Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Chief Ethics, Risk & Compliance Officer
- Duty station
- 🇨🇭 Geneva, Switzerland
- Country / area
- Switzerland
- Region
- Europe
- UN system
- Health Partnership
- Vacancy No
- VN2507
- Team
- Ethics, Risk and Compliance
- Reporting to
- CEO
- Career Step Level
- 6
- Location
- Geneva
- Closes
- 7/22/2026, 12:00:00 AM
About this role
The Chief Ethics, Risk & Compliance Officer leads the Ethics, Risk & Compliance department, managing a team of four and reporting to the Chief Executive Officer. This senior executive role is responsible for designing, strengthening, and operationalizing enterprise-wide ethics, risk, and compliance frameworks to safeguard Gavi’s mission. Key responsibilities include developing and implementing ethics policies, fostering a culture of integrity, and advising senior management and governance bodies on ethical conduct, conflicts of interest, and retaliation. The officer also leads the enterprise risk management programme, facilitating strategic risk discussions and ensuring risks are identified, assessed, and mitigated. The role requires preparing and presenting regular reports to the AFC, Governance Committee, and Board. The ideal candidate possesses 15-20+ years of experience in ethics, risk management, or compliance within complex international organizations, with proven ability to influence at executive and board levels. They must have advanced technical knowledge of risk frameworks, ethics standards, and policy development, along with exceptional stakeholder engagement and communication skills. The position demands independence, sound judgment, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while building high-performing teams.
Key requirements
- 15-20+ years in ethics, risk, or compliance
- University degree in business, law, science, etc.
- Fluent written and spoken English
Nice to have
- Further qualification in risk management
- Certified mediator or equivalent
- Admission to the Bar
Requirements at a glance
- Min. experience
- Typically 15 - 20+ years of experience in ethics, enterprise risk management, compliance, governance or related fields.
- Required degree
- University degree in business administration, public administration, law, science, engineering or a related field.
- Languages
- English
Position title: Chief Ethics, Risk & Compliance Officer
Contract type / duration: 5 year contract defined duration
Location: Geneva
Department: Ethics, Risk & Compliance
Team: Ethics, Risk & Compliance
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer
N° of positions supervised: 4
Career Step: 6
1. About the Role
The Chief Ethics, Risk and Compliance Officer sits within the Ethics, Risk and Compliance department, manages a team of 4 and reports administratively to the Chief Executive Officer, with reporting lines to the AFC Chair and Governance Committee Chair. The role works closely with the Board, AFC, Governance Committee, Executive Leadership Team, staff, Legal, Internal Audit, Human Resources, the Office of Audit and Investigations, the Ombudsperson, and relevant external or inter-agency counterparts. The role facilitates enterprise-level applied risk assessments, and safeguards Gavi’s long-term mission by designing, strengthening and operationalising enterprise-wide ethics, risk and compliance frameworks, while fostering a culture of integrity, accountability, transparency and risk awareness across Gavi and its governance structures.
2. Key Responsibilities
Essential
Must-have
Required
Contract type / duration: 5 year contract defined duration
Location: Geneva
Department: Ethics, Risk & Compliance
Team: Ethics, Risk & Compliance
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer
N° of positions supervised: 4
Career Step: 6
1. About the Role
The Chief Ethics, Risk and Compliance Officer sits within the Ethics, Risk and Compliance department, manages a team of 4 and reports administratively to the Chief Executive Officer, with reporting lines to the AFC Chair and Governance Committee Chair. The role works closely with the Board, AFC, Governance Committee, Executive Leadership Team, staff, Legal, Internal Audit, Human Resources, the Office of Audit and Investigations, the Ombudsperson, and relevant external or inter-agency counterparts. The role facilitates enterprise-level applied risk assessments, and safeguards Gavi’s long-term mission by designing, strengthening and operationalising enterprise-wide ethics, risk and compliance frameworks, while fostering a culture of integrity, accountability, transparency and risk awareness across Gavi and its governance structures.
2. Key Responsibilities
- Lead the development, review, dissemination and implementation of ethics-related policies, standards and guidance across Gavi.
- Embed a culture of integrity, ethical conduct and compliance by promoting awareness of Gavi values, standards of conduct, and expected behaviours through learning, induction, outreach and communication activities.
- Advise management, staff and governance stakeholders on ethics-related matters, including conflicts of interest, outside activities, financial disclosure, protection against retaliation, and compliance with Gavi policies and standards.
