Role purpose

The Portfolio Lead – Health Systems Capacity & Capability will lead MBZFH’s global systems-strengthening agenda, with a focus on building the capabilities required for countries and institutions to sustain stronger health outcomes over time. Rather than being accountable for disease programmes themselves, the role will ensure that investments across disease areas, service lines, infrastructure and workforce initiatives strengthen the underlying capacity, leadership, governance, policy alignment, institutional capability, knowledge transfer and operational systems needed for sustainable country ownership.

For MBZFH, health systems capacity and capability should be understood broadly as the “software” of the system: workforce, leadership, governance, institutional systems, policy capability, operational management, knowledge transfer, technology adoption and the ability of countries and institutions to sustain and manage strengthened services independently. A central question for the role will be: how, and by whom, will the system be sustained, governed and managed after MBZFH’s investment?

Working across MBZFH’s programmes, infrastructure, strategy, monitoring and learning, grant operations, legal, risk and external relations functions, the Portfolio Lead will act as a senior integrator across the Foundation’s portfolio. They will connect infrastructure investments, disease programmes, workforce initiatives, service delivery models, government engagement and partner performance into one practical, measurable and country-responsive systems agenda, ensuring that every focus area is explicitly linked to country ownership, sustainability and transition planning.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and implement MBZFH’s capacity development and health systems strengthening strategy across large grants, workforce development, disability empowerment, service line delivery and country-level institutional strengthening.
• Define approaches for strengthening:
• healthcare workforce capability
• clinical capacity
• operational excellence
• healthcare management
• technology adoption
• service delivery models
• Ensure capacity-building initiatives respond to country health system priorities and move beyond “touch and go” interventions towards sustainable local capability.
• Define, from the outset, how strengthened capabilities will be owned, governed, financed, managed and sustained by local institutions and country-level actors.
• Anchor the portfolio in MBZFH’s wider programme mandate, including pipeline development, programme design, partner selection, due diligence, investment recommendations, implementation oversight, learning and renewal decisions, while ensuring each initiative has a clear country-ownership, sustainability and transition pathway.

Integrate MBZFH’s Health Portfolio

• Support infrastructure, disease programmes, workforce initiatives and service-line investments to reinforce one another and contribute to stronger national health systems.
• Integrate programmes that previously operated independently into a coherent health systems strengthening portfolio.
• Translate investments into measurable improvements in country capability, institutional resilience, service delivery outcomes and the long-term ability of local actors to manage and sustain strengthened systems.

Strengthen Healthcare Workforce and Institutional Capability

• Develop programmes that strengthen:
• clinical workforce capability
• leadership and management capacity
• operational teams
• healthcare administration
• technical specialists
• Partner with governments and institutions to build sustainable local capability, with clear ownership, management and transition arrangements embedded in programme design.
• Support training, mentoring and knowledge transfer models.

Translate Global Health Priorities into Country-Level Systems

• Integrate MBZFH’s disease-focused initiatives into broader health systems approaches by strengthening the capabilities required to sustain disease programmes, rather than assuming direct accountability for those programmes.
• Ensure programmes addressing areas such as NCDs, infectious diseases and maternal health strengthen overall system capacity, including workforce, leadership, governance, policy alignment, institutional systems and knowledge transfer.
• Align investments with national healthcare strategies and policies.
• Support targeted service-line programmes, such as maternal and child health, where MBZFH seeks to build clinical and operational capacity around specific health outcomes.
• Ensure each disease or service-line investment answers the sustainability question: who will own, manage, finance and maintain the strengthened capability once MBZFH support transitions or reduces?

Strengthen Healthcare Operations and Service Delivery

• Support improvements across:
• hospital operations
• clinical pathways
• service line delivery
• patient care models
• quality improvement
• Ensure infrastructure investments are matched with operational capacity.

Lead Health Policy, Government and Ministerial Engagement

• Work with Ministries of Health and government stakeholders to strengthen health policies and systems.
• Support advocacy and policy influence initiatives.
• Represent MBZFH in technical discussions with senior healthcare stakeholders.
• Navigate complex ministerial and country-level stakeholder environments, including engagement within the UAE and recipient countries; prior exposure to government and ministerial liaison is strongly preferred.
• Contribute to policy dialogue, service planning and national health strategy alignment with Ministries of Health, ministerial stakeholders and senior government counterparts.

