Senior Officer, Financing Partnerships, Health R&D Advocacy

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation•Seattle, WA

1d•$190,100 - $324,100•Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Policy and Advocacy (GPA) division aims to shape public policy debates, build support for the foundation's work, and develop partnerships to advance its objectives. The Program Advocacy and Communications (PAC) team within GPA supports policy and finance goals. The GH innovation advocacy and communications cluster specifically focuses on accelerating the development, access, and uptake of innovations with high global health impact through R&D policies and funding. This role is an anchor member of the cross-cutting Health R&D initiative, reporting to the Deputy Director for health R&D and infectious diseases, PAC, with a dotted line to the Coordinated Finance Lead in the Resource Mobilization Hub. The position involves initiating, developing, coordinating, and accelerating bilateral co-financing partnerships for priority health innovations with donors, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), and private sector investors. Key responsibilities include convening and leading the health R&D bilateral financing coordinating group, facilitating knowledge sharing, providing financing expertise, and developing external financing opportunities. The role also involves translating health impact data and financial needs into business cases for external engagement. This is a strategic coordinator and central integrator role within a matrixed team, ensuring rigor, transparency, and consistency in R&D financing dialogues. The position is a limited-term appointment through December 2027.

Requirements

Deep experience with financial strategy, partnership development, and/or funder engagement in matrixed and collaborative settings focused on health R&D.
Experience strategizing, pitching, and working/partnering with key health R&D institutions.
Demonstrated deal-structuring expertise (capital stacks, blended instruments, guarantees, catalytic capital).
Track record managing or supporting complex structured financing deals (bilateral donors, MDBs/DFIs, blended finance, and/or major philanthropic transactions).
Experience coordinating with legal and finance teams through planning and negotiations.
Ability to translate technical program requirements into funder-relevant investment cases and KPI frameworks.
Proven ability to convene, lead, and sustain multidisciplinary teams.
Experience in developing and managing strong partnerships and relationships with senior decision makers, and in building consensus.
Demonstrated critical and creative thinking, excellent writing, framing and structuring, business/data analytics and public presentation skills.
Comfortable operating in a matrixed, fast-moving organization and building credibility with senior stakeholders.
Willingness to travel up to 25%.
Unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located.
Successful completion of a background check.

Nice To Haves

Global health R&D-specific expertise ideal.
Experience in global health R&D, pharmaceutical/biotech transactions, or health innovation commercialization preferred.
Familiarity with impact investors and philanthropic ecosystems beyond major donors.

Responsibilities

Convene the GPA Health R&D bilateral financing coordinating group to support prioritization and collaboration.
Serve as an expert voice on select deal teams to shape opportunities, size financing requirements, define capital structures, lead outreach, negotiate terms, and secure new partnerships.
Support strategic engagement with potential co-investors where gaps exist.
Support timely R&D deal-structuring (capital stacks, guarantees, concessional tranches, first-loss solutions), coordinating with internal operations, business partners, financial decision-makers, and advisors.
Translate technical profiles of novel health innovations into funder-facing narratives, KPIs, and investment cases.
Standardize templates, materials, and processes for R&D deal teams (pitch decks, meeting cadences, master funder tracker, investable one-pagers).
Partner with technical leads, advocacy specialists, and R&D initiative leads to ensure co-financing strategies align with impact and advocacy goals.
Engage regional teams, partnerships leads, and country offices to ensure in-market feasibility and alignment of financing opportunities to technical needs.
Oversee development and consistency of internal business cases: use-of-funds, costings, ROI/impact framing, and risk analysis.
Manage data-driven assessments and tracking to support funder engagement and trade-offs.
Prepare and write briefs for foundation leadership and wider circulation, synthesizing complex topics and making clear recommendations.