Director, Ecosystem Strategy & Initiatives

Fund for Science and Technology • Seattle, WA

21h • $272,000 - $369,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Fund for Science and Technology (FFST) is a new private foundation, part of the Paul G. Allen philanthropic ecosystem, founded in 2022 and launching in 2025. FFST aims to accelerate discovery and catalyze progress for people and the planet through transformational science and technology. The foundation supports advancements in bioscience, environmental solutions, and the application of AI for Earth and humanity, encompassing lab work and the broader ecosystem of scientific research, collaboration, and innovation. The goal is to advance scientific frontiers and maximize their global benefits.

This position, reporting to the Chief Programs Officer, will lead the design and project management process for a cohort of leaders across FFST, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Ai2), Allen Institute, and other organizations within the Paul G. Allen scientific ecosystem. The role requires a blend of executive facilitation, communication, scientific program strategy, stakeholder engagement, and disciplined execution. The successful candidate will act as a trusted partner to senior leaders and a steward of the leadership cohort, anticipating needs, facilitating complex discussions, preparing decision-quality materials, documenting agreements, and maintaining momentum. Influence will be achieved through credibility, judgment, relationships, subject-matter expertise, and exceptional execution, rather than formal authority.

Requirements

• Advanced training or substantial professional experience in a scientific or technical field, with the ability to engage credibly across disciplines.
• Significant experience in scientific program leadership, strategy, philanthropy, research administration, consulting, executive operations, and/or a related environment.
• Demonstrated success leading complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives across organizational boundaries.
• Exceptional writing, synthesis, facilitation, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to convert ambiguity into clear questions, practical plans, and disciplined execution.
• Sound judgment, discretion, and comfort handling sensitive information and high-stakes relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complexity and ambiguity across dynamic, multi-stakeholder environments, adapting approaches as new information emerges and bringing clarity, alignment, and momentum where objectives, roles, or pathways may not be fully defined.
• Excellent project and portfolio management skills, including the ability to manage multiple priorities and follow through reliably.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

Nice To Haves

• PhD, MD, or other advanced degree in science, engineering, technology, public health, environmental science, or a related discipline.
• 10+ years of relevant experience, with demonstrated progression into senior leadership roles.
• Experience in a research institute, scientific foundation, philanthropic organization, university, mission-driven technology organization, or interdisciplinary consortium.
• Experience supporting an executive leadership team, cross-institutional council, board, scientific advisory committee, or comparable senior forum.
• Familiarity with one or more relevant domains, such as bioscience, artificial intelligence, environmental science, scientific infrastructure, or responsible innovation.
• Experience designing frameworks for new operating models, collaboration mechanisms, or programs in an evolving organization.

Responsibilities

• Manage the group’s operating rhythm, annual calendar, meeting cycle, and related working sessions.
• Partner with CEOs, executive directors, and chiefs of staff to identify priorities, shape cross-cutting agendas, define desired outcomes, and ensure the right participants, advisors, and expertise are engaged.
• Prepare concise briefing materials, decision memos, pre-reads, and discussion frameworks that make complex issues accessible and actionable for the group and relevant boards of directors.
• Facilitate meetings and working sessions, creating space for candid discussion while moving the group toward clear decisions, trade-offs, and commitments.
• Capture decisions, action items, owners, dependencies, and target dates, then maintain a reliable follow-through cadence and reporting framework.
• Serve as a central point of coordination for communication, requests, and decisions across participating organizations and their leaders, respecting each entity’s distinct strategies, governance, and decision rights.
• Develop practical mechanisms for between-meeting updates, shared visibility, escalation, cross-organizational learning, and knowledge sharing.
• Anticipate and surface gaps, overlaps, emerging opportunities, and issues requiring leadership attention.
• Build trusted relationships with executives, scientists, program leaders, communications teams, and operational partners across the ecosystem.
• Coordinate workshops, charrettes, expert consultations, and other forums that bring the right perspectives into the work.
• Frame strategic questions, synthesize diverse viewpoints, and develop recommendations that clarify choices and trade-offs.
• Conduct or coordinate targeted research on scientific, technological, philanthropic, and partnership landscapes.
• Form and support cross-functional initiative teams, clarifying scope, responsibilities, roles, milestones, governance, and measures of progress.
• Identify and engage internal and external experts whose perspectives can strengthen program design and decision-making.
• Establish clear, lightweight systems for tracking and documenting decisions, commitments, milestones, risks, unresolved questions, and organization-specific formal artifacts when relevant.
• Produce timely meeting summaries, dashboards, executive updates, and periodic reviews that focus attention on what matters most.
• Maintain the Council’s core records, operating principles, decision history, and portfolio of active initiatives.
• Continuously improve how the Council works, using feedback and experience to increase clarity, speed, inclusion, and impact.

Benefits

• Foundation-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance plans for the employee and their eligible dependents.
• Retirement savings plan with a generous 15% employer contribution each year, up to IRS limits, and subject to a vesting schedule.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior