ROLE PROFILE
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Job Title
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Senior Specialist-Public Health
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Functional Area
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Programmes
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Reports To
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Team Lead-Madhya Pradesh Innovation Hub
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Location
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Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
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Travel Required
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60%
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Effective Date
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October 2026
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IHAT PURPOSE AND PRIORITIES
India Health Action Trust was instituted in 2003 as a Charitable Trust with a vision to meaningfully impact the lives of vulnerable and marginalised people by addressing health and social inequities. The Trust is working towards reducing inequities by developing comprehensive and sustainable programmes to improve population health. Since its inception, IHAT has working closely with the Government of India and state governments, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Bihar to achieve public health goals. Our work is focused in areas of prevention and control of HIV and Tuberculosis, in achieving significant improvements in Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health, improved Nutrition among mothers and children, and strengthening health systems. We use program science to optimise and scale public health programs while partnering with the governments and communities.
ABOUT PROGRAM
Madhya Pradesh Innovation Hub (MPIH) was established in 2019 through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the National Health Mission (NHM), Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) and India Health Action Trust (IHAT). The Institute for Global Public Health (IGPH), University of Manitoba (UoM), is IHAT’s technical partner. The Innovation Hub, at the state level serves as an overarching platform for co-designing and demonstrating innovations, adopting a program science approach to strengthen the design, implementation, and generating evidence for scale-up of interventions in the state. MPIH works across the continuum of care, connecting communities, facilities, and health systems to improve health equity and outcomes for MNCH, Tb and NCDs esp. in tribal regions with a gender lens.
ROLE PURPOSE
The Sr. Public Health Specialist will serve as MPIH's public health expert, providing technical leadership for FRU strengthening through Regional Resource training Centres (RRTCs) established at six government medical colleges, for augmenting competencies of FRU doctors through clinical mentoring, supporting state in health facility assessment and readiness, and improvement in EmONC signal functions at designated first referral units. The role will also provide technical support across MPIH’s public health interventions, including focus on health equity and gender-responsive care.
Under the guidance of Team Lead MPIH, the Sr Public Health Specialist with closely engage with multidisciplinary internal teams and externally with government & clinicians ensuring that all programme interventions are technically robust, clinically appropriate, and aligned with program science. The role is expected will undertake extensive field visits to RRTCs at medical colleges, FRUs and non-FRUs to help government identify good practices/gaps and support co-designing of solutions and demonstration to learnings. They will also collaborate with M&E and knowledge management and teams at demonstration sites to ensure technical and public health rigour of programme data, analyses and knowledge products.
DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE
Key Deliverables expected from the Job Role
1. Programmatic Leadership for FRU Strengthening through RRTCs
- Provide technical inputs in the FRU strengthening program through RRTCs and prepare divisional action plans and consolidated state level action plan under the direct supervision of the Team Lead
- Plan and organize facility readiness assessments in the FRUs through divisional coordinators and support analysis for the signal functions, infrastructure, HR and procurement based on the recommendations in GoI’s MNH Tool Kit
- Lead engagement with Deans and Heads of Departments (HoDs) at medical colleges/Regional Resource Training Centres (RRTCs) to formalize partnership, and smooth implementation of training and mentoring activities at identified FRUs
- Alongside the State Government and RRTCs, facilitate the planning and scheduling of divisional trainings of FRUs and DH by the medical college faculty
- Facilitate divisional workshops/trainings including clinical skills practice sessions for doctors from FRUs and DHs on maternal and newborn complications management by ensuring smooth coordination between divisional coordinators and medical college faculty
- Engage with clinicians and clinical mentors to catalyze finalization of training resources packages, clinical mentoring frameworks and tools, clinical competency assessment tools etc.
- Develop calendar of clinical mentoring activities (onsite and virtual) across divisions and ensure implementation as planned
- Conduct supportive supervision during on-site visits and virtual mentoring sessions to ensure quality assurance, capture emerging learnings, identify areas of mentorship and inform programme improvement
- Conduct extensive field visits to support the implementation of the RRTC activities for FRUs strengthening and monitor its implementation
- Facilitate quarterly review meetings with RRTC faculty to review progress, address implementation challenges, and translate emerging learnings into programme improvements
- Work closely with the supervisor/programmatic linkage on setting program priorities and directions, and responding to requests for technical support from the Health Department officials and/or local counterparts.
- Collaborate within MPIH, government, and partners to identify MNCH system challenges, co-design and adapt evidence-based solutions, and demonstrate scalable solutions for health facility and systems strengthening for improving health outcomes through the RRTC interventions
2. Government and Stakeholder Coordination
- Under the guidance of Team Lead, regularly coordinate with the State NHM to translate learnings from clinical mentorship activities into state-level action through regular meetings, bi-annual convergence meetings and steering group meetings
- Strengthen coordination between divisional coordinators and divisional government stakeholders to translate FRU assessment and mentoring findings into actionable improvements, highlighting good practices and addressing gaps
- Strengthen collaboration with medical college faculty, clinical experts and government stakeholders to advance FRU strengthening initiatives through RRTCs
- Meet regularly with State Health department staff for smooth project management and respond in a timely manner to requests for meetings, reports and other requests.
