The Senior Director, Health Financing sets the strategic direction for ThinkWell's health financing portfolio worldwide and reports to the CEO. This is an architect and practitioner role: with creativity and gusto, the Senior Director designs the vision and approach that shape how ThinkWell tackles complex health financing challenges while staying close enough to the technical detail to guide, troubleshoot, and quality-assure the work.
The Senior Director drives that vision through ThinkWell's programs, providing technical direction and hands-on support to country teams so that a coherent approach runs across a portfolio spread over many countries and clients. They lead a global team of health financing directors and technical leaders, recruit and build technical talent, and produce compelling deliverables.
The Senior Director is a recognized global leader in the field, credible on high-level panels and technical advisory bodies at a moment when health financing is shifting away from traditional donor funding toward domestic resourcing and blended models. They carry fundraising responsibility for the health financing portfolio and arrive with live relationships across the funders that matter for health financing and health systems work — the U.S. Department of State, multi-laterals, philanthropies, corporate foundations, and other critical funders in this space. They embrace the private sector and are constantly looking for private collaboration.
Location: Fully remote, open to candidates anywhere in the world. Candidates must be authorized to work in their country of residence, with meaningful working overlap with U.S. Eastern time. Travel up to 30%.
What you'll do
Strategic Vision & Technical Direction
- Set the technical vision and strategic direction for ThinkWell's health financing practice globally; act as the architect who designs and refines the strategies and approaches.
- Provide authoritative technical guidance across the full span of health financing — provider payment mechanisms and strategic purchasing, health benefits package design and priority setting, social health insurance, public financial management, domestic resource mobilization, and performance-based approaches.
- Guide ThinkWell's strategic positioning as a leader in transition as the health financing landscape shifts amid declining traditional donor funding
- Step directly into country-level engagements to provide hands-on technical guidance and troubleshoot delivery, pairing global strategic vision with operational fluency.
- Set and hold the quality bar for health financing work across the portfolio.
External Representation
- Lead and support engagement with global partners working on transition, public financial management, domestic resource management, strategic purchasing and outcomes-based financing, bringing credibility and a clear point of view on the future of health financing.
- Publish papers, articles, and blogs; present at conferences and participate in technical working groups; build ThinkWell’s reputation as a thought leader in the field.
- Represent ThinkWell on high-level panels, conferences, and other venues
- Translate complex technical material into a clear, compelling vision for ministries of finance and health, global funders, technical and implementing partners, and private-sector audiences.
Practice & Team Leadership
- Provide strategic guidance to, and help drive the performance of, a global team of health financing directors and technical leaders — ensuring consistency, quality, and shared learning across a distributed portfolio.
- Recruit, support, and mentor outstanding senior technical talent in health financing.
- Inspire and model leadership that brings the best out of technical staff
Fundraising & New Business Development
- Primary fundraising responsibility for ThinkWell's health financing portfolio
- Originate new business: identify opportunities early, shape them with funders before they go to market, and lead capture through to close — including hands-on writing of proposals and concept notes.
- Cultivate and personally maintain senior relationships across the funder landscape, including the commercial sector
We are
A high-energy, get-it-done group with an entrepreneurial spirit running through everything we do. We thrive on making things work — turning a hard problem into a solution that holds up in the real world. We're committed to excellence in what we produce, and we'd rather challenge the status quo with something disruptive than settle for "good enough." We pride ourselves for having an anti-toxic environment that every staff member works hard to nurture.
You are
You run on momentum and results.. You're an entrepreneurial problem-solver who takes ownership and hold yourself and others to a bar of excellence in everything you produce. You're drawn to disruptive, better ways of doing things rather than defending how it's always been done. You're direct and honest — you say the true thing, even when it's hard to hear, and you can take it too. And you're a generous colleague who supports your teammates and models an environment free of politics and toxicity.
Requirements
- Master's degree in health economics, health policy or related field with 10 years of experience or a PhD and 8 years of experience;
- Reputation as a leader in health financing and/or public financial management in the health sector
- Substantive, relevant work experience across health financing — provider payment mechanisms, strategic purchasing, health benefits package design, priority setting, social health insurance, public financial management, and domestic resource mobilization — including direct experience working alongside ministries of health and ministries of finance.
- Adept at communicating technical information to non-technical audiences;
- Track record of managing complex, multi-country projects
- Demonstrated track record of carrying fundraising responsibility and growing a portfolio with proven success developing innovative concepts, writing winning proposals and leading capture on large, multi-year awards;
- Live, senior-level relationships you can activate from day one across the funders that matter for health financing and health systems work, including the U.S. Department of State, the Gates Foundation, corporate foundations, and other critical funders in this space, as well as ministries of health and finance;
- Previous experience working with USG funding and USG transition work strongly preferred, including relationships with former OGAC, USAID OHA and Mission staff;
- Ability to personally produce high-quality work product — decks, reports, analyses — at a standard that stands up in front of a minister or a foundation president;
- Fluent, disciplined use of AI tools to accelerate and sharpen that work, paired with the judgment and standards to ensure nothing leaves your hands reading like generic AI output. We want original ThinkWell thinking, rigorously argued and specific. We have no appetite for AI slop;
- Persuasive, charismatic communicator who builds and sustains strong relationships across clients, funders, partners and colleagues, and who can rally staff around ThinkWell's mission and priorities;
- Demonstrated interest and ability in growing staff, mentoring and coaching colleagues at all levels;
- Full English fluency required, second language a plus;
- Outstanding cross-cultural communication skills and global experience partnering across varying country income levels, including the ability to relate respectfully with staff at all levels, ages, genders, nationalities and orientations as well as across work areas;
- Ability and willingness to travel up to 30%.