Role purpose

The Interim Senior Digital Health Consultant will provide senior technical advisory and assurance services to MBZFH in relation to the Primary Health Care digitisation project and selected Foundation digital health initiatives.

The role exists to strengthen MBZFH’s technical due diligence, decision-making, implementation assurance, risk management and stakeholder engagement. The Consultant will review proposals, plans, budgets, technical approaches and deliverables; surface material risks; and provide clear, usable advice that leadership can act on.

This is a deliverables-based consultancy. It is not an open-ended programme management role, an employment arrangement, a staff-equivalent post, or a continuous availability arrangement. The Consultant will support MBZFH through three defined channels:

Defined core deliverables

Fixed, commissioned outputs covering due diligence, technical review and structured advice on a PHC digitisation project.

Capped monthly assurance

A bounded package of ongoing review, risk advice and implementation assurance so MBZFH retains independent technical sight of the programme.

Call-off advisory tasks

Separately commissioned pieces of work on digital health, AI, diagnostics, data, workforce, women’s health and related innovation proposals.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

PHC Digitisation Due Diligence and Oversight

The Consultant will support MBZFH’s due diligence and independent oversight of the Primary Health Care digitisation project. The intent is to give the Foundation a clear, evidence-based view of whether the proposed design, partners, countries, costs and delivery model can produce sustainable, interoperable digital PHC systems at continental scale.

• Review the proposal, workplan, budget, governance arrangements and country-selection logic, identifying material gaps, optimistic assumptions and uncosted dependencies.
• Assess the technical approach, implementation assumptions, partner roles and delivery architecture against good practice in African digital health and PHC system strengthening.
• Examine the monitoring and evaluation framework and implementation deliverables, including whether they will generate decision-useful evidence at stage gates.
• Provide written opinions and briefing notes that enable MBZFH leadership to decide on continuation, redesign, scale-up, pause or exit with a documented rationale.

Digital Health Architecture and Standards

Guidance in this area will help MBZFH determine whether investments fit within coherent national and continental architectures, rather than creating parallel systems that cannot be maintained.

• Advise on digital health architecture, interoperability and open standards, including data exchange, unique identifiers, registries and integration with national platforms.
• Review digital public infrastructure choices and the realism of assumptions on hosting, connectivity, cybersecurity, licensing, maintenance and user support.
• Surface long-term operating costs and sustainability requirements that are often understated at proposal stage, including workforce, vendor lock-in and refresh cycles.
• Test alignment with national priorities, country readiness and health-system realities so that technology choices serve PHC delivery rather than precede it.

Responsible AI and Advanced Analytics

Where AI or advanced analytics feature in the programme or in related MBZFH initiatives, the Consultant will help the Foundation distinguish useful, safe applications from proposals that outrun data quality, clinical governance or country readiness.

• Advise on data quality, model governance, transparency, human oversight and clinical safety as they apply to PHC and public health use cases.
• Flag regulatory, ethical and implementation risks, including bias, unexplained automation of clinical or resource-allocation decisions, and weak feedback loops.
• Assess whether proposed AI components are additive to core digital public infrastructure, or a distraction from the foundations those components require.

Governance, Risk and Value for Money

The Consultant will help MBZFH hold a disciplined line on accountability and cost, so that digital investment remains a means to stronger PHC rather than an end in itself.

• Advise on partner accountability, reporting structures and escalation mechanisms that give the Foundation early warning of slippage or design drift.
• Review budgets and cost assumptions, including total cost of ownership, parallel funding, and whether unit costs are consistent with comparable African digital health programmes.
• Recommend stage gates and evidence requirements before further funds, scope or geography are released.
• Provide clear recommendations relating to continuation, redesign, scale-up, pause or exit, with the risks of each option stated plainly.

Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Advice

The Consultant will equip MBZFH to engage partners from a position of technical confidence, without becoming the public face of the Foundation unless expressly asked to do so.

• Develop technical questions, briefing notes and meeting packs that allow MBZFH principals to test proposals and hold partners to account.
• Prepare meeting readouts and follow-up recommendations that convert discussions into decisions and documented next steps.
• Support partner mapping and advice on how government, regional institutions, implementers, donors and philanthropies sit relative to one another on this agenda.

