Senior Research Scientist, Eradication & Elimination (18-Month LTE)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation•Seattle, WA

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. 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. We seek a Senior Research Scientist (SRS) to develop innovative surveillance approaches and analytical pipelines for humanitarian and hard-to-reach settings, supporting eradication and elimination efforts for malaria, polio, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. This role will design strategies for building analytical pipelines that enable effective intervention delivery and data collection in fragile, conflict-affected, and last-mile geographies. The SRS will collaborate closely with researchers developing infectious disease models to identify opportunities for improved data sources, partnerships, and analyses, as well as to support integration across pathogens and within disaster response contexts. The candidate will also work across eradication and elimination teams, partnering with IDM colleagues to develop integrated modeling approaches across the portfolio. In addition, they will contribute to advancing computational and AI-driven tools and modeling frameworks that support disease elimination efforts and can be translated to endemic country programs, external partners, and regional Foundation offices. This is an 18-month limited-term position. Relocation will be provided. Application Deadline: April 10, 2026, at 11:59pm PDT

Requirements

PhD in epidemiology, biostatistics, computational biology, mathematical modeling, or a related field.
10+ years of experience in handling data and analytic considerations to support operational and logistical aspects of humanitarian crisis response.
Proven track record of building analytical pipelines with operational partners to inform decision making during disasters or other public health emergencies.
Proven track record of engagement with public health practitioners and academic research groups.
Strong analytical expertise with a preference for applications of AI and data science to operational and quantitative aspects of public health.
Ability to translate complex scientific results into actionable insights for non-technical audiences.
Experience working on collaborative projects, with significant software components.
Ability to initiate, organize, and manage research projects and clearly communicate analysis results to diverse audiences.
Attention to detail and high standard for quality of work product.
Eagerness to learn to communicate diverse and technical work to partners.
Demonstrated ability to work productively independently and as part of a team.
Must be highly inquisitive, self-motivated and results oriented.
Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Responsibilities

Design and lead end-to-end analytical approaches that specifically address high priority geographies that are hard-to-reach, difficult to access, or particularly challenging logistically, to improve surveillance and models that guide elimination and eradication of malaria and polio.
Coordinate efforts across IDM to bring operational realism within model frameworks that can optimize delivery and access in hotspot areas.
Incorporate novel, harmonized data streams into modeling frameworks across the E&E platform to improve mechanistic insight into factors such as human mobility and access to services within model scenario and service optimization plans.
Identify and lead collaborations across the IDM ecosystem and the Foundation to integrate data, surveillance strategies, and operational approaches to accelerate and optimize service delivery for the elimination and eradication of key pathogens.
Partner with internal teams and external collaborators (e.g., academic groups, global health organizations, product developers) to align analytical pipelines for geographies where routine health system operations are limited or challenging.
Engage with global health stakeholders to communicate findings and inform policy, analytical capacity requirements, and computational platform needs to inform decision making and implementation strategies.