Senior Program Assistant, Neglected Tropical Diseases and Vaccine Development

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation • Seattle, WA

5d • $37 - $51 • Hybrid

About The Position

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally. The Global Health (GH) Division harnesses advances in science and technology to save lives in low- and middle-income countries. We focus on health problems that have a major impact in developing countries but receive too little attention and funding. Where proven tools and interventions exist, we support sustainable delivery and implementation at scale. Where they do not, we invest in research and development of new interventions, including vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics. Our work spans multiple infectious disease portfolios and is supported by highly matrixed, cross-cutting teams including Vaccine Development (VDev) and Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). The VDev team focuses on accelerating the development and commercialization of novel vaccines and the sustainable manufacturing of existing vaccines particularly for these countries. The NTD team works across technical, operational, and regional partners to advance ambitious disease control and elimination goals for 8 of the 20 WHO-recognized neglected tropical diseases. This team also invests in leveraging the NTD delivery platform to advance other health outcomes through programs such as Resiliency through Azithromycin for Children (REACH). Application Deadline is Friday, March 6, 2026 Your Role The Senior Program Assistant (SPA) is a key member of both the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and Vaccine Development (VDev) teams working closely with the Director and Deputy Director Strategy, Planning & Management, who lead across both teams. SPA provides comprehensive administrative support and acts as a trusted partner. This includes managing complex calendars, coordinating a high-volume of meetings across time zones, and ensuring leaders’ time aligns with key divisional goals and strategic priorities. In addition to core administrative responsibilities, the SPA contributes meaningfully to team operations, culture, and division rhythm of business processes in collaboration with Strategy, Planning & Management (SPM) and Office of the President (OoP) partners.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• Experience in an administrative job supporting senior management or executives within a fast-paced, matrixed environment required.
• Ability to prioritize effectively, utilize time precisely, communicate decisions and process to execution in a clear effective manner.
• Demonstrates excellence with calendar management, international travel support, and event planning coordination.
• Experience managing complex assignments and projects that require initiative, independent problem-solving, and resourcefulness.
• Strong ability to balance the support needs of multiple individuals with varied work, communication, and learning styles.
• Understanding of how to identify and anticipate leadership and team needs and opportunities and how to champion and resolve them.
• Adept at building relationships to gain respect and trust of others; including internally and externally (e.g., grantees and high-level officials).
• Experience adopting approach, goals, and methods to achieve solutions and results in dynamic situations, helping others deal with the ongoing demands of change.
• Strong organizational, time management, and project management skills that reflect the ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks seamlessly with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience working with MS Office suite, especially Outlook, and including CoPilot, Chat GPT and other AI tools is strongly preferred.
• Intellectually curious and actively seeks to understand team strategies, annual plans, and priorities.
• Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located.
• This role is based in Seattle, WA and in line with the foundation’s commitment to hybrid work, requires working from the office approximately 50% of the time.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with MS Office suite, especially Outlook, and including CoPilot, Chat GPT and other AI tools is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-level administrative support by anticipating and managing competing priorities, proactively handling high volumes of complex emails, travel and expense report management, coordinating workflow and rhythm of business support, and fostering strong collaborative relationships with internal and external partners.
• Represent leadership priorities in cross-team and cross-functional interactions by acting as a point of coordination and alignment with internal partners and stakeholders.
• Leverage technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, and digital tools to streamline support and enhance efficiency.
• Manage highly active and complex calendars of appointments for team Director and other assigned team leaders, requiring frequent engagement with multiple external parties and foundation leadership.
• Anticipate and resolve calendar conflicts, prioritize meetings effectively, and coordinate complex cross-time zone engagement.
• Optimize Director time by proactively reviewing upcoming commitments, providing context and recommendations to support priority alignment, and ensuring well-prepared for decisions and engagements.
• Own the flow of information to and from the team Director by ensuring visibility into key updates, decisions, and follow-ups needed, thereby enabling priority clarity and timely decision-making. This requires working closely and effectively with NTD and VDev management teams.
• Act as a "barometer" by maintaining awareness of key foundation, division-wide, and cross-team updates and initiatives, highlighting relevant information to leadership and team stakeholders.
• Represent NTD and VDev teams on the space planning committee and GHET Support Team group.
• Lead projects to strengthen team culture and ways of working across the NTD and VDev teams, while enabling greater consistency and best practices across shared operations.
• Work on team and division special projects as needed or aligned to professional development goals.
• Coordinate and facilitate team member onboarding and offboarding in partnership with hiring managers.
• Support and manage team-wide and leadership-specific meetings across the NTD and VDev teams, including retreats, convenings, and presentations. This includes communications, logistics, and materials in coordination with internal and external sponsors.
• Coordinate participant logistics, travel, and reimbursements as needed.
• Complete travel-related tasks including complex and detailed travel itineraries, visa applications, travel arrangements, prep materials, and expense reports.
• Ensure readiness of logistical and content-related materials for leadership and principal travel.
• Proactively manage high volumes of complex emails and correspondence, exercising professionalism, discretion and sound judgment.
• Provide clear, timely, and audience-appropriate communications on behalf of principals.
• Engage stakeholders to manage calendar conflicts, trade-offs, and priorities effectively.
• Exercise sound judgment in managing sensitive information and escalating issues appropriately.
• Support consistent knowledge-sharing across teams and foundation partners.
• Partner with support team and business team to create and maintain knowledge management processes through document management and collaboration platforms such as SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and OneNote.
• Maintain distribution lists, SharePoint sites, and MS Teams channels.
• Contribute to assistant community practices and process improvements.

Benefits

• We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities.

What This Job Offers

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