Technical Advisor, SRH

Position Title: Technical Advisor, SRH

Department/Program: SRH

Level: D3

Reports to: Lead, AYSRH

Based in: Addis Ababa

Required number: One

Based in: Addis Ababa

Duration of contract: Indefinite based on performance and availability of funds

Remuneration: As per organization pay scale plus other PSI Ethiopia staff benefits.

Application Deadline: September 18, 2025

Who we are

Population Services International (PSI) is the world’s leading non-profit social marketing organization. We are a diverse group of over 4,500 entrepreneurial development professionals located in over 35 countries committed to making it easier for all people to lead healthier lives and plan the families they desire. PSI uses its global presence and 50+ years of experience to help reimagine healthcare. We are working to shape market systems, shift policy and funding, and strengthen global capacity to better support consumer-empowered healthcare.

Join us!

There are over 9,000 “PSI’ers” around the world. It’s a diverse group of entrepreneurs and professionals with an unusually wide range of backgrounds – from the medical industry to the music business – all with unique skills we bring to the job.

PSI/Ethiopia wants reimagine healthcare, put the consumer at the center, and whenever possible, bring quality care to the front door. We achieve health impact in Ethiopia by working with both government and private partners and harvesting technology innovation to bring quality care closer to communities, schools, and homes. We empower consumers by including them in the design of healthcare solutions, offering them more healthcare choices, and helping them to have a voice in influencing national priorities. We work with all market actors in the health system to understand their needs, designing and delivering solutions so that market systems can sustainably serve consumers for the long term, helping to support the Government of Ethiopia in achieving Universal Health Coverage.

We are looking for: A Technical Advisor, SRH who will play a crucial role in supporting the scale-up, expansion, and sustainability of Smart Start/Family Circle as a key component of Ethiopia’s primary healthcare system. This is achieved through systems strengthening, optimization, evidence generation for decision-making, and local capacity building efforts.

The advisor is responsible for assisting sub-recipients, local structures, and stakeholders in identifying opportunities and leveraging external support to ensure the long-term sustainability of Smart Start/Family Circle as an effective tool for reducing teenage pregnancy. Additionally, the role involves developing context-specific strategies for system strengthening, coordination, and advocacy to maximize the sustained impact of Smart Start/Family Circle.

Key Responsibilities:

You will work under the supervision of Lead, AYSRH. More specifically, your roles involve:

Technical Leadership

• Ensure the execution and sustainability of Smart Start Family Circle as an integral part of MOH’s policy, strategy, M&E system, budget, and work plans.
• Facilitate the proper scale-up of Smart Start within the health system structures.
• Generate strong performance evidence, success stories, and publications to influence policy and strategy.
• Assess the execution level of Smart Start and Family Circle during scale-up, identify gaps, and escalate them to senior leadership at MOH and RHBs for accelerated decisions.
• Support MOH and RHBs in systematically leading the national scale-up, setting measurable success indicators, clear targets, and KPIs.
• Advocate for senior leadership endorsement of the differentiated technical assistance (TA) model to guide the scale-up process.
• Strengthen ISM steering committees at all levels, monitor engagement, and provide guidance on sustainability within the health extension program.
• Actively participate in joint supportive supervisions and periodic review meetings, reporting on Smart Start scale-up progress.
• Identify gaps and challenges in Smart Start scale-up implementation and collaborate with TA teams and LIPs to resolve them.
• Track the long-term impact of scale-up implementation, ensuring ownership and sustainability.
• Conduct periodic capacity assessments to identify gaps and provide capacity-building support across the public health system.
• Support LIPs and community structures to collaboratively lead the national scale-up, with a focus on reducing teenage pregnancy.
• Analyze and present progress and challenges of LIPs, community structures, and partners, providing recommendations.
• Provide weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly updates on method adopters after collecting and compiling reports from LIPs and catchment sites, ensuring timely feedback.
• Assess capacity and skill gaps among LIPs, HEWs, and community structures (e.g., WDA, TBAs) and develop gap-filling strategies.
• Guide LIPs in transitioning and handing over sustainability plans to MOH, RHBs, and local structures.
• Advocate for broad national buy-in, integration, and scale-up of Smart Start through existing platforms.
• Oversee alignment and integration of Smart Start into work plans, reports, performance reviews, and M&E systems, from MOH down to the woreda and PHCU levels.
• Routinely support the scale-up and implementation of Smart Start and Family Circle, ensuring the health system fully embraces and owns the initiative to combat teenage pregnancy.
• Collaborate with LIPs, MOH, RHBs, and donors to develop and execute a scale-up transition strategy.
• Analyze monthly performance data of LIPs and provide feedback for course correction.
• Conduct periodic capacity assessments of LIPs and recommend key actions to enhance implementation effectiveness.
• Provides technical leadership in managing and supporting LIPs at both national and regional levels, with a particular focus on Smart Start (SS) and IUCD national scale-up.
• Conducts virtual and onsite workflow monitoring and analysis with regional SRH and LIP teams, identifying best practices and recommending adaptable scale-up models for sustainable implementation.
• Leads quarterly reviews with MOH teams, in consultation with the SRH Program Director and Lead, AYSRH, collecting feedback and identifying actionable steps for continued progress. Also supports integration advisors in implementing similar reviews in their respective regions.

