Health Specialist - Adolescent Health, P-4

Role Overview

As Health Specialist (Adolescent Health) in UNICEF’s Global Programme Division, you will guide global and country-level efforts to make health systems and services more responsive to adolescents. You will work with governments, UNICEF offices and development partners to turn evidence into practical programmes, policies and service improvements, helping adolescents access equitable, quality care across different settings.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and technical direction for programmes addressing adolescent health, including sexual and reproductive health, mental health and psychosocial well-being, school health, substance use prevention, and communicable and non-communicable diseases.
• Advise governments and UNICEF Regional and Country Offices on policy development, programme design, implementation and scale-up.
• Develop and contribute to global frameworks, technical guidance, quality standards and tools that support adolescent-responsive health systems.
• Strengthen service delivery across primary health care, schools, communities and digital platforms, with a focus on quality and equitable access.
• Support programme planning, results monitoring, evaluation and the use of data and evidence to improve decisions and generate learning.
• Build capacity and strengthen institutions, while promoting innovation and the exchange of effective approaches across countries.
• Coordinate partnerships across sectors and institutions, and support advocacy and knowledge leadership on adolescent health.
• Contribute to grant and programme management, including planning, budget oversight, performance tracking, donor reporting and collaboration with partners.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Advanced university degree in public health, global health, adolescent health, health systems and services, epidemiology, health policy and management, medicine, or a related field.
• At least eight years of progressively responsible professional experience in adolescent health, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, health systems strengthening, primary health care, public health or a related area.
• Strategic thinking and the ability to develop frameworks and translate them into guidance and programmes.
• Strong partnership-building and coordination skills, including experience working across sectors and institutions.
• Effective communication skills for advocacy, technical writing and presentations.
• Proficient English-language skills.
• Experience designing, implementing and monitoring adolescent health programmes in one or more areas such as sexual and reproductive health, mental health and psychosocial support, school health, disease prevention and management, or substance use prevention is an asset.
• Experience providing technical or strategic support to governments, UN agencies, development partners or country programmes, including work on policy, planning, implementation, evaluation or knowledge generation, is desirable.
• Experience with health systems and service delivery across primary care, school, community or digital platforms is desirable.
• Experience managing multi-country grants, programme budgets or donor-funded initiatives—including resource allocation, financial oversight, performance monitoring and donor reporting—is desirable.
• Experience supervising professional staff, consultants or multidisciplinary teams, and working in low- and middle-income countries, including humanitarian or fragile settings, is an advantage.
• Knowledge of another official UN language—Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish—or a local language is desirable.