Senior Program Officer - Global Development

Division U.S. Program
Department Policy and Advocacy
Location Seattle

Foundation Overview
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people-especially those with the fewest resources-have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

Group Summary
The US Program Advocacy and Policy Team works to advance the Foundation's US Program goals, with a particular focus on developing policy, finance and issue advocacy strategies and grants to support the scaling and sustainability of the Foundation's work in K-12 Education, Post Secondary Success, US Libraries, and the Pacific Northwest.
Responsibilities
The Senior Program Officer, Post-Secondary Policy Development will work with the US Program Advocacy and Policy Team and will guide the foundation's investments in its policy work. In this capacity, the Senior Program Officer will drive a set of strategies that support the development of postsecondary policies that contribute to dramatic improvement in post-secondary credit accumulation by the end of a student's second semester.

Responsibilities will include:

- Develop grants and partnerships to support policies that stimulate innovation and improvement of developmental education, alignment of secondary and post-secondary college readiness determinations, competency-based course progression, early credit accumulation, credit transfer, and effective use of state and federal financial resources.

- Provide strategic policy and advocacy thought partnership to the Postsecondary Success team and subject matter policy expertise to the Advocacy team.

- · Review, refine and align an existing portfolio of relationships, grants and approaches to optimize resources and results.

- Prospect for new grant opportunities, analyzing their feasibility, shaping specific opportunities, presenting recommendations internally, and negotiating grant agreements.

- Manage internal processes and portfolio progress, while ensuring appropriate documentation, grant budgeting and reporting in support of both the US Program Advocacy and Policy and Postsecondary Success Deputy Directors.

- Collaborate with US Program Advocacy and Policy colleagues to track program, resource and public opinion shifts on key education issues related to the foundation's credential completion agenda and develop responsive grant strategies to maximize opportunities and minimize risks.

- Write informative briefings and other materials on key issues for the US Program Advocacy and Policy leadership team and foundation leadership, in consultation with US Program Advocacy and Policy and Postsecondary Success Deputy Directors as appropriate.

- Provide strategic thought partnership to critical federal, state and multi-state grantees on policy issues related to Postsecondary Success. These grantees may be in the SPO's grant portfolio or may sit elsewhere on the US Program Advocacy and Policy and Postsecondary Success teams.

- Represent the foundation to the public: bringing together disparate and influential individuals and groups; mobilizing them to take action on complex and highly visible problems; navigating and negotiating in highly charged situations.

- Ensure effective relationships with key stakeholders inside and outside the foundation, including the foundation's programmatic teams, business partners, grantees, vendors, and others.

- · Develop policy related to the community level work that will be advocated for at the state and national levels.

- Independently, and in consultation with colleagues, envisioning and conceptualizing complex investment opportunities and design all of the components; develop new approaches, strategic partnerships, collaborations and implementation plans to ensure long term sustainability and impact, including building external capacity to accomplish initiatives.

- Develop actionable milestones and metrics for individual grants and for portfolio in line with dashboards established by the US Program Advocacy and Policy and Postsecondary Success teams and consider the role of research and evaluation in the development of investments.


Qualifications
- Prior experience operating at the state policy level and, preferably, also at the federal level.

- Significant experience with state and federal policies affecting developmental education reform.

- Significant experience and familiarity with institutional practices and state policy relevant to placement and course construction, including state policies relating to secondary college readiness standards.

- Experience in fiscal analysis and budgeting.

- Experience with policies and strategies, including finance policies and strategies, .

- Experience with institutional and state transfer and articulation policies.

- An experienced leader with a minimum of 10 years experience.

- An advanced degree in a relevant discipline or equivalent work experience required.

- Demonstrated ability to target critical business problems and apply appropriate decision making/technology/methodologies.

- Extensive project contribution and management experience and an ability to effectively prioritize projects, completing in a timely manner with outstanding attention to detail.

- Must be able to take rough concepts and develop concrete work plans, listen and understand issues from a number of perspectives so that communications sent out are clearly and thoughtfully articulated.

- Exceptional analytical, organizational and communication skills in positions requiring communication with a broad and diverse audience at all levels of the organization.

- Must be skilled in group problem solving and working to resolve problems with complex concepts in a dynamic setting.

- Must possess strong judgment with a demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks with competing priorities. Ability to manage confidential information and situations with efficiency, flexibility, diplomacy, while cultivating trust within the team.

- Superior writing and presentation skills with extensive use of tools within the Microsoft office suite.

Reports to: Deputy Director, Policy Development, US Program Advocacy & Policy

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a comprehensive background check.


Requisition Number 2632BR

Nearest Major Market: Seattle
Job Segments: Education, Global Health, Government, Healthcare, Management, NGO, Nonprofit, Not for Profit, Philanthropic, Philanthropy, Program Manager, Public Health, Public Policy, Research

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