Vaccine Demand Strategist

The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the go-to nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC’s critical health protection mission. Since 1995, the CDC Foundation has raised over $1.9 billion and launched more than 1,300 programs impacting a variety of health threats from chronic disease conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer, to infectious diseases like rotavirus and HIV, to emergency responses, including COVID-19 and Ebola. The CDC Foundation managed hundreds of programs in the United States and in more than 90 countries last year. Visit www.cdcfoundation.org for more information.  

Position Title: Vaccine Demand Strategist

Location: West Virginia Department of Health (Charleston, WV)

Position End Date: 6/30/2025

Salary: $68,000 plus benefits

The CDC Foundation is seeking a Vaccine Demand Strategist role. This position will collaborate with teams and individuals to create COVID-19 vaccination strategies in public health departments. The candidate we are seeking will be a well-rounded marketing professional who can collaborate with health departments to support communications, social listening, partnerships, and community outreach needed to build demand for and confidence in COVID-19 and other routine vaccines. An ideal candidate has juggled multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment, maintained a high level of professionalism, and crafted timely communications to multiple stakeholders, always taking the stakeholders' needs into account. The role requires the ability to assess data, identify barriers based upon data analyzed, and identify and initiate strategies to help remove barriers to vaccination. This position provides an excellent opportunity to hone organizational, project management, and audience-centered writing skills, in addition to building a strong knowledge base about work with state and local health jurisdictions.

· Bachelor's degree in related fields (e.g. communications, marketing, journalism, public relations, public health, behavioral health, and public policy). MPH or equivalent Masters preferred

· Minimum of 1 - 5 years of related experience in public health and monitoring and evaluation experience

· Demonstrated ability to conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses on social media, news media, or other information sources to inform programmatic efforts

· Demonstrated ability to create strategies that are evidence-informed to achieve behavioral, communication, and or public health objectives

· Experienced in developing risk communication and public communication materials and products (e.g. talking points, briefs, handouts, PSAs, social media content, and FAQs)

· Ability to translate scientific and medical content into plain, easy to understand, language for different communication products tailored for specific audience segments

· Demonstrated ability to identify and engage partners and stakeholders, foster new or current partnerships (e.g. with CBOs (Community-Based Organizations), national organizations and state and federal agencies), and conduct advocacy, outreach, and community engagement activities

· Experience developing and implementing behavior change strategies to improve public health

· Experience working on addressing health and/or social disparities and advancing health equity

· Experience working in a fast-paced work environment with tight deadlines

· Experience in preparing, reviewing, and submitting progress reports

· Ability to manage relationships professionally with individuals at all levels, including staff and external partner organization contacts

· Driven; motivated to succeed; a self-starter

· Behavioral science or public health training or experience

· Previous work on communication efforts to reach priority audiences

· Verbal and written communication skills in both English and Spanish

· Previously worked on COVID-19 mitigation or vaccination efforts

· Previous experience working in multicultural workplaces and settings

· Superior multi-tasking and organization skills. Must manage multiple simultaneous projects and prioritize assignments and tasks, accordingly, remaining flexible to changing priorities and new initiatives

· Social Listening and Analysis: Conduct jurisdiction-level quantitative and qualitative analyses of different data sources that have an impact on vaccine demand and uptake including mis/disinformation, especially through social media, news media, and internal data sources. Use national and international resources to put local findings into a larger context, and work with CDC and other partners to help inform national social listening activities

· Behavior Change Strategy Development: Develop evidence-based behavioral strategies to build demand for COVID-19 vaccines and support the health department's implementation

· Communication: Develop products and materials and provide communications support. Work collaboratively with internal and external partners to develop communication products to ensure messages and products meet communication objectives and audience needs

· Partnership Management: Foster stronger partnerships with other departments in government, among community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, community partners, and stakeholders to ensure they are empowered to deliver vaccine messages

· Monitoring and Evaluation: Track and evaluate efforts for continuous improvement

This role is involved in a dynamic public health program. As such, roles and responsibilities are subject to change as situations evolve. Roles and responsibilities listed above may be expanded upon or updated to match priorities and needs, once written approval is received by both the CDC Foundation and West Virginia in order to best support the West Virginia Department of Health in their public health programming.