Health Security Advisor

Project Overview Data.FI is a global project funded by the U.S. Department of State to strengthen health information systems, health financing, and improve the use of data for decision-making. In Kenya, Data.FI supports the Ministry of Health (MoH), Digital Health Agency (DHA), the Kenya National Public Health Institute (KNPHI), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), and other state agencies to enhance health security, malaria surveillance, digital health governance, and data use for rapid decision-making. This role operates within the transition toward GovernmenttoGovernment (G2G) assistance and will closely coordinate with U.S. Government interagency partners, including the U.S. Department of State Office of Foreign Assistance (OFA) and CDC, to ensure sustainable, countryowned systems that align with national priorities. Position Overview The Health Security Lead is a senior technical role providing strategic direction, expert guidance, and handson support to strengthen casebased and eventbased surveillance as a core pillar of Kenya’s health security architecture. Working with MoH (KNPHI, DHA, NMCP), county governments, and U.S. Government partners (including OFA and CDC), the role will: Advance digitalization and interoperability of surveillance platforms to operationalize the 7-1-7 target (7 days to detect, 1 day to notify, 7 days to respond) for other epidemicprone threats. Lead the analytics function (descriptive, geospatial, predictive) to drive earlier detection, faster notification, and timelier response. Ensure alignment to IHR (2005), IDSR, One Health, and Kenya’s digital health policies, with implementation framed as governmentled and governmentowned. Key Responsibilities Strategic Leadership & Health Security Alignment Provide strategic leadership for surveillance strengthening within Kenya’s broader Health Security agenda, aligned to MoH priorities, IHR (2005), IDSR, and national digital health policies/standards. Serve as technical advisor to the Data.FI ,  MoH and the OFA/Embassy Health Office on malaria surveillance, integrated disease surveillance, outbreak detection, and response. Codesign with MoH a pragmatic roadmap to institutionalize the 7-1-7 target as a performance metric for malaria (and applicable crosscutting threats), including embedding 7-1-7 indicators in routine reviews, AARs/IARs/EARs, and county action plans. Support the transition to G2G modalities, emphasizing capacity transfer, sustainability, accountability, and use of government systems. Surveillance Strengthening & Digital Health Integration Provide highlevel technical assistance to NMCP, KNPHI, DHA, and counties to strengthen malaria control, and integration with KHIS2; align workflows from case detection to case investigation, foci classification, and response. Advance digitalization of surveillance: optimize electronic casebased reporting, configure alert thresholds, digitize SOPs/job aids, and streamline event management ensuring 7-1-7 time stam