Senior Program Manager, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Discovery & Tools, Seattle, United States 44 views

Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Country: United States
City: Seattle
Office: Gates Foundation HQ Seattle
Follow @UNjobs

About the Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks for all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.
Division Summary
Our Global Health Program (GHP) harnesses advances in science and technology to save lives. We focus on the health problems that have an impact in developing countries but get too little attention and funding. Where validated tools exist, we support sustainable ways to improve their delivery. Where they do not, we invest in research and development of interventions, such as vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics. Our work focuses on strategies to fight and prevent HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, enteric and diarrheal diseases, and pneumonia. These programs strategy teams are supported by functional teams that focus on Discovery and Translational Sciences, Vaccine Development, and Integrated Development.
Team Summary
The Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Discovery & Tools (MNCH D&T) leads upstream research and product development to improve the lives of mothers and infants in low-resource settings. Our approach targets underlying biological vulnerability and seeks to intervene as early as possible in the life course. We fund development on a core set of products that range in type (including drugs, foods, microbes, risk algorithms and devices), technical risk (from novel concepts to product substitutions) and development phase (from early discovery to late-stage efficacy testing). These products target pregnancy risk, maternal undernutrition, prematurity, neonatal encephalopathy, child wasting, child neurodevelopment and maternal morbidity. Challenging the current dogma of nutrition that nutrient supplementation alone is sufficient to achieve healthy outcomes in LMIC settings is central to our discovery and product development approach. Our team is multidisciplinary and includes physician scientists with backgrounds in obstetrics and pediatrics, perinatal epidemiologists, and specialists in neurodevelopment, nutrition research, engineering, global health, and strategy development. We emphasize in-country partnership to integrate the local context into research and development.
Summary
As Senior Program Manager, you’ll support strategic and operational aspects of MNCH D&T’s program strategy, including managing annual planning and strategy review processes; facilitating strategy development, refinement and monitoring for our product development initiatives; and providing ongoing pipeline and portfolio management. You are a self-starter who can integrate a diverse set of perspectives to build consensus, structure and drive forward progress on complex topics. This role will sit in Seattle, WA, and will report to the Deputy Director, Strategy Planning & Management.
Core Responsibilities
Lead processes to develop and support portfolio strategic and annual planning, investment pipeline monitoring, and facilitate the team’s rhythm of the business to support management decision-making and resource allocation.
Provides critical support to program leadership in translating strategy goals into coherent portfolio level theory of action and investment plans. Support processes to track and report product development progress including decision points and go/no-go stage-gates across priority product portfolio.
Drive strategy development for new bodies of work, strategy refinement/refresh of existing bodies of work, and strategic support for specific large investment decisions as needed.
Monitor grant and contract pipeline to produce accurate forecasts and performance against key milestones and outcomes to facilitate management decision-making. Work closely with Program Coordinators, Financial Managers, and Senior/Program Officers to ensure data integrity in foundation systems.
Promote prioritization, efficiency, and productivity on the team by providing leadership and support in process development, implementation, and continuous improvement of tools, analysis, reporting and organizational change.
Guide the preparation of materials for the annual planning process, strategy reviews, briefings, and submissions to division President, CEO, and Co-Chairs. Develop and maintain strategy communication materials.
Proactively promote efficiency and productivity on the team by providing leadership and support in process development and improvement, implementation and improvement of tools, analysis, reporting and change management.
Partner with team members to craft an approach to division continuous learning and improvement, find opportunities to build team cohesion and camaraderie, plan virtual and in-person learning and team building.
Serve as a central point of contact for team coordination and communication across functional, regional, and operational teams within the foundation.
Flex across the team to take on new projects as needs arise.
Leadership and Culture
Our culture crafts our choices about what we do and how we do it. We believe that energized people, working well together towards a shared objective can do outstanding things! We expect foundation employees to embody our four agreements intentionally and consistently; show respect, offer trust, be open, and build energy.
Core Knowledge and Skills
Proven strength in structured problem solving and strategic business planning with the capability to easily identify and communicate frameworks to facilitate strategy creation and analyze core issues.
Program and stakeholder management skills: ability to coordinate inputs from many people; to track progress against targets and identify barriers to progress; to plan agendas and facilitate meetings; and to organize, evaluate, and communicate information.
Tolerance for ambiguity and ability to apply structure to simplify complex problems.
Exceptional listening, verbal, and written communication skills, able to effectively calibrate input and efficiently synthesize information to connect with diverse audiences.
Ability to build trusting relationships with diverse partners and organizations, with a genuine spirit of outreach, tact, and collaboration.
Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally-sensitive behavior.
Ability to effectively alternate between thinking strategically and executing at high quality.
Education and Experience
Bachelor’s or other advanced degree with 7+ years of experience, or equivalent experience.
Management consulting and/or strategy development and execution experience preferred.
Global health and/or product development experience preferred.
*Applicants for this role will only be considered if they possess current USA Work Authorization, and do not require employer-sponsored VISA support to begin or remain in this role.
#LI-CM1
Hiring Requirements
As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
Depending upon your work location, we may require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and any recommended booster doses. All employees based in the United States are to provide proof of full vaccination upon hire and any recommended boosters, subject to applicable laws.
Accommodations
If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request to hr@gatesfoundation.org.
Inclusion Statement
We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of 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.