Senior Associate, Lead Exposure (Strategy & Operations)

Role Overview

CHAI is seeking a highly motivated Senior Associate to support the design, execution, and scale-up of interventions to reduce lead exposure. The Senior Associate will conduct analytical workstreams, contribute to project execution, support country-level implementation, and engage government and external partners to advance national and global goals.

This role requires strong analytical, project management, stakeholder engagement, and communication skills. This position is ideal for an emerging professional who thrives in fast-paced, ambiguous environments; is committed to solving complex public health and environmental challenges; and can translate evidence into clear, actionable recommendations for governments and external partners.

Program Strategy & Execution

• Support the design, planning, and execution of analytical and operational workstreams for multi-country or country-specific projects to reduce lead exposure, including:
• Accelerating access to blood lead level diagnostics, including the next generation of point-of-care tools
• Increasing access to portable environmental testing equipment to generate country-level data on sources of lead exposure
• Supporting nationally-driven coordination mechanisms and national strategic plans for lead mitigation
• Conduct complex quantitative and qualitative analyses, such as market assessments, regulatory landscape mapping, burden estimation, cost-effectiveness modeling, or surveillance data interpretation
• Translate analytical findings into clear, actionable recommendations for governments, donors, and CHAI leadership
• Contribute analytical inputs on lead exposure, environmental health surveillance, regulatory approaches, and product testing, supporting government counterparts in interpreting data and developing practical recommendations

Country & Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and manage productive relationships with country teams, academic partners, private-sector actors, multilateral organizations, and civil society
• Support country teams working closely with governments in developing or strengthening National action plans to reduce childhood lead exposure
• Regulatory or enforcement frameworks
• Surveillance systems and data management approaches
• Support CHAI’s engagement in key meetings of technical working groups, partner meetings, and donor discussions

Operational & Financial Oversight

• Maintain oversight of execution against project budgets, donor commitments, and donor reporting requirements
• Ensure a high level of quality and proactive troubleshooting to ensure the work is completed on time
• Support the development of proposals, concept notes, budgets, and strategic plans to expand the lead exposure portfolio

Cross-Team Collaboration & Thought Leadership

• Contribute to the development of global public goods, toolkits, and best practices for lead mitigation
• Stay up to date with emerging evidence, policy innovations, and global strategies on lead poisoning prevention, bringing new ideas to refine CHAI’s approach
• Collaborate with other CHAI teams (e.g., Child Health, Diagnostics, Women’s and Newborn Health, Global Markets) to integrate lead exposure reduction into broader public health initiatives