Senior Research Scientist, Disease Modeling (11-Month LTE)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation•Seattle, WA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Foundation 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 Team As part of the Gates Foundation (GF), the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) mission is to support global efforts to eradicate infectious diseases and achieve permanent improvements in health by developing, using, and sharing computational modeling tools and promoting quantitative decision-making. The IDM team is composed of research scientists and software developers who create advanced models of disease transmission, develop computational tools to inform global disease eradication policy, conduct analysis of epidemiologically- and policy-relevant data, and identify and address critical knowledge gaps. IDM is a highly dynamic organization with a work environment that is defined by innovation and collaboration. As part of our work, we routinely collaborate with international health agencies, ministries of health in the developing world, as well as universities and research institutes across the globe. Within IDM, the goals of the Product Discovery and Development (PDD) team are to advance disease control by integrating data and developing novel tools across pathogens to enable more targeted, efficient, and equitable public health decision-making. We develop and apply rigorous modeling to understand and capture the drivers of heterogeneous disease risk and intervention impact. PDD aims to improve understanding of how products and interventions will perform in heterogeneous populations and to generate evidence on synergies across pathogens and within individuals and populations. Your Role IDM is building a nutrition modeling program aimed at transforming fragmented evidence on micronutrient deficiencies into decision-grade insights for the Foundation's Nutrition; Maternal, Newborn, Child Nutrition & Health (MNCNH); and Tuberculosis/Discovery & Translational Science (TB/DTS) programs. We are seeking a nutrition epidemiologist to join the PDD team for an 11-month limited term engagement to help establish and lead a flagship project within this emerging strategy. Senior Research Scientist will bring deep expertise in micronutrient and vitamin deficiency epidemiology and will work at the intersection of nutrition science, infectious disease, and quantitative modeling. The role is particularly focused on characterizing the burden and etiology of micronutrient deficiency in high-priority settings — with anemia (iron and/or folate deficiency) and vitamin A deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa as an initial use case — and on linking nutritional status to outcomes across a range of infectious diseases including TB, malaria, HIV, maternal/neonatal disorders, and vaccine-preventable infections. This work will directly inform Foundation programmatic strategy and contribute to a cross-portfolio modeling backbone that integrates nutrition into IDM's existing disease modeling infrastructure. This is an 11-month limited-term position intended to be based in Seattle, WA with foundation benefits. Relocation will not be provided.

Requirements

PhD in nutritional epidemiology, epidemiology, global health, biostatistics, or a closely related field
Demonstrated expertise in micronutrient and vitamin deficiency epidemiology, including familiarity with the biological mechanisms linking nutritional status to health outcomes
Strong quantitative and statistical modeling skills, with proficiency in R and/or Python
Experience working with complex, multi-source datasets including biomarker data, dietary surveys, and population health surveillance, with a strong preference for demonstrated familiarity in applying or contributing to datasets such as BRINDA (Biomarkers Reflecting Inflammation and Nutritional Determinants of Anemia), DHS (Demographic & Health Surveys), etc.
Track record of peer-reviewed publication as well as clear scientific communication to non-technical audiences
Ability to work independently and manage a focused research project within a defined timeline
Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. This includes direct company sponsorship and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (eg: H-1B, O-1, L-1, E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.).

Nice To Haves

Experience working in or modeling nutritional outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa
Familiarity with GBD methodology, DALY attribution, or burden of disease frameworks and their limitations in nutrition contexts
Experience linking nutritional epidemiology to infectious disease outcomes (e.g., TB, anemia, maternal and child health)
Background working at the intersection of nutrition and microbiome, immunology, or maternal health
Experience collaborating across disciplinary teams including computational modelers and global health program staff

Responsibilities

Lead a flagship analysis characterizing the burden, etiology, and geographic distribution of micronutrient and vitamin deficiency in priority geographies, identifying population-level hotspots where nutritional deficiency overlaps with high infectious disease burden — with an emphasis on settings where standard attribution approaches (e.g., GBD DALY estimates) may over- or under-estimate true impact
Integrate multi-source data — including biomarker-based surveillance (e.g., BRINDA, DHS, national micronutrient surveys, tissue & biobanks such as CHAMPS), dietary survey data, infectious disease prevalence data, and routine health system data — into a unified statistical framework that captures the complexity of nutritional deficiency across populations and life-course states
Apply a mechanistic understanding of how micronutrient status shapes host immunity, disease susceptibility, and intervention performance to contextualize epidemiological findings across pathogens (TB, malaria, HIV, diarrheal diseases, maternal and neonatal disorders, and vaccine-preventable infections such as measles)
Develop analytical frameworks to evaluate synergistic effects of multiple micronutrient deficiencies and their interaction with infectious disease, inflammatory state, and the performance of interventions such as fortification, supplementation, vaccines, and disease prophylaxis
Collaborate with IDM modelers to translate statistical findings into inputs for dynamic and transmission modeling frameworks.
Partner with Foundation program teams (Nutrition PST, MNCNH, TB/DTS) and external collaborators to ensure analyses are aligned with real-world programmatic decisions
Communicate findings clearly to diverse audiences including scientists, program officers, and Foundation leadership; contribute to peer-reviewed publications and internal strategy documents