Develop Partnerships and Innovative Approaches

• Build partnerships with:
• foundations
• NGOs
• academic institutions
• technical organisations
• healthcare providers
• Explore innovative approaches to healthcare capacity strengthening.
• Support grant-funded initiatives with measurable outcomes.
• Work closely with Grant Operations, Legal, Audit & Risk Management and MEL to ensure grant-funded capacity-building initiatives are well designed, compliant, monitorable and able to demonstrate measurable contribution to MBZFH’s strategic outcomes.

Lead Organisational Learning and Measure Impact

• Develop learning frameworks that capture what has been achieved historically, what has worked across countries and how those lessons should inform MBZFH’s future systems-strengthening model.
• Lead organisational learning from global health system investments and translate international best practice into future Foundation investments, including lessons that can inform health systems strengthening in the UAE.
• Capture milestones and outcomes from capacity-building investments.
• Partner with MEL to define project-specific indicators, data requirements, reporting standards and learning briefs that feed into MBZFH’s institutional results framework and external impact narrative.
• Translate lessons into improved programming and UAE/global learning.
• Within the first 12 months, create a shared “language” across initiatives so that capacity-building, infrastructure, disease portfolios and vulnerable community programmes can be connected, measured and translated into both global and UAE learning.

Profile

Education

• Advanced university degree in public health, medicine, health systems, health policy, international development, health economics, healthcare management, public policy or another relevant discipline.
• Postgraduate qualifications in public health (MPH), business administration (MBA), healthcare administration (MHA), international development or a related field are strongly preferred.
• Professional certifications in programme management (e.g. PMP, PRINCE2), health systems strengthening, monitoring and evaluation, organisational development, or implementation science are an asset.

Experience

The successful candidate will bring significant senior experience in global health, health systems strengthening, capacity development, healthcare transformation or international development, with a track record of designing and overseeing complex programmes across multiple countries and institutional contexts.

• 15+ years of experience in global health, health systems strengthening, capacity development or healthcare transformation, with substantial exposure across multiple countries.
• Experience designing or overseeing programmes that build country capacity, strengthen health workforce capability and improve service delivery outcomes.
• Strong understanding of health systems, workforce development and healthcare operations.
• Experience may come from foundations, governments, donors, international development organisations or implementing partners, but candidates must demonstrate a strong understanding of how programmes translate into measurable outcomes on the ground.
• Ability to engage senior government stakeholders.
• Arabic language skills would be a strong advantage, particularly given the bilingual nature of stakeholder engagement across the UAE, North Africa and wider regional contexts.

Key Competencies

• Strategic portfolio leadership, with the ability to translate ambition into practical programme architecture, investment decisions and delivery plans.
• Deep understanding of health systems strengthening, workforce development, service delivery and institutional capacity-building in low- and middle-income country contexts.
• Strong judgment in grantmaking, partner selection, due diligence, implementation oversight and portfolio performance management.
• Excellent government, ministerial and senior stakeholder engagement skills, with cultural sensitivity and political awareness.
• Ability to work across technical, operational and policy agendas and create coherence across teams, partners and geographies.
• Evidence-led approach to decision-making, learning and impact measurement.
• Comfort operating in a start-up or scale-up philanthropic environment where systems, governance rhythms and ways of working are still being built.

First 12 Months – Success Outcomes

• Develop MBZFH’s Health Systems Strengthening Framework.
• Integrate existing initiatives into one coherent portfolio across infrastructure, workforce, service delivery, disease programmes and policy, with explicit links to country ownership, sustainability and transition planning.
• Capture lessons from previous investments and translate them into future programme design.
• Develop a country capacity framework that defines what sustainable capability should look like across workforce, operations, technology, governance, leadership and institutions.
• Clarify how strengthened capabilities will be sustained, governed and managed by country-level institutions, including transition arrangements for MBZFH-supported investments.
• Establish effective relationships across Ministries of Health and other relevant ministerial stakeholders in priority countries.

Terms of Appointment

This is a two-year renewable contract.

Role Location

The role is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with some travel.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please ensure you complete the Application Form provided below by 14 September 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.