Stakeholders’ engagement

• Assist LIPs, MOH, and RHBs in mapping and engaging SRH partners to foster national-scale adoption and commitment.
• Support LIPs and MOH in mobilizing resources and securing government treasury budget allocations for ISM scale-up and broader AYH initiatives.
• Help PSIE, LIPs, and MOH develop a comprehensive strategy to onboard and engage partners, ensuring Smart Start/Family Circle integration into their programs.
• Collaborate with MOH to collect and share success stories and key learnings via mainstream and social media platforms to enhance visibility and attract resources.
• Aid MOH and RHBs in establishing a joint review and discussion forum to assess progress and address challenges.
• Organize multi-stakeholder site visits to provide firsthand insights into community engagement, satisfaction, and concerns, shaping perspectives for effective course correction.
• Collaborates with internal and external teams, including LIPs, MOH, and RHBs, to identify opportunities for successful scale-up and long-term sustainability.

What it takes to succeed

• System Thinker: Who understand the Ethiopian Primary Health care system and able to easily identify, leaver and amplify the nuances for system influence.
• A self-starter: You can work independently with minimal supervision; you are proactive in looking for new opportunities.

Consistent and determined: Influencing system is time taking and labor intensive which requires people to understand and their interest in doing their routine. Someone who is determined and always looks at the bigger picture regardless of the challenges on the daily basis is needed

• Eager and Passionate to serve young people: RISE is for and with young people in general and married adolescent girls/couples in particular.
• Communicator: who has excellent interpersonal and written communication skills
• Evidence based decision Maker: capable of interpreting both qualitative and quantitative data, transforming it in to compelling communication material to influence both mind sets and skill sets as system is all about infrastructure as well as people.
• Flexible: who is capable to see other alternatives when trial/attempts fail; someone with strong conviction that CHANGE is possible!

 

What are we looking for? The basics

• Master’s degree in public health/RH, population studies with six (6) years of demonstrated experience in Ethiopian Primary Health Care system

OR

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, SRH, population studies with eight (8) years of demonstrated experience in Ethiopian Primary Health Care system
• Able to work within a very complex program set up that involves government, implementing partners and high touch donor.

What would get us excited?

• Computer application skills.
• Experience in working, flexible and agile partnership management.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and other local languages.
• Good time management and organizational skills.
• Experience in technical project implementation in general and family planning in particular.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and with limited supervision.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and good team spirit.
• Willingness to travel up to 50% time away from head office.
• Ability to follow deadlines, accuracy and attention to detail.
• Have key competencies such as being Detail-oriented; Good delegator; Strong Manager; Believes in young people particularly in girls; Emotional intelligence; Master planner and executor; Good at multi-tasking; Problem-solving mentality; Demonstrated flexibility;
• Ability to deliver in time under stressful situation without compromising quality.