Project Officer, Local Position, Dili, Timor-Leste

• Fixed Term Full-time Role, Based in Dili, Timor-Leste
• Excellent Career Progression
• Excellent Work Environment and Teamwork

ABOUT MENZIES:

As one of Australia’s leading medical research institutes dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and a leader in global and tropical research into life-threatening illnesses, Menzies School of Health Research continues to translate its research into effective partnerships and programs in communities across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

SUMMARY OF THE POSITION:

The Project Officer role will provide critical support to the day-to-day operations of Menzies Timor-Leste health research activities. This role involves coordination and administration across multiple projects, with a focus on document and records management, ethics and governance processes, logistics, financial administration, and general project office coordination. The Project Officer would also support administration activities related to monitoring and evaluation, maintenance program-wide key documents including stakeholder contact sheets and program pages on Menzies intranet, as well as administrative support for ethics applications, and training activities. The role will work closely with project coordinators, and Menzies Timor-Leste Support Team, as well as other internal and external stakeholders to ensure smooth and compliant project implementation. The role will be supervised by the Senior Project Coordinator, other main internal contact will be with Darwin-based Public Health Technical Advisor and Dili-based Program Manager. Key external stakeholders are Ministry of Health, Hospital Nacional Guido Valadares (HNGV), National Institute of Public Health (INSP-TL) including National Health Laboratory (LNS), Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Forestry (MALFF) including Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL), along with key non-government stakeholders in health, and research in Timor-Leste. 

The role is primarily funded under the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trading (DFAT) as part of the Partnership for a Healthy Region which aims to reduce disease risks, burdens and respond effectively to health emergencies.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

The following key responsibilities are not exhaustive and may include others as directed by the Supervisors at Menzies Timor-Leste:

Key responsibilities

• Coordination of administrative aspects of project delivery including planning, implementation, and recording keeping for monitoring and evaluation.
• Maintain project working documents that track day-to-day progress against project milestones and activities, against scheduled work plans and overall project objectives.
• Manage project filing systems (digital and hard copy) and maintain accurate records, including ethics and governance documents and correspondence.
• Facilitate logistics including booking venues, transport, and accommodation for fieldwork and meetings, as well as domestic and international travel arrangements. 
• Assist with procurement processes including sourcing quotes, meeting with suppliers, preparing and submitting Purchase Requisition in line with internal policies and procedures, using Menzies financial software.
• Support day-to-day office operations, including document printing, scanning, binding, and dispatching letters to government departments and other stakeholders.
• Assist in the research ethic application process and document submission to INSP-TL including follow up on pending approvals and coordinating of ethics presentations.
• Be proactive in providing information, case studies, interesting news stories etc relating to relevant projects, working closely with Menzies Communication Officer and Senior Project Coordinator.
• Identify and suggest opportunities to streamline and improve administrative and coordination processes.
• Any other tasks as reasonably required by the supervisor, project leads, or Program Manager.

SELECTION CRITERIA:

1. Qualifications: Minimum bachelor’s degree in health, social sciences or another field relevant to project coordination and at least two years working experience in similar role.

2. Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrated experience in project or office administration, preferably in an NGO, research, or development setting.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy, particularly in documentation and record keeping.
• Demonstrated capacity to work as part of a team, and independently, as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Ability to effectively manage multiple tasks and competing priorities, and ability to adapt to changing environments and tasks.
• Experience with procurement and basic financial processes such as preparing purchase requests and processing invoices.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills that enable sensitive and effective communication with a wide range of people including internal and external stakeholders.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Excel, Word, and Outlook.
• Excellent computer literacy (including google drive suite) and ability to quickly adapt to and learn software platforms.  
• Good interpersonal and communication skills in Tetum, both written and verbal, with working knowledge of English language.
• Willingness to learn, improve and respond positively to feedback and supervision and make ongoing investment in own professional development.

3. Desirable Criteria: Experience working in research/ and or health projects in Timor-Leste.

STATEMENT OF DUTIES: Project Officer

This role will support multiple projects, but a key focus will be the DFAT-funded RESPOND (The Regional Engagement in Surveillance and response to Priority diseases, providing Opportunities for National health system strengthening and Development.  The RESPOND partnership will engage with key partners in the Asia-Pacific region, to support the development and implementation of initiatives that will strengthen healthcare capacity and resilience in the region. Drawing on over 20 years of Menzies’ experience and established collaborations with Governments and other stakeholders, the RESPOND partnership will work with partner countries to help build capacity for health systems to anticipate, prevent, detect and control priority disease threats.

Objectives and priority areas of work (PAOW) have been developed through ongoing discussions with Government and in-country partners, and include strengthening clinical disease surveillance systems, population-based laboratory surveillance, One Health approaches, laboratory systems, point-of-care diagnostics, and case management of priority diseases.

Specific responsibilities for the project(s) will include:

• See "key responsibilities" above.
• Any other tasks as reasonably required by your supervisor, project coordinator, program manager or country manager.