- Undertake joint field visits with government counterparts to support identify and document good practices, clinical and systems-level bottlenecks, and translate facility-level learnings into evidence for state and programme decision-making and designing interventions
3. Supportive supervision and internal team mentorship
- Oversee the quality of implementation of RRTC interventions; mentor and strengthen the capacity of divisional coordinators through periodic re-orientations, reviews, supportive supervision and field visits
- Facilitate and strengthen coordination between divisional coordinators and RRTC faculty, including engagement with medical college leadership and divisional government stakeholders
- Oversee division wise, the preparation and sharing of FRU assessment findings, mentoring updates and field visit reports, ensuring technical accuracy and public health rigor and ensure data driven programme planning through divisional coordinators
- Through divisional coordinators, ensure effective planning and implementation of on-site and virtual clinical mentoring for FRU doctors, aligned with programme needs as identified by medical colleges and programme data.
4. Programme Monitoring, Evidence Generation, Knowledge Translation and Cross-functional Collaboration
- Under the guidance of Team, Lead, collaborate with the M&E team to review programme data and facility performance indicators, ensure the technical rigor of dashboards, and identify gaps requiring targeted clinical mentoring
- Collaborate with M&E on designing research, assessments/evaluation, and learning initiatives to generate actionable evidence for program improvement from health facility strengthening interventions
- Ensure integration of gender-responsive approaches across medical college-led activities to promote respectful maternal and newborn health (MNH) care for beneficiaries and strengthen gender-responsive practices among healthcare service provider
- Steer knowledge translation from RRTC interventions with close engagement with KM team to document, disseminate, and promote uptake of key learnings, innovations, and successful models to inform government
- Collaborate with the Finance and Admin team for seamless operational implementation of RRTC based activities
- Any other work assigned by the line manager or Sr Leadership from time to time
EDUCATION QUALIFICATION: An MBBS or BDS degree, with a postgraduate qualification in Public Health (MPH), Health Administration (MHA), or an equivalent qualification in a related field. Clinical degree esp., in Obstetrics and in the areas of Maternal and Child Health, or Community Medicine is desirable.
EXPERIENCE
- Minimum 5 years of progressive work experience particularly in Maternal, New-born and Child Health (MNCH) with demonstrated experience of working with government systems, healthcare service providers’ competency building and health systems strengthening initiatives
- Strong understanding of MNCH service delivery, including FRU functionality, EmONC, and referral systems
- Candidates with a combination of working in a govt. clinical setup and public health program implementation experience will be preferred.
- Prior experience in engaging and coordinating with government systems, medical colleges, clinicians, professional bodies, and technical experts preferred
- Previous experience with facilitating or conducting competency-based trainings is an asset
CRITICAL COMPETENCIES
- Strong ability to engage with government officials, medical colleges, specialists, professional associations, and development partners
- Experience facilitating technical discussions, consultations, and consensus-building processes
- Strong ability to interpret clinical and programmatic data to identify gaps and recommend corrective actions
- Demonstrated managerial experience with ability to design, budget, drive implementation, and support monitor public health programs
- Must be flexible and able to work in a challenging environment
- Excellent written and oral communication skills that include strong presentation and persuasive communication skills
KEY RELATIONSHIPS
Internal: Team Lead MPIH, Programme, M&E and KM teams, Sr Leadership at Delhi and Sr Technical Advisors
External: State, Divisional and District government stakeholders, Medical College(s) and Academic/Research institutes, health service providers and development partners
IHAT’S VALUES IN PRACTICE
- Community Centric: It is the communities we serve and the community at IHAT that drives us forward.
- Think Sustainability: We believe in engaging with the government and communities to scale up and sustain positive outcomes
- Scientific and Innovative: We relentlessly pursue scientific rigor and adapt our work in the face of new evidence. We encourage out of the box thinking and challenge ourselves to do better.
- Interdisciplinary: We foster discussion, debate and deliberation across disciplines to arrive at the best possible solution.
HOW TO APPLY
Candidates should visit https://www.ihat.in/vacancies/ page to submit their application. Only a complete application submitted through the online portal before the closing date will be considered.
We will be following a systematic selection process to fill this position based on experience, competency and suitability. Shortlisting for the posts will take place soon after the closing date. Only shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview. If you have not heard from us within six weeks of the closing date, please assume that the current IHAT positions are unable to accommodate you at the moment. It is also not possible for us to provide you with specific feedback because of the volume of applications we receive.
IHAT does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing, or other fees in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard the same.
Date of advertisement: 13-Oct-2026
Last date for Application: 27-Oct-2026