Project Officer

JOB DESCRIPTION

Post: Project Officer (PO)

Report to THE SENIOR PROJECT COORDINATOR

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) leads the Partnership for Health Advancement Program (HAIVN) in Vietnam since 2003. HAIVN is a collaboration between Harvard Medical School (HMS), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). In Vietnam, BIDMC seeks to contribute to developing the capacity of healthcare providers and strengthening the healthcare systems, by supporting high quality medical education, medical research, and by improving the healthcare system and its quality.

BIDMC has been awarded funding by USAID to build capacity of medical universities, training institutions and medical faculty in both public and private universities to prepare for the implementation of new national licensing exams (NLE) to begin in 2027. The NLE is the national examination legally required for medical licensure that physicians and medical practitioners have to take at their graduation to ensure the physicians’ competencies to provide safe and effective patient care. Through their improved capacity, it is anticipated they will contribute together with other partners in Health Resource for Health to support the National Medical Council (NMC) to prepare the organization of NLE. The project will be partnering with the Administration of Science Technology and Training (ASTT) of the Ministry of Health and the Vietnam Association of Medical Education (VAME) to deliver the design activities under the technical assistance of ScholarRX - a US-based company that has been highly specialized in writing the test questionnaires for and organizing the licensing examination.

BIDMC is seeking to hire a Project Officer (PO) to oversee and coordinate the execution of the project Advancing Licensing Examination (AML) and to support the ASTT in the course of the project implementation to achieve the project’s goal and objectives.

Overall Responsibilities

Under the guidance of the Senior Project Coordinator, the Project officer (PO) will support BIDMC in the execution of the project activities to achieve the project goal with technical support of the advisors from Harvard Medical School’s and ScholarRX and national consultants.  The PC will also be expected to support ASTT in coordinating the project’s activities. 

Specific Responsibilities

A. For AML project:

1.      Assist BIDMC in providing technical support to the project’s partners (i.e. ASTT and VAME), through:

• Coordination and facilitation of technical support from international technical advisors (i.e. HMS advisors, ScholarRx experts) and national experts.
• Assisting with the preparation of meetings, workshops, teaching materials, and other project-related activities.
• Participating in meetings, workshops, and training activities and facilitation of the follow-up items/activities.
• Identifying challenges, technical issues and partner needs to inform technical assistance
• Translation and interpretation (if needed)

2.      Serve as Point of Contact and liaison between BIDMC and project partners including ASTT, VAME and national experts, through:

• Facilitating communication between the leadership and concerned staff of BIDMC’s partners, BIDMC leadership and staff and the advisors from HMS Medical Education and ScholarRX, and national experts
• Providing regular updates on project activities to BIDMC leadership, advisors of ScholarRX, technical staff in Boston and international and national experts
• Initiating regular meetings between BIDMC and the leadership of the project partners especially with ASTT for the purpose of providing technical assistance, planning and implementing project activities
• Support in transferring key concepts, knowledge and tools where relevant from the SchoalrRX advisors, international and national experts to the project partner and involved universities and training institutions.

3.      Coordinate the implementation of project activities, through:

• Support in the development of the workplan and track project work-plan implementation and progress;
• In collaboration with other team members, prepare for workshops and meetings and note taking, prepare updates on the project implementation
• Assisting BIDMC’s M&E and Research team with monitoring and evaluation of the project to meet M&E requirements
• Identification of project bottlenecks and barriers and development of potential solutions
• Ensuring timely, quality delivery on commitments, project-related reports and deliverables.
• Other tasks as required

Required Experience

• Master’s degree in Medical Education or Public Health
• Having medical background and teaching experience is a plus
• At least 5 years of experience in medical education or public health
• Experience working with government agencies and international donor funded projects

Required Qualifications

• Fluency in Vietnamese and English including listening, reading, speaking and writing
• Ability to plan, coordinate and implement the project and advocacy activities 
• Ability to draft documents and develop policy briefs for advocacy purpose
• Able to work effectively in a complex international environment
• Well-organized and able to handle multiple tasks and changing priorities
• Good computer and information technology skills
• Good interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills
• Able to work both independently and as team member; able to work under pressure

Position Type: Full-Time; ability to travel 25- 30% of the time

Work place: Hanoi Office (BIDMC Office in Hanoi and potential working 50% time at ASTT office at MOH)

Direct reporting: Senior Project Coordinator

How to apply

To apply for this position, please send a cover letter and curriculum vitae to Ms. Dam Thuy Huong at [email protected] no later than October 24, 2024. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.