UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.
Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.
For every child, the right to a Future
How can you make a difference?
Be part of a globally recognized effort to end one of the most urgent public health challenges affecting children today.
This role sits within UNICEF’s Global Programme Division (GPD) and the Health Practice – Child Survival and Development Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Nairobi. The CoEs are a dynamic, global platform designed to deliver high-quality, demand-driven technical assistance to UNICEF country and regional offices across priority areas such as health systems strengthening, policy reform, and scalable programme design.
Working at the intersection of global strategy and country-level impact, you will contribute to UNICEF’s HIV programme, which focuses on ending AIDS among children and adolescents. This includes advancing the triple elimination of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B, and scaling up integrated, equitable approaches to prevention, testing, treatment, and long-term care.
With the highest burden of paediatric HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, this role offers a unique opportunity to influence programmes at scale—supporting governments, partners, and communities to deliver life-saving services where they are needed most.
You will work closely with global partners such as WHO, UN agencies, and civil society organizations, helping to translate evidence into action, strengthen health systems, and drive sustainable, impactful solutions.
If you are motivated by technical excellence, global collaboration, and delivering measurable results for children, this role offers a powerful platform to shape the future of paediatric HIV programming worldwide.
Join our team and help accelerate efforts to end AIDS among children and adolescents. As a Health Specialist, you will provide expert technical guidance to strengthen paediatric HIV programmes, particularly in high-burden countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
You will lead on technical expertise and support, helping country teams design and implement strategies that improve HIV testing, treatment, and retention, while integrating services into primary health care and nutrition systems. You will contribute to quality assurance and monitoring, ensuring programmes deliver measurable, sustainable results.
Working closely with governments, UN partners, and civil society, you will support networking and partnership building to enhance coordination and mobilize resources. You will also drive innovation, knowledge management, and capacity building, promoting best practices and strengthening systems to deliver equitable health outcomes for children.
This role witll include:
- Technical expertise and support
- Quality assurance and monitoring
- Networking and Partnership building
- Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building
If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here: Job Description
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements
- Desirables For every Child, you demonstrate... UNICEF's Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values UNICEF competencies required for this post are… (1) Builds and maintains partnerships
(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness
(3) Drive to achieve results for impact
(4) Innovates and embraces change
(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity
(6) Thinks and acts strategically
(7) Works collaboratively with others Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels. UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status. UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance. UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially. UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be canceled. Remarks: As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity. UNICEF is committed to fostering an inclusive, representative, and welcoming workforce. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates are encouraged to apply. Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants' bank account information. Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service. Humanitarian action is a cross-cutting priority within UNICEF's Strategic Plan. UNICEF is committed to stay and deliver in humanitarian contexts. Therefore, all staff, at all levels across all functional areas, can be called upon to be deployed to support humanitarian response, contributing to both strengthening resilience of communities and capacity of national authorities. All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates. Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.- Education: Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Public Health,Health Administration,Epidemiology, Pediatrics, Family health, Health research, Global health, International health, Health policy, Health management or other related social science discipline is required.
- Work Experience: A minimum of 5 years of experience in public health with an emphasis on HIV and paediatric HIV, programme planning and management is required.
- Skills: Paediatric HIV technical expertise, Programme design and implementation, Health systems strengthening.
- Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required.
- Language: Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language
- Programme and grant management, Integrated case management of childhood illnesses, Paediatric HIV and AIDS, Resource mobilization for health is an asset.
- Experience in programming, especially in sub-Saharan African is a desirable.
- Experience in paediatric HIV, facility-based childhood treatment, referral and quality of care is an asset.
- Experience in joint United Nations programme delivery
- Experience in mobilizing and leveraging new resource for health
- Experience working with civil society
- Relevant experience at country level, particularly in development, fragile settings and humanitarian contexts.
