Director, Institute for Disease Modeling

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation•Seattle, WA

4d•$375,200 - $639,700

About The Position

The Director of the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) provides scientific and technical vision, strategic leadership, and organizational direction to advance IDM’s impact on global health and development. The role sets IDM’s scientific agenda, shapes its capabilities, and ensures its expertise in infectious disease modeling, quantitative science, data science, and analytics is applied to consequential foundation challenges. Leading a research institute embedded within the Gates Foundation, the Director connects innovative science with real-world decision-making. The Director serves as a trusted scientific and strategic partner to foundation leaders, provides independent scientific judgment, and ensures rigorous quantitative evidence informs strategies, investments, policies, and programmatic decisions. The role identifies emerging opportunities, guides scientific priorities, and fosters collaboration across subject areas, programs, and geographies. The Director is also an external ambassador for IDM, building scientific partnerships, strengthening the institute’s reputation, and positioning it to attract exceptional talent. Through the IDM leadership team, the Director develops a high-performing, collaborative, and innovative organization and is accountable for its scientific excellence, talent, culture, organizational effectiveness, and long-term impact.

Requirements

Ph.D. in mathematics, epidemiology, statistics, computational science, computer science, or a closely related quantitative or scientific discipline.
Deep scientific expertise in mathematical and dynamical disease modeling, with substantial knowledge of infectious disease epidemiology and transmission dynamics, computational modeling, and related quantitative disciplines.
Significant senior leadership experience in a scientific, technical, research, computational, or global health environment, including demonstrated ability to set scientific direction and lead through senior scientific and technical leaders.
Recognized scientific standing and credibility in infectious disease modeling, quantitative science, epidemiology, computational science, or a closely related field, with a record of contribution to the broader scientific community.
Ability to use scientific and technical judgment to establish priorities, evaluate competing opportunities, make difficult portfolio choices, and direct resources toward high-impact work.
Deep experience with global health data, including epidemiological, population, and genomic sequencing data.
Experience translating modeling, quantitative evidence, and scientific insights into strategy, investment, policy, and programmatic decisions.
Ability to work across organizational and disciplinary boundaries, advise and influence senior leaders, and identify opportunities to apply scientific and quantitative capabilities across diverse strategies and priorities.
Experience evaluating emerging or frontier technologies and their relevance for global health.

Responsibilities

Set IDM’s scientific and technical direction, agenda, priorities, and standards across dynamical disease modeling, quantitative science, data science, software, and analytics.
Maintain high standards for scientific rigor, innovation, relevance, and impact.
Prioritize IDM’s portfolio and capabilities, identify areas for distinctive contribution, and decide what work to stop or deprioritize as priorities and opportunities evolve.
Integrate IDM’s modeling and analytical capabilities into foundation strategy and decision-making; partner with foundation leaders and program teams to frame questions, challenge assumptions, define data needs, evaluate analytic technologies, assess interventions and investments, and translate evidence into strategic insight.
Oversee and deepen partnerships with PSTs, functional teams, and regional and country offices.
Connect evidence, models, methods, and insights across strategies, disease areas, sectors, and geographies; identify emerging opportunities and risks and surface cross-program implications.
Integrate modeling, data science, software, and analytical capabilities around priority scientific and strategic questions, determining the capabilities, approaches, and resources required.
Maintain an external scientific presence and represent IDM; build relationships with researchers, institutions, governments, industry, and global health partners.
Strengthen IDM’s ability to attract, develop, and retain scientific and technical talent through a compelling agenda, strong reputation, and supportive environment.
Anticipate developments in infectious disease modeling, computational science, data science, AI, and related fields; evaluate emerging approaches and technologies and guide their relevance to IDM’s agenda and capabilities.
Lead, develop, and hold IDM’s senior leadership team accountable; align talent, capacity, and resources with priorities.
Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing culture grounded in scientific excellence, intellectual independence, accountability, learning, and effective partnership.
Model and coach equitable decision-making and inclusive behaviors, and address critical issues in a timely manner.