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

*This position is a limited-term position for 12 months. Relocation will not be provided.

The Gates Foundation’s global water, sanitation, and hygiene (WSH) vision is to enable widespread use of safely managed, sustainable sanitation services, contributing to positive health, economic, and gender equality outcomes for the world’s poorest. Unsafe sanitation is a massive problem that is becoming more urgent as our global population increases and trends like water scarcity and urbanization intensify. About 3.6 billion people—almost half the world’s population—either practice open defecation or use unsafe sanitation facilities and services.

The Gates Foundation WSH Team collaborates with government leaders, the private and civil sectors, and technologists to advance policies, service delivery models, and promising new toilet and waste treatment technologies with the greatest potential to improve sanitation conditions for underserved communities. We focus our grantmaking in three complementary areas: 1) advocacy to drive political will for improved sanitation and support for appropriate policies and institutional frameworks; 2) transforming how cities can provide sanitation as a reliable, inclusive and sustainable public service – led by our City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) initiative; and 3) developing and commercializing transformative sanitation technologies, led by our Transformative Technology & Commercialization (TTC) initiative.

Your Role

This Associate Strategy Officer (ASO) role will provide support for strategy development & refinement across all areas of the WSH team, with a particular focus on the TTC and CWIS initiatives. The ASO will work closely with WSH Senior Program Officers and Leadership to collect and synthesize key information, cultivate strategic insights, and design and build high quality qualitative and quantitative analyses and materials.

The successful candidate will be a fast learner, strong strategic problem solver, and possess exceptional collaboration skills. This role is a backfill position to cover a parental leave on the team, with a duration of 10 months targeting to begin November 2023.

What You’ll Do

• Alongside the WSH DDSPM, provides support to the WSH Director and WSH initiative leads in developing and sharpening their strategic plans with a high level of rigor, including refinement and documentation of strategy, initiative and portfolio level theories of change and action.
• Provide cross-cutting strategic support to DDs and SPOs on the TTC, CWIS, PAC and India initiatives to champion collaboration, ensure strategic alignment, and appropriate prioritization of partner’s time and attention.
• In conjunction with Senior Program Officers, support the development and refinement of Body of Work and Country strategies.
• Synthesize and analyze information conducted through desk research and other means to support learning for strategic decision making.
• Support the processes to define outcome and impact goals, metrics and indicators for the strategy and individual bodies of work, including design of tools to supervise progress and learning in strategy execution.
• Lead special projects and a small number of partner relationships as needed, under the mentorship of DDSPM or program staff.

Your Experience

• Confirmed strength in structured problem solving and strategic planning with the capability to identify and communicate frameworks to facilitate strategy refinement, analyze core issues, and increase clarity and visibility of decisions, trade-offs and impact on financial and organizational resources.
• Ability to effectively alternate between thinking strategically and performing at high quality.
• Demonstrated high degree of rigor and strong analytical skills; creative problem solver with a focus on achieving results.
• Strong teammate with excellent communication skills; strong ability to coordinate sophisticated projects; ability to collaborate across functions and geographies and transition projects to other colleagues effectively.
• Proven sophisticated project management skills and a successful track record of leading or running multiple projects simultaneously.
• Outstanding written and verbal communicator. Strong preparation and presentation of executive-level information.
• Ability to work independently, handle multiple priorities and timelines.
• Able to negotiate, persuade, and build coalitions without formal authority.
• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
• Dedication to foundation Diversity, Equity and Inclusion goals

Your Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or other relevant advanced degree beneficial
• 2-5 years experience at a management consulting firm or similar strategy development experience within a large philanthropy or global development organization
• Experience working in/with or traveling to Africa and/or South Asia strongly desired.
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector experience helpful but not required.

*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

The typical salary range for this role is $101,100 – $188,100 USD . The exact offer will be determined by a variety of factors such as the candidate’s individual skills, qualifications, and experience relative to the requirements of the role.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.