Strategic Information Systems Administrator

Pact is an international nonprofit that works in nearly 40 countries building solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971, Pact works with partners to build resilience, improve accountability, and strengthen knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.

Programs - Pact strives for a world where all people are heard, capable, and vibrant. The Programs Team helps realize this objective by bridging program management, technical support, and business development, enabling Pact to achieve its global strategy. We ensure program excellence through continuous learning, monitoring and evaluation and provide organizational and industry-wide thought leadership by leveraging a complementary set of cross-functional, multi-disciplinary skills, expertise, and experiences. The Programs team: influences progressive change through the development and implementation of global and regional strategies and business plans; supports advancement of innovative solutions; pursues new business opportunities; and drives effective internal and external engagement to maximize Pact’s impact across the globe. Across all aspects of its role, the Programs Department adheres to and promotes a culture of inclusion, accountability, and respect.

Pact seeks a Strategic Information (SI) Systems Administrator for the anticipated USAID Madagascar Access Miahy Activity.  USAID Access Miahy's goal is to accelerate sustainable reductions in maternal, neonatal and child morbidity and mortality through increased access and availability of quality primary health care (PHC) services. Access Miahy will continue building the capacity of Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) actors and other relevant stakeholders at district, facility and community levels to design, develop, manage, deliver, monitor and evaluate health services and programs aligned with the intervention packages in their catchment areas.   

USAID Access Miahy is anticipated to be a $50-$99M cooperative agreement; the anticipated release date is August 16, 2024, with an anticipated award date of October 31, 2024. This position is subject to project award.

This position is anticipated to be based in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

The Strategic Information (SI) Systems Administrator will be responsible for technical leadership in the design, development, upgrades and maintenance of data management systems. The Administrator will ensure that data flows seamlessly within and between national and other relevant systems that inform the Activity. The Administrator will also conduct robust data analytics and develop user-friendly data visualizations for continuous project monitoring and performance reporting. The Administrator will manage development, adaptations and updating of data management system documentation including technical specifications, job aids and user guides. This position will also provide Capacity Development to regional and district teams on maintenance and utilization of Strategic Information systems and data analytics of program data. This position will supervise Health Informatics Officers at the Regional level. 

The specific duties to be carried out by the successful candidate are: 

 

Design, Configuration, Development, and Maintenance of SI systems

• Collaborate with donor SI partners in maintaining the national systems for data management and implementing new modules to the system as needed.
• Collaborate with donor SI partners, MOH and other relevant stakeholders to support ongoing efforts to optimize the interoperability between HMIS systems and activity-specific systems to improve analytics and increase national data use.
• Provide day to day support in maintaining Activity data management system.
• Develop and maintain, as appropriate, all application programming Interfaces that are linked to the data management systems.
• Quality assurance of data management systems.
• Manage data warehousing within the project.
• Develop custom data visualizations to help performance tracking for key project indicators.

Conduct data analytics and develop data visualizations

• Conduct both routine data analysis of project monitoring data as well as robust data analytics, as needed, to repond to targeted learning, research and evaluation activites; in collaboration with the CLA team.
• Develop user-friendly dashboards and ensure disemination of Activity monitoring data to relevant stakeholders on regularly-scheduled intervals.

Elicitation, documentation and implementation of user requirements

• Gather and document requirements on edits that may be required in the Activity data systems including visualizations and addition of content to the database.
• Work with Regional and District Health Informatics Officers, MERL team and Pact Home Office Information systems Administrator to review, prioritize and implement user requirements identified that are essential for improving system performance.
• Work with MERL team and Health Informatics Officers to test implemented user requirements.
• User training and provision of technical assistance
•  Provide user training and collaborate with donor SI partners and Pact Home Office Information Systems Administrator in updating user training manuals and all administrator manuals.
• Identify and document training needs for users of the database and all custom project applications supporting data management systems, design and conduct/ identify appropriate trainings that meets the user needs.
• Identify and integrate emerging data management resources and train users on said technologies.
• Provide ongoing technical assistance to programs and Strategic Information staff to effectively utilize the Database and other technologies for data management and reporting.
• Conduct quarterly site level user support clinics to provide one to one mentoring to Regiona; and District level data management systems users.

Data Quality management

•  Work in collaboration with Health Informatics Officers, MERL team and Home Office Learning Evidence and Impact team to institute data quality assurance measures in the data management systems.
• Continuously review and analyze data for quality standards and highlight any issues arising to the programs and Strategic Information teams for action.
•  Troubleshoot issues that may arise from the data management systems.
• Analyze systems performance, identify challenges, troubleshoot and produce regular data management systems performance reports.
• Provide a summary of all data entry progress and challenges that may occur between the Facility, District level and Activty database to the MERL team to ensure timely follow-up on data entry into systems for efficient data use at central level.
• Monitor systems downtime, analyze the implication of such for data availability for program monitoring and reporting and provide technical assistance/ guidance to reduce/ address impact of downtime on data management.

• Master’s degree in Strategic Information, Health Informatics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, or related fields and 6 years of experience in the development and operations of health information systems. Alternatively, a Bachelor’s and 8 years of experience may be substituted.
• 4+ years managing teams of health information systems teams in Madagascar.
• Demonstrated strong DHIS 2 skills at systems administrator / developer level.
• Experience working with USAID-funded projects reporting systems.
• Experience in rollouts of data management systems.
• Experienced in applying user-centered requirements processes for systems design.
• Experience in working with scripting languages (JavaScript in various forms; Node.js, Ajax etc.)
• A strong understanding and working knowledge of database design and conceptualization.
• Working knowledge of database management systems (SQL server, MySQL, Postgres preferred).
• Demonstrated skills with data visualization software and applications such as Power BI, Tableau, QLIK Sense, Apache Superset, Metabase.
• Strong analytical skills.

• Malagasy candidates strong encouraged to apply.

 

Salary for this position is commensurate with local office salary scales and will be determined based on the candidate's experience and qualifications.