Other MBZFH Digital Health Advisory Support

MBZFH may commission additional advisory support through the call-off mechanism. Such work will be undertaken only where separately commissioned, scoped and priced. Indicative areas include digital health, artificial intelligence, digital diagnostics, health infrastructure monitoring, data, neglected tropical diseases, health workforce, women’s health, and innovation proposals.

Success Outcomes

A successful consultancy will leave MBZFH better able to invest in digital PHC with clear sight of risk, cost and technical quality. In practical terms, the Foundation should be able to point to the following results.

• A rigorous due-diligence view of the planned PHC digitisation project — covering design, partners, countries, costs, governance and delivery risk — that leadership and governance bodies can use.
• An architecture and standards lens that tests interoperability, open standards, digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity and long-term operating requirements before further commitments are made.
• A working assurance rhythm, within the agreed monthly cap, that surfaces implementation risk early and feeds learning back into MBZFH decisions.
• Decision-ready briefing materials for engagements with multilateral organizations, governments, implementers and co-funders, so MBZFH principals enter discussions well prepared.
• Clear recommendations at each material decision point, including where the honest advice is to redesign, pause or exit.
• A clean separation between advice to MBZFH and implementation by others, preserving the Consultant’s independence and the Foundation’s accountability.

Profile 

Experience and Expertise

• Demonstrable senior-level experience in digital health transformation in Africa, including practical experience advising on or supporting the design, implementation or oversight of digital health initiatives within African health systems.
• Relevant experience engaging with governments, regional institutions, development partners, donors, philanthropies or other stakeholders on digital health transformation and health system strengthening in the African context.
• A track record that spans more than technology selection — covering interoperability and open standards, data governance, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure, implementation feasibility and long-term operating models.
• Comfort providing independent assurance to a funder or governing body, including the discipline to recommend pause or redesign when the evidence requires it.
• Familiarity with PHC digitisation, national digital health architectures, and the institutional landscape around African ministries of health is a strong advantage.

Analytical and Advisory Capabilities

• Exceptional ability to read complex technical, institutional and financial material quickly and to convert it into concise advice for executive and governance audiences.
• Skilled in architecture review, landscape assessment, risk identification, value-for-money analysis and staged decision-making.
• Able to hold both the long view — sustainability, country ownership, standards — and the near-term view of whether a given workplan, budget or partner arrangement will actually work.

Judgement, Communication and Working Style

• Outstanding written and verbal communication, with the ability to distill technical content into clear narratives and recommendations.
• Highly collaborative and discreet. The Consultant will often work behind the scenes, preparing others to lead conversations rather than occupying the floor.
• Sound judgement in bounded, fast-moving settings, and the professionalism to operate strictly within the role boundaries set out in this brief.
• Fluency in English is essential. Working knowledge of French is an advantage given the continental scope of the agenda.

Terms of Appointment

This is a consultancy built around agreed deliverables, set out in a written agreement and statement of work. The core outputs and the monthly assurance package will be scoped up front. Anything beyond that is only taken on if MBZFH commissions it separately through the call-off process. This is not a job, and it does not create a staff-equivalent role.

The work is remote unless MBZFH asks otherwise. Any in-person work needs prior approval, with time and costs covered through an agreed task order, day rate or mission fee.

Role Location

The Consultant shall provide the Services remotely and, where required and pre-approved by MBZFH, at Foundation offices in Abu Dhabi, at Africa CDC, in selected African countries, or at other locations relevant to the Services.

All travel must be approved by MBZFH in advance. Approved travel costs will be reimbursed separately in accordance with MBZFH policies or the applicable provisions of the Agreement.

Travel time, mission preparation, mission participation and mission readout will be covered through an agreed task order, day rate or mission support fee, unless expressly included within an agreed fixed deliverable fee.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please ensure you complete the Application Form provided below by 02 October 2026 (23:59 hrs, GMT +4). It is essential that you submit your CV in English, specifically in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx), not exceeding 10MB.

Applications in other languages or formats will not be considered.

Rest assured, all information will be handled with the utmost confidentiality.

SRI Executive is exclusively retained by the Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity to undertake this assignment.