Strategy Officer, India Country Office – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: that people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. By building a global and cultural workplace that supports greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — together with our employees and partners, we can help all people improve their lives from poverty and health to education. As an organization we offer full healthcare premiums coverage, generous paid time off, contribution to your retirement fund, several employee communities, and a commitment to embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do.

The Team

The Global Development Program includes a diverse range of program areas aimed at finding creative ways to ensure solutions and products get into the hands of people in low-income countries who need them most. We focus on areas with the potential for high-impact, sustainable solutions that can reach millions of people. Our program strategies include: Emergency Response; Family Planning; Maternal Newborn & Child Health; Nutrition; and Polio Eradication. A common theme across these programs is focus on innovative delivery, including an emphasis on strengthening primary health care systems. The Global Development Program also encompasses our India Country Office and Africa Team, with physical offices in Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, and Abuja. Our Program Strategy Teams work in close partnership with these Country Office Teams to align the foundation’s health and development equity agenda with the government’s broader priorities.

Our culture shapes our choices about what we do and how we do it. We believe that energized people, working well together, fueled by great leadership in an inclusive environment can do outstanding things. We expect foundation employees to intentionally and consistently embody our values of optimism, collaboration, rigor, innovation and inclusion.

Our efforts are aligned with India’s objectives of improving the lives of its people. Working closely with India’s Central and State governments, we partner with community groups, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, the private sector, and development organizations, to achieve our shared goals. Our strong networks and ability to convene intellectual resources from many sectors and regions allows us to address complex challenges as they emerge or evolve.

Our efforts in India focus on key issues that will affect the future of India’s most vulnerable communities: reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition; urban sanitation; agricultural development; gender equality, and digital financial inclusion (DFI).

With a particular focus on Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, we work with partners to develop impactful and sustainable solutions to improve the quality and coverage of key services for the poor and vulnerable. We also work in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Maharashtra to support programs in urban sanitation, agricultural development, gender equality, and DFI.

Your Role

Located in New Delhi, the Strategy Officer (SO), India Country Office will lead high-impact strategy projects in collaboration with program leadership and support the development and tracking of execution against approved strategy. The SO will work directly and often independently with executive sponsors of projects – Program Directors and Deputy Directors – and team members across all levels to inform and shape strategies. Potential projects span strategy development for current initiative areas; tracking and analyzing emerging global and national trends to inform portfolio strategies; leading on deliverables for foundation-level strategy reviews and annual planning; identification of thematic challenges and strategic options; strategic partnership support; facilitation of portfolio-level prioritization and trade-off discussions; making and managing investments to synthesize data and evidence used to inform strategies; and the strategic application of innovation to our work.

We are looking for a team member who enjoys working on complex problems and crafting strategies that have the potential to transform the lives of Indians across health, gender, financial services for the poor, agriculture, and water, sanitation & hygiene (WSH). They would enjoy working on cross-functional collaborative teams that bring joy and optimism to the job and like to have fun.

What You’ll Do

• Lead projects that develop strategies and/or strategic recommendations for defined areas of work.
• Lead development of materials to drive project execution – e.g., analyses, project plans, meeting materials, strategic narratives, theories of change/action, decision roadmaps, results frameworks etc; design and perform analytical work in support of strategy development and execution planning process.
• Provide project management and analytical support to cross-cutting strategy projects.
• Manage strategy development process with a customer-focus orientation, effective communication, and emphasis on relationship management; customer / client management experience preferred.
• Facilitate discussions with internal team, external experts, and other global health/development partners.
• Employ strategic tools and frameworks, and a learning and evaluation approach to develop and assess options, ensure logical reasoning, and challenge assumptions.
• Collaborate with programmatic and business/operations staff to design overall process for strategy development; participate in the development and use of tools to facilitate strategy development and processes associated with budgeting, portfolio management, and other areas as needed.
• Support the strategy execution planning process focused on enabling program teams to align investments, staff resources and voice/influence necessary to implement their strategies and achieve their impact goals.
• Bring creative solutions to manage group process – e.g., to manage conflict and drive alignment.
• Develop, implement, and manage external partnerships and relationships as required for specific projects.
• Lead on making and managing grants/contracts to partners who will analyze, structure or synthesize data and information in areas of our interest.
• Participate in foundation-wide activities (e.g., learning sessions, all staff meetings, performance reviews).
• Commitment to the foundation’s core values, mission, and programs with an approach that is consistent with the foundation’s guiding principles and holding self to the highest ethical standards.

This position reports to the Senior Strategy Officer, Strategy Planning & Management.

Your Experience

• MBA or other advanced degree in a relevant field such as Business, Health, or Sciences required.
• A minimum of five+ years of professional experience preferably in consulting / strategic planning roles.
• Prior experience spanning both the development sector and the private sector is highly desirable.
• Deep knowledge of strategy development and end-to-end complex project management (including process design, team structure, critical thinking requirements, development of novel communication resources and senior partner engagement).
• Broad understanding of global health/development issues and prior global health/development experience is preferable.
• Broad understanding of the Indian public policy landscape and key stakeholders.
• Excellent oral, facilitation, and written communication skills.
• Proven ability to function successfully in a demanding environment; experience working in a matrix environment preferred.
• Excellent quantitative/financial knowledge, including experience creating complex models, with a demonstrated ability to extract appropriate data to convey complex information through the use of supporting tables, graphs and other visual representations.
• Excellent organizational skills and consistent track record of leading teams through a complex and ambiguous task.
• Ability to be independent and work effectively and with sensitivity across barriers such as language, culture and distance.
• Excellent software skills with Microsoft Office applications. Ability to quickly learn new software modules.

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.

Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request to hr@gatesfoundation.org.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of 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.