Appointment: Full-time; 40 hours per week
Location: Flexible, Remote (with significant engagement across Southeast Asia and Africa)
Compensation: Salary is commensurate with experience and the geographic location of the candidate. It will be adjusted based on locality and job market rate
About WDI: The William Davidson Institute (WDI) is a global non-profit affiliated with the University of Michigan dedicated to unlocking the power of business and markets to tackle critical global challenges and drive inclusive economic growth. Working as a knowledge builder, enterprise accelerator, and ecosystem catalyst, we mobilize entrepreneurs, investors, governments, and academia to drive pioneering solutions across sectors, with a special focus on health, climate-health, and energy & e-mobility.
We understand that the challenges we face—from just energy transitions to equitable health care access—are urgent and complex. We believe that thriving businesses in emerging markets can be at the forefront of fostering healthy and sustainable futures. We know that solving these challenges requires collaboration, innovation, and action at scale, which is why we develop strong partnerships with local leaders. We pride ourselves in being bold thinkers, reliable partners, insightful dot connectors, impact focused and driven by excellence in all we do.
About the Role: We are seeking a Director of Health to lead and grow WDI’s health and climate-health portfolios to advance equitable access to quality health care and climate-health solutions supporting the growth of healthier, more resilient communities across emerging markets with key focus on Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This is an exciting opportunity for a bold leader with deep experience in health, health tech commercialization, climate -related health innovation, and enterprise-driven solutions in emerging markets. The Director of Health will shape new programmatic and partnership opportunities, and position WDI as a leading partner at the intersection of global health, clean energy, innovation, and markets.
The Director will report to the President and CEO, manage and grow a multidisciplinary team, and work closely with WDI’s other sector and cross-cutting teams, including energy, entrepreneurship, partnership, impact investment, and impact measurement. The role will also play a central part in business development, portfolio growth, and thought leadership across WDI’s health and climate-health work.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategy & Portfolio Development
- Lead the growth of WDI’s health and climate health portfolio across areas, ranging from health technology (including telemedicine, AI diagnostics, digital therapeutics, mHealth platforms, IoT-enabled monitoring, and health information systems), medical devices, diagnostics, to climate-health solutions (including clean cooking, clean cooling, heat stress mitigation, vector-borne disease prevention, and other emerging technologies)
- Work closely with WDI’s entrepreneurship and investment teams to align venture development, incubation strategies, and business model innovation across the portfolio ensuring alignment between technical health expertise and entrepreneurial execution
- Identify emerging trends, market gaps, and innovation opportunities to inform new program development and partnerships.
- Ensure WDI’s health and climate-health work integrates enterprise acceleration, commercialization pathways, and market-based approaches to improve outcomes at scale.
- Shape and implement portfolio strategies that leverage WDI’s strengths in commercialization, market access, entrepreneurship, and business model innovation.
Commercialization, Market Access & Enterprise Support
- Working closely with WDI’s entrepreneurship and investment teams, advise and support early- and growth-stage ventures developing health tech, clean cooking, and clean cooling solutions, including business model innovation, go-to-market strategy, regulatory navigation, distributions strategies, and partnerships.
- Provide strategic advisory and technical leadership on market access, commercialization, and go-to-market strategies for health and climate-health innovations entering and scaling in emerging markets, encompassing regulatory, pricing, reimbursement, distribution, adoption pathways and digital health infrastructure requirements (including health-tech assessments, interoperability and data privacy)
- Collaborate with the Sr. Director of Impact Investing to identify fundable opportunities, co-lead capital raising efforts, support deal structuring and investor relations, and develop investment-ready health tech and climate-health opportunities. This involves deal structuring, investor relations, and development of investment-ready enterprises. Support portfolio management and reporting to investors on social and financial returns.
- Design and apply tools, frameworks, and market intelligence to assess enterprise and innovation readiness, adoption barriers, and scale pathways.
- Serve as the climate-health and health tech subject matter expert supporting the broader entrepreneurship and investment teams in their work.
Ecosystem & Stakeholder Engagement - Build and manage senior-level relationships with governments, donors, multilateral organizations, private-sector partners, investors, health-tech and climate-health innovators, and local ecosystem actors.
- Along with the partnerships team, co-create ecosystem partnerships that align financing, policy, capacity, and adoption strategies to scale solutions sustainably.
- Along with the entrepreneurship team, build strategic alliances within the digital health ecosystem including accelerators, innovation hubs, technology consortiums, telecom providers, and platform companies.
Business Development & Resource Mobilization - Develop innovative ideas through co-creation, identify, and secure partnerships to advance health and climate-health innovation and entrepreneurship
- Create a diversified and sustainable portfolio aligned with WDI’s strategy, by understanding donor priorities and cultivating relationships that lead to new opportunities, including new funding streams, philanthropic partnerships, and innovative financing structures.
- Along with the business development team, mobilize private capital from corporations, impact investors, and venture capital firms for climate-health and health technology solutions.
- Contribute to pipeline development, donor engagement strategies, and partnership positioning for health-related initiatives.
- Serve as either proposal team leader or technical lead for proposals as appropriate and oversee and support leadership of health new business opportunities by other staff.
Thought Leadership & Strategic Positioning
- Lead the development of health- and climate-health focused knowledge products, market insights, and applied research that advance WDI’s thought leadership.
- Contribute to publications, whitepapers, tools, and case studies that bridge global health, business, climate resilience and innovation.
- Represent WDI at global and regional conferences, convenings, and policy dialogues to position WDI as a trusted thought and implementation partner.
Team Leadership & Organizational Culture
- Lead, mentor, and grow WDI’s health and climate-health teams, fostering a collaborative, entrepreneurial, and high-performing culture.
- Build internal technical capacity and foster cross-team collaboration within WDI and with partners, ensuring knowledge sharing and integrated project execution across programs.
Qualifications & Experience
We are seeking candidates with a high level of professional excellence, initiative, strategic orientation, and passion for WDI’s mission.
- 10+ years of experience in market access, pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, commercial strategy, and/or public-private partnerships in healthcare with a focus on emerging markets; significant experience in health tech strongly preferred.
- Master’s degree in public health, public policy, business, health economics, or a related field required.
- Experience working with or advising private-sector companies in emerging markets—ideally across Southeast Asia and Africa.
- Experience working with or alongside donors, multilaterals (e.g., Gavi, Global Fund, World Bank), and local investors on private sector health initiatives.
- Proven success building, scaling, and managing complex portfolios that span public, private, and philanthropic sectors, including shaping new ideas into funded programs and managing strategic partnerships.
- Entrepreneurial and strategic mindset with the ability to identify issues and propose creative solutions.
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills in English; Spanish / French a plus, with the ability to engage technical and non-technical audiences.
- Flexibility, comfort with ambiguity, and ability to operate in fast-paced, evolving environments.
- Sensitivity to diverse cultures, matrix organization structures, and a team-oriented approach.
- Outstanding interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across teams.
- Known to lead with curiosity, humility, and focus.
- Available to travel internationally up to 20 percent, with flexibility for virtual leadership and management across different time zones.
As you submit your CV, please ensure you attach a cover letter demonstrating how you meet the requirements outlined in the job description and why you are interested in the role. You can upload your CV and Resume as one single document.
