Technical Officer – Market Surveillance and Control
Support capacity building in preventing, detecting, and responding to substandard medical products.
Overview
Support capacity building in preventing, detecting, and responding to substandard medical products.
You have:
- At least five years of professional experience in medical products market surveillance and control, pharmaceutical quality assurance, including demonstrated experience in strengthening regulatory or laboratory systems.
- Experience with post-market surveillance for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs)/devices; incident coding and data systems; laboratory quality assurance (QA) for for-cause testing.
- Strong analytical and communication skills; IT/data literacy (spreadsheets, dashboards analytics); risk communication competencies; stakeholder engagement.
- Strong understanding of regulatory systems for medicines and vaccines and post-market surveillance and control principles.
Contract
This is a UNV contract. More about UNV contracts.
Support Member States in building capacity and in preventing, detecting, and responding to substandard and falsified (SF) medical products, including IVDs and other medical devices, through strengthened GSMS reporting, incident management, risk communication, risk-based post market surveillance (rbPMS) activities, and Quality Control Laboratory (QCL) enablement.
This person shall take the lead in coordinating and engaging relevant technical experts, as required, to support the effective implementation of planned activities.
Technical support to Member States • Provide technical assistance in implementing National Action Plans related to substandard and falsified (SF ) medical products. • Support the delivery of technical assistance to national quality control laboratories (NQCLs), including through on-site visits, twinning programmes, and peer-learning initiatives. • Enable national regulatory authorities (NRAs ) to publish in vitro diagnostic (IVD ) field safety notices (FSNs) and field safety corrective actions (FSCAs) using searchable, structured formats aligned with International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) datasets. • Support establishment and improvement of national medical-device incident databases and analytics tools. • Contribute to the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of SF risk-based post-market surveillance activities and laboratory capacity-strengthening efforts towards WHO Listed Quality Control Laboratories (WLQCL) program.
Regional network and partnership coordination • Maintain collaboration with regional regulatory authorities and laboratory networks. • Coordinate day-to-day focal-point (FP) engagement, onboarding, and regional/subregional FP meetings. • Support joint activities with partners in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), including United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), World Customs Organization (WCO), World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Interpol, and academic laboratories.
GSMS data cycle and analytics • Coordinate regional Global Surveillance and Monitoring System(GSMS) reporting and management of SF medical product incidents. • Support uploads, curation, and validation of reports, and local media/signal scanning to improve data quality and contextualized risk assessments. • Produce localized threat assessments and thematic briefs for national and regional authorities and the WHO headquarters (HQ ) team.
Risk communication • Adapt and disseminate global risk communication (RC) tools to regional contexts; support country-level RC plans and provide surge support during incidents.
Training, Capacity Building, and Knowledge Dissemination • Organize and contribute to regional training sessions using the SF toolkit and other relevant materials, delivered through regional centres of excellence and collaborating centres. • Contribute to the development, dissemination, and evaluation of training materials, guidance tools, and technical resources for SF and laboratory strengthening activities. • Monitor and evaluate the delivery and impact of training programmes, ensuring alignment with regional priorities and WHO standards.
Reporting and Coordination • Provide input into regional planning and reporting processes, ensuring timely and accurate documentation of activities and outcomes. • Submit quarterly key performance indicator (KPI ) updates, contribute to After-Action Reviews (AARs), and support biennium reporting.
• Teamwork • Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences • Communication • Producing results • Ensuring the effective use of resources
Experience • At least five years of professional experience in medical products market surveillance and control, pharmaceutical quality assurance, including demonstrated experience in strengthening regulatory or laboratory systems. • Desirable: Experience with post‑market surveillance for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs)/devices; incident coding and data systems; laboratory quality assurance (QA ) for for-cause testing.
Skills and knowledge • Strong analytical and communication skills; IT/data literacy (spreadsheets, dashboards analytics); risk communication competencies; stakeholder engagement. • Strong understanding of regulatory systems for medicines and vaccines and post-market surveillance and control principles.
Brazzaville is a family duty station with access to basic services, medical facilities, and international travel connections. The environment is culturally rich but requires adaptability and resilience. You can check full entitlements at the duty station at https://app.unv.org/calculator. The complete UN Volunteer Conditions of Service is available at https://explore.unv.org/cos
Potential interview questions
| Describe your experience with post-market surveillance for medical products. | This question assesses your relevant experience in the critical area of market surveillance. | Provide specific examples of your past work related to post-market surveillance, including the context and outcomes. |
| How would you engage stakeholders in capacity building for quality control laboratories? | This question evaluates your stakeholder engagement abilities in a technical setting. | Pro members can see the explanation. |
| Can you provide an example of how you adapted global tools to local contexts? | Pro members can see the explanation. | Pro members can see the explanation. |
| What methods do you use for monitoring and evaluating training programs? | Pro members can see the explanation. | Pro members can see the explanation. |
| Tell us about your experience in analyzing data for risk assessments. | Pro members can see the explanation. | Pro members can see the explanation. |
| How do you handle cultural differences in a diverse work environment? | Pro members can see the explanation. | Pro members can see the explanation. |
| What challenges have you faced in strengthening regulatory systems, and how did you overcome them? | Pro members can see the explanation. | Pro members can see the explanation. |
| Discuss a time you coordinated with multiple organizations for a joint activity. | Pro members can see the explanation. | Pro members can see the explanation. |
Added 14 hours ago
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Updated 4 hours ago
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Source:
unv.org
