Strategy Senior Associate - Sexually Transmitted Infections

Overview

WJCF is an Indian non-profit organisation committed to saving lives by reducing the burden of disease and strengthening government-owned, high-quality health systems. Since 2007, WJCF has combined data-driven approaches and deep public health expertise with strong government partnerships to design, implement, and scale solutions across India's national and state health programmes. We work for and at the service of governments, supporting the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and State Departments of Health to build systems that are strong, sustainable, and led by Indian institutions.

As an Indian organisation, WJCF brings an unmatched depth of contextual understanding of India's health system architecture, policy landscape, and implementation realities across diverse geographies and population groups. This local institutional credibility, combined with global technical rigour, is central to WJCF's effectiveness as a partner to governments and donors.

Our work is built around four complementary roles: as a Trusted Government Partner, co-designing programmes and strengthening health system architecture; as an Operational Partner, translating strategies into effective on-the-ground delivery; as a Market Shaper, improving the availability and affordability of health commodities; and as an Ecosystem Catalyst, convening governments, development partners, academia, and the private sector to drive solutions at scale.

WJCF's programme portfolio spans thematic areas like hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, vector-borne diseases, syphilis, cervical cancer, diabetes, maternal and childhood anaemia, immunisation, under-5 diarrhoea and pneumonia, sexual and reproductive health, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), hypoxemia and oxygen, safe drinking water, sickle cell disease, presbyopia, lead poisoning, and cross-cutting thematic areas like AI and Health, integrated disease surveillance, and climate and health.

We currently support programmes across 19 states and union territories, with teams working at national, state, district, and sub-district levels.

Our people are our greatest asset. WJCF brings together a talented, diverse team of professionals from public health, analytics, consulting, healthcare, the development sector, and academia, all united by a shared commitment to improving health outcomes for the people of India. We are entrepreneurial, action-oriented, and deeply grounded in the communities and systems we work in. Our field teams collectively bring hundreds of years of experience managing public health programmes across the country.

WJCF collaborates with a range of international and domestic partners and donors to advance its mission, including an affiliation with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a global health organisation with which WJCF shares a common mission and values.

Programme Overview:

Since 2004, WJCF’s HIV, STI and Hepatitis team has worked closely with both central and state government actors to enable policy design, roll-out and implementation for smooth uptake of new initiatives and life-saving commodities. This includes providing technical support to the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), the National Viral Hepatitis Control Program (NVHCP), the National Health Mission (NHM), and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on program strategy and design, improving access to drugs and diagnostics, and to help state and central programs pilot and sustain innovative interventions at scale. The team has also worked with diagnostics manufacturers and multilateral organizations to lower prices, increase access to testing and treatment, and accelerate the entry and uptake of new drugs and diagnostics for HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis. Notable achievements over the past two decades include critical work on enabling access to lifesaving ARV drugs, rapid diagnostic tests, and supporting updates to the National STI guidelines of 2024. WJCF also supported the foundational work for the establishment of NVHCP, and its management information system. More recently, the team has worked on integrating service delivery to reduce vertical transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B, and on a market assessment for drugs and diagnostics for AMR Gonorrhoea and other STIs.

Project Background:

India has one of the largest sexually transmitted infection (STI) burdens in the world, with an estimated 94 million new cases a year, the second-highest of any country. Syphilis is resurging, and India has not yet reached the 95% antenatal screening and treatment coverage needed to eliminate mother-to-child transmission. Gaps remain at every stage of care. Most infections in women are asymptomatic, and the public system’s reliance on symptom-based (syndromic) management misses or misdiagnoses many cases. India has no national prevalence data for gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis or genital herpes. Most patients are treated in a private sector that national surveillance largely does not capture. Molecular testing is scarce and expensive, and no point-of-care molecular STI tests are in use at scale. Treatment also has gaps – with heavy dependence on some antibiotics and unavailability of others.

To address these gaps, WJCF is building the evidence base and stakeholder consensus on STI diagnosis, treatment and prevention in India. The engagement will answer two questions: is there a compelling case for further investment in STI diagnostics and treatment in India, and in which specific use cases; and does India have a comparative advantage (through manufacturing, market scale, diagnostic infrastructure or implementation evidence) that could help close STI gaps in other low- and middle-income countries.

