Senior STRIDES Country Laboratory and Cold Chain Logistics Officer, Addis, Ethiopia

The Senior Laboratory and Cold Chain Logistics Officer will support the implementation of laboratory and surveillance operations by ensuring the proper functioning, maintenance, and coordination of cold chain systems and specimen transport networks in Ethiopia, with a focus on monitoring and maintaining specialized equipment including cold rooms, vaccine refrigerators, freezers, and portable cold chain carriers to ensure the integrity of biological samples and related materials. The officer will coordinate and oversee the safe, timely, and compliant transportation of stool specimens and environmental samples from collection sites to designated national and reference laboratories for testing, working closely with surveillance teams, laboratory personnel, and regional health authorities to ensure adherence to established protocols for specimen collection, packaging, storage, and transport. S/He will provide technical and operational support to strengthen cold chain and specimen transport systems, identify bottlenecks in logistics and equipment performance, and support corrective actions to improve efficiency and reliability, while contributing to routine monitoring of cold chain performance, documentation of equipment functionality, and reporting on logistics operations to ensure continuity of surveillance and laboratory activities. The Laboratory and Cold Chain Logistics Officer will work in close coordination with the Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Regional Health Bureaus, and GPEI partners to ensure that laboratory and transport systems are aligned with national standards and support timely detection and response to priority diseases, and will also contribute to training and mentoring of relevant staff on cold chain management, biosafe handling, and specimen transport procedures to strengthen sustainable national capacity in these areas.