt Associates,mothers2mothers and the Catholic Medical Mission Board will work to reduce HIV mortality, morbidity and transmission, while improving nutrition outcomes and family planning integration in three provinces; Central, Copperbelt and North Western. USAID/PEPFAR SAFE will work with GRZ, private sector and civil society institutions at the national, provincial and district level to increase access to ART for HIV positive adults and children, reduce the incidence of new infections, improve nutritional assessment, Counseling and Services (NACS) and family planning services and increase the capacity of local health institutions to better serve affected populations.

Position Tile: Senior Laboratory Services Advisor

Position Type: Full Time

Location: Lusaka

Job Summary

The purpose of this job is to improve the wellbeing of clients on ART through timely and accurate laboratory investigations in the era of ART which have become even more important with UNAIDS 95-95-95 strategy in addition to effective patient care. Biomedical scientists are now becoming critical members of ART teams in health facilities and communities. The incumbent who must be able to travel 80% of the time must be fully registered with the Health Professions Council of Zambia and will report to the Director Laboratory Services.

Primary Responsibilities and Duties.

• Provide leadership on how the project supports continuous laboratory services in all USAID/PEPFAR SAFE supported health facilities.
• Work with other partners including USAID DISCOVER Health, EQUIP and many others to ensure that the GRZ agenda on laboratory services succeeds.
• Work closely with GRZ counterparts, develop, implement and graduate to sustainability a sample referral system in Central, Copperbelt and North Western Provinces of Zambia.
• Good standing with the Laboratory Technical Working Group and National Laboratory Leadership at MoH.
• Ensure that not less than 90% of clients on ART get their viral load tests done and receive their results at their appointment dates.
• Introduction and scale up of HPV testing in support of the National Cervical Cancer Program.
• Support the adaptation of the Gene Xpert for multiple testing needs including VL,EID & HPV among others.
• Management, oversight and implementation of laboratory information management systems including e_Labs and DISA.
• Participation and collaborative oversight on nationally approved research initiatives, surveillance and studies ( Recency, CADRE etc).
• Scaling up of HIV Drug Resistance Testing through collaborative sensitization with Clinical and Community teams.
• Implementation of Laboratory Quality Management Systems for the attainment of National Certification in the short term and International Accreditation in the long term.
• Ensure demand creation activities are supported and complemented by lab services for various programmatic areas such as VL, EID & HPV.
• Facilitate nationally approved equipment use and maintenance training events for optimal use of analysers.
• Expertise in developing standard operating procedures and job aids for the management of laboratory services.
• Plan for buffer stock to take care of shortages in laboratory supplies including HIV test kits and selected laboratory reagents.
• Ensure the mobile service teams are well stocked with laboratory reagents as and when they need them.
• Any other duties assigned by Lab Director or Deputy Chief of Party- Technical.

Desirable Competencies:

• Being able to work effectively with GRZ through MoH, PHO and DHOs and health facilities.
• Good oral and documentation communication skills
• Computer literate especially word, excel, power point.
• People Centred change agent and a unifying player in multi sectoral teams.

Qualifications

• BSc Biomedical Sciences or equivalent with at least 10 yrs experience in a similar position.
• MSc Biomedical Sciences, MPH /MBA or equivalent is desirable.