Senior Program Coordinator – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Application deadline 24th March 2023

Bill & Melinda Gates 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

The India Country Office (ICO) business team cluster works on behalf of the organization to ensure a robust country strategy, effective and efficient planning and management of program portfolios, and dynamic learning and adaptation to achieve goals in a sustainable manner. To this end, the cluster supports strategy development and reviews, implements fit-for-purpose business and portfolio performance management systems and processes. The cluster also provides efficient, timely, and predictable administrative support and promotes strong collaboration within and across foundation teams and external partners.

Your Role

The Senior Program Coordinator (Sr PC) is responsible for coordination, implementation and maintenance of a range of projects and activities in support of the life cycle of grants and contracts. This role may manage a portfolio of investments including grants, contracts, program related investments and other projects in support of programmatic strategic goals. The Sr PC may provide budget oversight and planning, financial analysis, financial reporting, and/or portfolio and operations process management. This position will act as a primary support for grantee and vendor initiation, reporting and closure. Additionally, the Sr PC will serve as liaison across multiple internal teams and be responsible for special projects as requested.

The Senior Program Coordinator role is driven by a business need for higher capabilities and may additionally be responsible for documentation and knowledge management, tracking and management of program onboarding plans and assist the program manager in business process trainings, Rhythm of Business development and coordination with global PC teams.

The position will report to Senior Program Manager, Strategy, Planning and Management.

What You’ll Do

Project Management (Investment Management): Coordinate the end-to-end investment making processes (e.g. managing key investment deadlines, tracking of invoicing and deliverables, receipt of required reports and monitoring expenditures, reviewing reports, including grant summaries and analysis) with internal collaborators (Program Officers and Business Partners) and external partners (grantees and vendors) within the internal systems.

• Financial Planning & Analysis: Manage data for all investments in multiple databases and SharePoint sites.
• Provide detailed financial analysis and ensure data integrity to support strategy planning and management (SPM) team’s and India Country Office’s (ICO) financial decision making. Work with Program Manager and
• Program Officers to keep all pertinent information accurate and up to-date for reporting and analysis.
• Serves as point-person for Program Officers regarding budget targets and individual investment portfolio management.
• Strategy support: Work on special team projects, strategic as well as operational, as needed, usually related to investment making or supporting the efficiency of India Country Office (ICO) processes. Identify areas for process improvement and make recommendations. Support SPM team for strategy reviews, strategic planning, learning sessions, onboarding of new hires, all staff interactions etc.
• Works closely with investment makers to develop, run, and maintain a portfolio of investments. This may include advising on investment structure, ensuring compliance with foundation processes, maintaining internal systems, initial investment due diligence, and timeline management.
• Collaborates with business partners, grantees and vendors throughout the investment lifecycle to lead investments through internal and external processes. Collects portfolio data, identifies trends and communicates issues to program team.
• Plans and participates in cross-foundation and cross-program projects as appropriate. Areas of involvement may include Investment Workflow, IT, Finance, HR, and others.
• Assists program team with annual pipeline planning process.
• Acts as subject matter expert on processes, tools, systems and templates and provides training, ongoing coaching and process change support to program team and external partners to ensure successful adoption and sustained use.
• Leads management of SPM SharePoint and document management.
• Leads a minimum of one business team project annually.
• Manages Program onboarding plans and assists Program Manager on trainings.
• Collaborates with global Sr PCs and participates in global process improvement projects.

Your Experience

• Bachelor’s or equivalent degree with 5+ years of experience. Master’s in business administration or equivalent is preferred.
• Project management, portfolio management, program management, financial management, financial reporting, non-profit or related industry, and/or business experience is preferred.
• Knowledge of budgeting, financial analysis and synthesis.
• Understands basic investment rules, regulations, policies, processes and practices and can advise when they are applicable. Is an expert in all phases of investment-making, and engages partners and decision-makers, as needed.
• Ability to analyze data across multiple tools and databases.
• Ability to work independently and as part of an integrated, diverse team and be comfortable in multiple, high varied settings, and tight deadlines with different work and learning styles.
• Ability to run multiple and competing demands and establish priorities.
• Able to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a fast-paced, challenging environment.  Open to rapid change and able to learn new things quickly. Able to distill what is needed next, even without expertise in programmatic content.
• Recognizes complexity and assesses risks and alternatives in light of competing requirements and incomplete knowledge.
• Demonstrated expertise in Project management and ability to handle higher volume or complex portfolios.
• Demonstrates expert knowledge of, and ability to work across multiple investment-making systems, based in Access, Excel, SharePoint, and other web-based software applications. Basic SharePoint site administration skills, including metadata tagging, document view creation, archiving, and creating and maintaining confidential files.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively mentor/train more junior Program Coordinators.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Excellent organization skills and attention to detail, deadlines and policy compliance.
• Demonstrates effectiveness influencing individuals and teams without explicit authority.
• Ability to effectively communicate with external partners.

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

Hiring Requirements

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

Depending upon your work location, we may require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and any recommended booster doses. All employees based in the United States are to provide proof of full vaccination upon hire and any recommended boosters, subject to applicable laws.

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.