The project focuses on maternal and congenital syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomoniasis, and will deliver through three work packages:

• Landscape assessment and evidence synthesis: Desk research and interviews with government officials, clinicians, public and private laboratories, manufacturers and community organisations, covering disease burden, patient pathways, diagnostics, treatment supply, policy and financing.
• Stakeholder convening and consensus building: A discussion paper and a multi-stakeholder roundtable aligned with the STI & HIV 2027 World Congress in New Delhi in 2027.
• Strategic roadmap: A prioritised roadmap that distinguishes where philanthropic investment is warranted from what is better financed by government or private payers.

Position Summary:

WJCF is seeking a structured, analytically strong and self-driven Senior Associate / Associate to turn broad, strategic questions into testable hypotheses, design and lead interviews with senior stakeholders, conduct landscape research and build economic models to underpin investment recommendations, and shape findings into clear storylines for government, donor and technical audiences. The Senior Associate will own major workstreams end to end, and work closely with leadership and the funding partner. The role is based in New Delhi and will require domestic travel amounting to 25% of the time. This position requires a highly motivated individual with strong problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills, who is comfortable collaborating closely with multidisciplinary teams and senior stakeholders in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment. Prior supervisory experience is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Support the formulation and design of the project and its workstreams, in line with donor priorities.
• Lead project planning, management and monitoring, including workplans, timelines, risk tracking and progress reporting to the funding partner.
• Develop a detailed understanding of how STIs are diagnosed and treated in India’s public and private sectors. This covers national policies and guidelines, testing pathways, treatment protocols and how care is delivered at each level of the health system.
• Lead the desk review and evidence synthesis across published and grey literature, programme reports and available datasets, triangulating sources to characterise the burden of STIs and congenital syphilis and identify key evidence gaps.
• Assess the diagnostic landscape across facility levels, including available technologies, testing pathways, implementation barriers and the potential to use existing molecular testing networks for STIs.
• Lead the assessment of the STI treatment supply chain, covering key drugs such as benzathine penicillin, public procurement and distribution, domestic manufacturing capacity and market dynamics.
• Build the market sizing and diagnostic economics model. It should estimate current and potential market volume and value across the public and private sectors and compare the cost and performance of different testing methods.
• Support a focused assessment of India’s potential to supply STI diagnostics and treatment to selected high-burden countries.
• Lead engagement with key stakeholders across the STI landscape, including stakeholder mapping and prioritisation, outreach, scheduling and the design of interview guides. Interview senior stakeholders and synthesise the insights.
• Build trusted working relationships with government counterparts, industry and development partners, and handle sensitive information with discretion.
• Support the design and facilitation of the multi-stakeholder roundtable, including the agenda, pre-reads and structured discussions, and document the insights and takeaways.
• Lead the drafting of key deliverables (landscape assessment report, discussion paper, consensus report and strategic roadmap), with a clear, evidence-backed storyline and actionable recommendations.
• Prepare and present high-quality slide decks and briefing notes for WJCF leadership, the funding partner and government audiences.
• Support the team in scoping new opportunities, writing pitch documents for new grants and donors, and identifying white-space opportunities for the organisation.
• Supervise, mentor and guide analysts and junior team members day to day. This includes reviewing their outputs, building their technical and analytical skills, and keeping deliverables consistent and high quality

Qualifications

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 7 years of relevant work experience, or a postgraduate degree (in business administration, economics, public health, public policy or a related field) with a minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience.
• A minimum of 4 years of experience in strategy consulting, investment banking, pharmaceutical industry, technology, product startups, with a demonstrated record of structured, hypothesis-driven problem solving.
• Strong quantitative skills, including building market sizing, unit economics or cost-comparison models in Excel from incomplete data, with clearly stated assumptions.
• Excellent written and spoken English, including the ability to write concise reports and build compelling presentations for senior audiences.
• Willingness to travel within India.
• Entrepreneurial and growth mindset, with demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, solve complex problems, and perform in fast-paced, high-pressure environments with limited oversight.

Preferred

• Experience in healthcare, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals or medical devices, particularly in market access, pricing, supply chain or procurement.
• Experience working with government stakeholders or on donor-funded projects.
• Experience planning or facilitating workshops or multi-stakeholder meetings.
• Strong diplomatic and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across diverse and multi-cultural stakeholder groups.
• Prior experience managing teams strongly preferred.

Last Date to Apply: 28 November, 2026