Senior/ Manager, Policy & Strategy Development (2 year contract)

[What the role is]

This position offers the right candidate the opportunity to define and develop evidence-based national policies and strategies in preventive health, to achieve a supportive and sustainable environment for healthy lifestyle behaviours. This is an exciting opportunity to solve some of the most critical issues facing preventive health in Singapore today. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to engage senior stakeholders from across the government and businesses, and influence decision making on public health policies. The successful candidate will also work closely with other government agencies, industry and academic experts, as part of the consultation and strategy development process.

The Policy and Strategy Development Division is part of the Policy, Research and Surveillance Group in the Health Promotion Board. The Division’s mission is formulating public health policies and strategies, as HPB progresses beyond promotional approaches to employ regulatory and policy levers to modify health behaviours. Areas of focus include obesity control (food), substance abuse (tobacco and alcohol), maternal child health as well as emerging areas of public health concerns. Specifically, we are looking for someone who can manage the technical aspects of national labelling schemes (e.g. Nutri-Grade).

[What you will be working on]

• Review and analyse public health findings and market data from a wide range of sources, including ground insights, and develop evidence-based policies and strategies that address public health gaps in the general and targeted populations (e.g. ability to apply technical knowledge to support policy or strategy).  

• Lead  in consultations with government agencies, companies and experts, to address key stake holders and their concerns, with the objective of achieving successful and sustainable policy and strategy implementation.

• Collaborate with regulatory agencies and the industry to operationalize solutions, understanding the business operating environment and be able to translate strategy into actions  accordingly, where necessary.

• Monitor and evaluate policies and strategies to assess impact and review approaches, where necessary, to collaborate with relevant stakeholders e.g. academic institutions and government agencies

• Ensure compliance and understanding of policies under the purview of HPB

• Foster strategic alliances, both local and international, to support policy advocacy and lead conversations on emerging public health issues.

• Secretariat support for industry focused committees

• Support in policy formation and legislative amendments

• Support in research projects to support policy or programme implementation

• Be able to handle queries from industry and members of public.

[What we are looking for]

• Qualifications in life sciences, food science and nutrition, dietetics or any other relevant disciplines.

• Meticulous, detailed oriented especially in handling and managing different sources of data and making sense of that.

• At least 3-5 years of experience in developmental planning and secretariat roles, preferably with public policy experience.

• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills to identify, define and propose policy solutions for national preventive health problems.

• Strong analytical abilities to synthesize information, build narrative, and distil ideas and concepts into concrete plans.

• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills to maintain strong stakeholder partnerships.

• Excellent oral and written communication

• Strong ability to work effectively in an environment that is team focused and across divisions, fluid and fast-paced.

Successful candidates will be offered a 2-year contract in the first instance.