JOB DESCRIPTION

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The India Country Office (ICO) is central to the Foundation’s commitment to advancing equitable health outcomes and strengthening India’s health innovation ecosystem. The Digital, Health Innovations and Artificial Intelligence (DHAI) cluster is a core enabler for key goals of the India Country Office (ICO) across our portfolio.
On the health innovation front, the cluster is focused on new products such as diagnostics, vaccines, drugs and devices including AI-enabled, diagnostics, modeling, and other data science approaches that are crucial to many programs. On the diagnostics front we aim to accelerate the discovery, development, and deployment of high-quality, affordable, and accessible in-vitro diagnostics and diagnostic devices for infectious diseases that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations. We work with the Government of India, state governments, academia, private sector, and global networks to build effective diagnostic tools as part of a broader strategy to reduce disease burden and improve health equity. The foundation has also been partnering with the Department of Biotechnology, BIRAC, Indian Council for Medical Research and private sector players to strengthen vaccine R&D in India. Our aim is to help India serve as a credible source of supply for life-saving diagnostics, vaccines, and pharmaceutical products for diseases that affect the poorest.
Our AI work focuses on ethical and responsible AI adoption, ensuring that advancements in AI drive positive impact, reduce inequities, and support the strategic goals of governments in India as well as select countries in the South and Southeast Asia region. Our digital work includes technical assistance support to key central government and focus geography state agencies in the development, rollout and scale up of digital architecture in health, gender and poverty reduction, and helping to study impact.

Application Deadline: Dec. 4th 2025

Your Role

As a Program Officer, Diagnostics for Family Health you will play a crucial role in shaping and managing a portfolio of investments focused on advancing medical diagnostic technologies that support improved maternal, neonatal, and women’s health as well as  diagnostic technologies for nutrient biomarkers with the potential to improve public health outcomes in high-burden populations including newer non-invasive technologies.

This will include diagnostics in antenatal care (such as anemia, pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, AI enabled maternal risk identification), diagnostics for neonates and infants, diagnostics for women’s health (STI infections), newer tools for detecting micronutrients in fortified food including technologies for nutrition surveillance.  You will collaborate with internal and external partners to drive innovative solutions, ensuring that in vitro diagnostics are designed, tested, and deployed effectively in public health programs.

You will bring expertise in diagnostic development, including upstream research for new biomarkers leads, clinical use case prioritization and validation, market and product specifications, regulatory pathways, and market access strategies, and work closely with product development partners, global health organizations, and policymakers to ensure successful implementation of these diagnostic technologies.

You will report to the Senior Manager Diagnostics, and the role will be based in Delhi.

What You’ll Do

This is a highly collaborative role and will involve working with multiple Program Strategy Teams (PSTs) in Seattle and teams across the ICO for new product development and scaling. In this role you will:

• Design, structure, and manage grants and contracts for diagnostic innovation and implementation as they pertain family health in line with India and PST objectives.
• Identify and select partner institutions and shape scope and strategy for selected grants and contracts to meet selected strategic objectives.
• Select partners, define scope, negotiate terms, and monitor progress of investments.
• Apply milestone-based performance metrics and facilitate go/no-go decision-making.
• Provide technical and strategic support to grantees and contractors, ensuring alignment with foundation priorities
• Review interim and final reports; write final evaluation and synthesize and document learnings across related grants and contracts
• Establish and maintain relationships with key institutions to foster ownership and collaboration to facilitate adoption and scaling of new/innovative products and technologies
• Work with domestic and global partners to support product development, clinical testing, regulatory navigation, manufacturing scale-up and ecosystem strengthening for diagnostics maternal, newborn and women’s health and nutrition.
• Work with product development partnerships and other key external partners to enhance implementation of program strategy
• Collaborate closely with Foundation teams in Seattle and ICO on diagnostics for maternal, newborn and women’s health and nutrition.
• Analyze opportunities based on the latest and most innovative thinking in family health to find opportunities for diagnostic investments
• Speak and participate in public events, forums, and meetings
• Support to create a highly collaborative work culture across the teams
• Partnership with relevant stakeholders for advising on innovative go to market approaches for some of these tools.
• Contribute to the global learning ecosystem by sharing findings and best practices
• Support on writing briefs and making presentations for leadership visits and for foundation priorities as needed.

Your Experience

• PhD or advanced degree in Science, Public Health, Medicine, Engineering, or a related field, is preferred.
• At least 5 years in upstream translational research, diagnostics development, regulatory affairs, implementation, or market access in India or LMIC contexts.
• Deep understanding of diagnostic product development lifecycle—from concept through validation, regulatory approval, and commercialization.
• Familiarity with India’s diagnostics policy ecosystem and experience working with relevant agencies (e.g., ICMR, CDSCO, DBT/BIRAC).
• Strong grant and project management skills; ability to structure and oversee large-scale investments.
• Experience with upstream health R&D, biotech industry engagement, and innovation scale-up strategies.
• Strategic thinker with strong analytical, quantitative, and communication skills.

Other Attributes

• Must have legal authorization to work in India without the need for visa sponsorship
• This position is not a remote role and will require the selected candidate to work from the New Delhi office.
• Passion for health equity, innovation, and systems change.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across cultures, disciplines, and organizational boundaries.
• Excellent writing, presentation, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 33%.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.