Job Information
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Deputy Director, Foundation Strategy Office in Seattle, Washington
The Foundation
We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.
The Team
The Foundation Strategy Office is the primary function supporting the creation and evolution of our program level strategies as well as exploring new paths to impact that align with our mission. This includes supporting the CEO, CFO, and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) in key accountabilities like strategy development, strategy revision, strategy performance measurement, portfolio management, and special initiatives to accelerate the impact of the foundation.
We are a team that places a significant emphasis on maintaining and growing our positive, humble, and intellectually curious culture. We believe that small groups of deeply committed team members can do phenomenal things. We encourage debate and discussion of tough issues and are committed to the success of our clients. We invest proactively in each other’s personal and professional growth.
Your Role
The Deputy Director (DD), Foundation Strategy helps lead and manage strategy projects and is a member of the Foundation Strategy Office’s (FSO) leadership team. This role is Seattle-based with team leadership responsibilities that include both management of senior strategy and strategy implementation officers within the FSO, as well as ownership of 2-4 projects at any given time. Typical projects include strategy development and implementation planning for existing programmatic priorities, strategy development for new programmatic areas, and cross-foundation initiatives. In this context, the DD provides strategic thought partnership, project management, and analytical support to clients across the foundation.
What You’ll Do
Strategy and implementation design and development: Provide oversight to ensure projects aimed at answering key strategic issues for our programs are analytically grounded, account appropriately for the foundation’s comparative advantage, and can be completed with fidelity. Ensure translation of new foundation-wide priorities into the design and setting of strategies under your purview.
Client relationship management: Establish effective relationships with key stakeholders, especially Directors and DDs, to ensure that right decisions are made. Build trust in those relationships and provide advice to Directors across a breadth of issues, including those beyond the scope of staffed projects.
Project Scoping and Management: Structure, sequence and identify dependencies in the overall development and execution of strategies. Manage and monitor overall performance of projects and resources.
Execution and performance management: Provide support to team to ensure successful execution of strategy development and translation into implementation. Develop and improve methodologies that enable the foundation to improve the performance of our existing strategies.
Thought leadership: Support CSO and Executive Leadership Team (ELT) on critical foundation strategy issues. Act as thought partner to Directors and other foundation leadership. Continuously contribute to the set of assets, processes, tools, and services that enable most efficient development of strategies and enhances implementation fidelity and translate these into project team deliverables. Provide translation and application of lessons learned, examples, and analogues from strategy areas in your jurisdiction to other strategies and to foundation-wide strategy knowledge assets.
Special initiatives: Lead projects and implementation of initiatives that are sponsored by the CSO and initiatives that the division undertakes on behalf of the CEO and ELT.
Team Leadership and Management
Alongside DD peers, provide management and oversight of a 20-person team that provides strategic and implementation support across the foundation. Ensure team incorporates and responds to client feedback.
Directly oversee a cohort of senior officers leading projects.
Develop and retain talent within the team. Drive culture.
Contribute to ongoing evolution and continuous improvement of the FSO’s operating model.
Actively shape the agenda and functioning of the FSO’s leadership team and contribute to colleagues’ success.
Your Experience
An advanced degree, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
Comprehensive strategy development experience acting in a senior strategic planning function at a top tier strategy-consulting firm, business, or NGO.
Experience in strategy implementation, facilitating change management, identifying, and managing risks, and developing business processes to monitor and evaluate performance against goals.
Experience working in a highly matrixed organization with a clear understanding of key strategic levers and frameworks to help guide and inform organizational decisions.
Significant experience cultivating trust and managing relationships to guide confidential information and situations with flexibility and diplomacy. Expert in developing strong partnerships and relationships inside and outside the organization, managing conflicts, and building consensus.
Comprehensive experience pattern matching and synthesizing cross-cutting themes across a wide variety of domains areas (i.e., health, economics, advocacy, organizational dynamics).
Comprehensive experience structuring, scoping, and breaking down complex, multi-stakeholder problems with many dependencies into outputs and actionable work products.
Mastery level knowledge of strategic planning principles and processes, including strategy development, performance assessment, and resource allocation.
Mastery level knowledge of data analysis and visualization, including the ability to integrate large volumes of quantitative and qualitative information into succinct and compelling syntheses and visually use data to create persuasive narratives and novel insights.
Mastery level knowledge of team management principles and best practices, including knowledge of how to simultaneously manage multiple teams.
Must be willing to be located in Seattle, WA, for this role. Relocation will be provided.
The salary range for this role is $256,600-$397,700 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $279,600-$433,300 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hire salaries are typically between the salary range’s minimum and midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.
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Hiring Requirements
As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
Candidate Accommodations
If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.
Inclusion Statement
We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.
All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.