Job Description

The STA, HMIS and Digital Health provides strategic, technical, and operational leadership to the Ministry of Health (Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar) and the Prime Minister’s Office – Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG) in the design, implementation, integration, and optimization of national digital health and supply chain information systems. The STA strengthens the digital health ecosystem by improving interoperability, data quality, system performance, and real-time access to health information to support evidence-based planning, policy formulation, service delivery, and resource allocation.

The STA, HMIS leads the development, enhancement, and integration of key national digital platforms, including the Health Information Exchange (HIE), Health Data Universe (HDU), Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), ZanEMR, GoTHOMIS, Afya eHMIS, the Unified Community System (UCS), the electronic Logistics Management Information Systems (eLMIS). The role strengthens Tanzania's health supply chain through digital innovation by supporting the integration and optimization of supply chain information systems, enabling end-to-end visibility of commodities, improving inventory management, forecasting and quantification, order management, distribution tracking, and reporting.

Accountabilities:

Technical Requirements:

• Demonstrates good judgment in selecting methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for obtaining solutions, with little supervision.
• Provides input to senior technical leadership on national guidelines and normative policies for subject matter areas of expertise.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Project Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Provides systems support to the implementation of existing health information systems and supply chain digital platforms to identify gaps, integration opportunities, and pro poses sustainable, scalable solutions.
• Leads the gathering and documentation of system requirements with supply chain stakeholders to guide design, improvement, and interoperability of national digital health solutions.
• Provides systems and advisory support to supply chain stakeholders to strengthen health commodities, data management, reporting, and real-time data accessibility at the point of care and decision-making levels.
• Coordinates with supply chain stakeholders, to align HMIS initiatives with national health strategies, ensures interoperability across platforms, and establish clear health commodities data-sharing and governance standards.
• Provides quality assurance for system development, customization, and integration activities, including reviewing technical designs, APIs, and database structures, and conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for new modules or upgrades.
• Supports the design, testing, piloting, and rollout of digital health solutions.
• Provides technical troubleshooting and issue resolution for data flow, performance, and system integration challenges.
• Supports capacity-building efforts by designing and delivering training, mentorship, and user-friendly documentation to strengthen the ability of national and sub national human resources for health on effective use of digital health platforms.
• Advises and support IT infrastructure improvements for health information systems, including disaster recovery, backup solutions, and scalability to meet expanding data needs.
• Prepares technical documentation, progress reports, and summaries on MIS and digital health activities.
• Contributes to the development of dashboards and advanced analytics tools to improve data-driven decision-making in health programs and service delivery.
• Supports change management and digital adoption initiatives to promote user engagement, awareness, and confidence in new or upgraded health information systems.

Business Development and Client/Funder Support:

• Contributes to proposal writing for MIS and Digital Health support.
• Develops technical proposals, budgets, and work plans related to MIS and Digital support

Applied Knowledge & Skills:

• Ability to manage projects, set realistic priorities, and plan for the successful implementation of activities.
• In-depth functional knowledge around specialization and detailed knowledge of related areas in the organization.
• General understanding of the organization’s structure, policies and practices, and the impact on one’s own area.
• Strong diagnostic, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to exchange information, present recommendations and collaborate with colleagues and peers within the organization and possibly externally.
• Strong negotiation skills and ability to reach mutual points of agreement and benefit among peers and colleagues in the supply chain ecosystem.

Supervision Given/Received:

• Mentors and supervises junior level staff to strengthen their technical capacity and performance
• Reports to Director, Strategic Information and operationally to the Associate Director Supply Chain Management.

Education: **

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Informational Technology (IT), Health Informatics, Data Science or related fields.
• Master’s degree in data science, Public Health, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related fields an added advantage.

Experience: **

• Minimum of 12 years of experience implementing and managing health and supply chain information systems (e.g., Community level Systems, EMR/EHR, Health Information Exchange, WMS) in public health contexts.
• Proven expertise in data analytics and visualization concepts and tools
• Strong understanding of interoperability standards, data governance frameworks, and data privacy/security protocols for health systems.
• Extensive experience in the software development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Agile methodologies for MIS design, deployment, and maintenance.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement and partnership management skills, with a proven ability to liaise with government entities, donors, and implementing partners.
• Results-oriented professional with strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, and adaptability to dynamic environments.
• Excellent communication and reporting skills with the ability to translate complex data
• Proficient in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for data analysis, automation, and workflow optimization.

Typical Physical Demands:

• Typical office environment.
• Ability to spend long hours looking at computer screens and doing repetitive work on a keyboard.

Technology to be Used:

• Personal Computer/Laptop, Microsoft applications (i.e., Office 365, SharePoint, software development tools and languages, Skype/Zoom/Teams), cell phone/mobile technology, and standard office equipment.

• Provides systems support to the implementation of existing health information systems and supply chain digital platforms to identify gaps, integration opportunities, and pro poses sustainable, scalable solutions.
• Leads the gathering and documentation of system requirements with supply chain stakeholders to guide design, improvement, and interoperability of national digital health solutions.
• Provides systems and advisory support to supply chain stakeholders to strengthen health commodities, data management, reporting, and real-time data accessibility at the point of care and decision-making levels.
• Coordinates with supply chain stakeholders, to align HMIS initiatives with national health strategies, ensures interoperability across platforms, and establish clear health commodities data-sharing and governance standards.
• Provides quality assurance for system development, customization, and integration activities, including reviewing technical designs, APIs, and database structures, and conducting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) for new modules or upgrades.
• Supports the design, testing, piloting, and rollout of digital health solutions.
• Provides technical troubleshooting and issue resolution for data flow, performance, and system integration challenges.
• Supports capacity-building efforts by designing and delivering training, mentorship, and user-friendly documentation to strengthen the ability of national and sub national human resources for health on effective use of digital health platforms.
• Advises and support IT infrastructure improvements for health information systems, including disaster recovery, backup solutions, and scalability to meet expanding data needs.
• Prepares technical documentation, progress reports, and summaries on MIS and digital health activities.
• Contributes to the development of dashboards and advanced analytics tools to improve data-driven decision-making in health programs and service delivery.
• Supports change management and digital adoption initiatives to promote user engagement, awareness, and confidence in new or upgraded health information systems.
• Contributes to proposal writing for MIS and Digital Health support.
• Develops technical proposals, budgets, and work plans related to MIS and Digital support
• Mentors and supervises junior level staff to strengthen their technical capacity and performance

• Ability to manage projects, set realistic priorities, and plan for the successful implementation of activities.
• In-depth functional knowledge around specialization and detailed knowledge of related areas in the organization.
• General understanding of the organization’s structure, policies and practices, and the impact on one’s own area.
• Strong diagnostic, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to exchange information, present recommendations and collaborate with colleagues and peers within the organization and possibly externally.
• Strong negotiation skills and ability to reach mutual points of agreement and benefit among peers and colleagues in the supply chain ecosystem.
• Proven expertise in data analytics and visualization concepts and tools
• Strong understanding of interoperability standards, data governance frameworks, and data privacy/security protocols for health systems.
• Extensive experience in the software development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Agile methodologies for MIS design, deployment, and maintenance.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement and partnership management skills, with a proven ability to liaise with government entities, donors, and implementing partners.
• Results-oriented professional with strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, and adaptability to dynamic environments.
• Excellent communication and reporting skills with the ability to translate complex data
• Proficient in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for data analysis, automation, and workflow optimization.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Informational Technology (IT), Health Informatics, Data Science or related fields.
• Master’s degree in data science, Public Health, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related fields an added advantage.