- Receive and assess retaliation complaints, determine whether there is a credible prima facie case, and refer relevant matters to the Office of Audit and Investigations in line with Gavi’s protection against retaliation policy.
- Design and lead Gavi’s enterprise risk management programme and framework, ensuring that strategic and operational risks are identified, assessed, mitigated and regularly reviewed.
- Facilitate enterprise-level risk discussions with the Executive Leadership Team, support risk owners in analysing and structuring strategic risk discussions, and promote consistent risk management practices across the organisation.
- Prepare and present regular ethics, risk and compliance reporting to the AFC, Governance Committee and Board, including annual reporting on matters raised, systemic ethics issues, risk trends and recommendations to management.
- Typically 15 - 20+ years of experience in ethics, enterprise risk management, compliance, governance or related fields, with significant exposure to complex, multi-geographical or international organisations.
- Experience should include:
- Operating with credibility and influence at Executive, Senior Leadership and Board level.
- Designing, implementing or strengthening enterprise risk management frameworks.
- Providing ethics, compliance or conduct-related advice in complex organisational settings.
- Engaging with strategic, financial and operational risk dimensions linked to organisational mandate delivery.
- Building constructive relationships across senior stakeholders, governance bodies, internal functions and external communities.
- Leading organisational change that strengthens risk awareness, ethical culture, processes and accountability.
- Building and leading high-performing teams in a fast-paced, ambiguous and evolving environment.
- Delivering through others while maintaining continuity of core operations and high standards of execution.
Essential
- University degree in business administration, public administration, law, science, engineering or a related field.
- Further qualification in enterprise, operational or financial risk management.
- Certified mediator or equivalent qualification.
- Admission to the Bar.
Must-have
- Working knowledge of international organisation standards and governance environments, particularly where ethics, compliance and risk management intersect.
- Expert technical knowledge of enterprise risk management, including risk identification, assessment, mitigation, monitoring and reporting at strategic and operational levels.
- Advanced technical knowledge of ethics and compliance frameworks, including standards of conduct, conflicts of interest, outside activities, financial disclosure and protection against retaliation.
- Advanced skills in Board and senior executive reporting, including preparing clear, evidence-based reports and recommendations on ethics, risk and compliance matters.
- Advanced senior stakeholder engagement, including influencing Executive, Board, Senior Management, operational and functional stakeholders on risk, ethics and compliance matters.
- Advanced policy development and implementation, including formulating, reviewing, disseminating and embedding ethics-related policies and procedures.
- Advanced skills in organisational change delivery, including raising risk awareness, strengthening processes and sustaining improvements across functions.
- Advanced written communication skills, including drafting high-quality reports, guidance, briefings and recommendations with strong attention to detail.
- Working knowledge of inter-agency or multi-organisation coordination, including contributing to harmonised approaches where practical.
- Working knowledge of mediation approaches, particularly in relation to ethics, conduct or workplace-related matters.
Required
- Fluent written and spoken English.
- Other UN related languages
- Operates with independence, sound judgment and integrity, including the confidence to address sensitive issues at all levels of the organisation.
- Builds trust and credibility through balanced decision-making, discretion, transparency and consistent follow-through.
- Communicates clearly and appropriately with governance bodies, senior leaders, managers, staff and external stakeholders.
- Navigates ambiguity, pressure and organisational change with structure, flexibility and calm prioritisation.
- Balances strategic perspective with practical delivery, including the willingness to engage directly in detailed work when needed.
- One Gavi Mindset: Thinks and acts with Gavi and the Alliance best interest in mind, role models values and behaviours, fosters shared accountability, promotes and exhibits strong collaboration within and across departments.
- Agile Leadership: Adapts quickly to shifting contexts, guides teams through uncertainty, and drives decisions that balance long-term strategy with short-term responsiveness.
- Strategic-Pragmatic: Balances long-term vision with operational realities, translating strategy into clear, outcome-driven actions.
- Influence and Drive Change: Builds alignment and commitment among diverse stakeholders, driving progress through diplomacy, credibility, and shared purpose.
- Talent Development: Grows talent with an organisation-wide perspective, cultivates high-performing teams by setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, and mentoring talent to thrive in a dynamic, mission-driven environment.
Why this role may fit you
UNlockit's AI Match scores every open UN-system role against your CV across four axes — semantic similarity, keyword overlap, skill overlap, and domain overlap — and flags the must-have requirements and any gaps. Sign in and upload a CV to see the personalised verdict for this listing.
See my match for this role