Chief Of Staff & Director, Strategy, Planning and Management, Office of the President, Global Growth and Opportunity

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation•Seattle, WA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Global Growth and Opportunity (GGO) division focuses on creating and scaling market-based innovations to stimulate inclusive and sustainable economic growth. We seek to catalyze sustainable transformative change in the face of inequities and market failures, to realize the potential of untapped markets, and to see the economic and social benefits of including everyone. Core areas are Agricultural Development; Digital Public Infrastructure; Global Education; Inclusive Financial Systems; Nutrition; and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. We seek solutions that are sustainable, transformative, and inclusive with an eye toward applying technology innovations as well as data evidence to inspire change in the world’s developing countries. The Chief of Staff & Director, Strategy, Planning and Management, Office of the President, Global Growth and Opportunity (Chief of Staff/Director) will manage a set of functions and lead a team that provides critical support to the President in running and optimizing the impact of the division; including setting the rhythm of the business and establishing the right forums for leadership development and engagement for the division. In this role, you will have both operational and programmatic responsibilities, including: Managing and developing staff and division culture. Coordinating communications for the Office of the President across internal and external audiences; including as needed acting as a communication liaison in internal meetings across the organization and as needed, representing the President in key endeavors both internally and externally to the foundation. Leading process improvements and change management for operational initiatives. Ensuring alignment with business partners (e.g. Finance, Legal, Strategy and Human Resources) in assisting the division on its execution priorities. Overseeing the strategy development and refinement for the programs within the division. Building a robust data integration and strategic insights function. Additionally, you will be responsible for incubating new areas of strategic exploration from within the President’s Office for key focus initiatives. This position reports to the President, Global Growth and Opportunity. This role is based in Seattle, WA. This position is not eligible for work from a Remote location outside of Seattle, WA. Relocation support is available for a hired candidate who does not currently reside in the Seattle, WA region. Applications from internal and GF alumni candidates only are being accepted until EOD on Friday, March 6th, 2026.

Requirements

Excellent people management skills with demonstrated experience in coaching and developing talent.
Demonstrated strength in cultivating trust and relationship management to guide confidential information and situations with flexibility and diplomacy.
Ability to work well with a varied range of collaborators to incorporate new information and drive to appropriate decisions with and for the team.
Able to negotiate, persuade, and build coalitions without formal authority.
Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
Experience developing, implementing, and managing projects and programs.
Must be highly organized and efficient, possess excellent judgment with a demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks, complex issues, and competing priorities with excellent attention to detail.
Fluent in strategy development and implementation, performance management systems of goals, targets, and monitoring process.
Able to frame complex, multi-faceted issues in different ways for different audiences to get to insights and actionable results.
Capable of structuring, scoping, and breaking down complex, multi-stakeholder problems with many dependencies into outputs and work products.
Able to integrate large volumes of quantitative and qualitative information into succinct and compelling understanding of problems and identification of solutions.
Excellent ability to marshal data and evidence into compelling visualizations, persuasive narratives, and novel insights.
Capable of synthesizing cross-cutting themes across a wide variety of domains areas.
Must possess excellent oral and written communication skills to represent the President effectively and accurately to a variety of audiences as well as draft and proof-read written documents.
Ability to navigate a broad range of operational issues with solid experience and understanding of core business/organizational disciplines (e.g. strategy, operations, legal, HR, finance, planning, and budgeting).
Innovative and forward-thinking approach to all aspects of work.
The highest personal and professional integrity along with an optimistic outlook and a solid sense of humor.
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, International Development, Public Policy, Business, Science, or a combination of equivalent academic training and experience.
15+ years of experience in roles of expanding scope, responsibility, and demonstrable results.
Experience in strategy development and implementation, business operations and performance management, as well as deep exposure to philanthropy and international development in low-resource settings.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree and global experience, preferably in Africa and/or Asia highly preferred.
Strong preference for foundation knowledge and experience including prior experience as a Chief of Staff, Director, Advisor or Deputy Director, Strategy Planning & Management highly preferred.

Responsibilities

Translates President’s priorities / division direction into an actionable divisional plan to enhance effectiveness and ensure goals are met.
Ensures the President’s voice is used internally and externally to align partners and supports the achievement of division goals and impact.
Provides critical support and counsel to the President across a range of issues including meetings, events, trips, strategy, and grant reviews, working groups, projects, reading materials, and correspondence.
Assists President in shaping and driving the creation and reinforcement of the division cultural norms.
Sets and handles the Divisions’ Rhythm of Business, specifically, accountable for preparation and follow-through for the division’s Leadership Team and all-staff meetings.
Define, lead, and optimize annual business processes (e.g. resource, strategy, and portfolio planning) and coordinate divisional outputs for foundation-wide deliverables.
Lead process improvements and change management for operational initiatives as they roll out to the division (e.g. new investment management system).
Facilitate cross-division best practice sharing, calibration of strategy, planning and management roles, and a community of practice for staff in operational roles.
Oversee Division headcount resource management.
In collaboration with HR partner, advise the President on workforce planning, division capabilities, and optimal allocation of headcount, including the development and management of direct and indirect reports (e.g. borrowed or outsourced resources).
Ability to travel up to 20% of time as needs dictate; both domestic and international.
Ensure thorough development of strategies and follow-through on implementation.
Design, develop and lead the process for setting, tracking, evaluating, and presenting progress on division priorities.
Incubate new priorities and areas of exploration for the division including the development of key strategic choices, establishment of decision criteria, and the management of investments against these exploratory areas.
Develop and manage direct reports to support the implementation of these programmatic responsibilities.
Participates in President meetings as required and ensures follow through on President’s requests and feedback.
Proactively engage with peers in other Divisions and in the CEO and Chief Business Operations, offices to ensure streamlined communication and prompt inter-divisional problem solving.
Support, coordinate, and ensure clear communications and roles and responsibilities for the division’s business and program partners to deliver impact.