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Senior Advisor, Discovery & Translational Sciences

This job is no longer available

Los Angeles, California, United States
Full-time

The Discovery & Translational Sciences (D&TS) team is currently recruiting a Senior Advisor to support the D&TS Director and team in achieving its impact goals by providing scientific and strategic advice on the execution of its strategies through the Foundation’s highly matrixed organization. 

Areas of Responsibility: 

HIV Cure:

  • Desire to develop a proposal for strategic engagement of the foundation in the development of an HIV cure. This may include outline the value proposition for the foundation’s involvement and the initial steps the foundation could take to de-risk the discovery and development of HIV cure therapeutics; with a goal of scalable and affordable interventions for resource-limited settings.
  • Reevaluate economics of cure versus treatment in resource-limited areas of the world (e.g., with existing program strategy team (PST) modeling partners/investments, updating and elaborating upon the previous analysis of Phillips et al JID 214:73, 2016)
  • Assess current status of cure programs funded by NIH, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and the International AIDS Society.
  • Partner with NIH and others to organize a second Sunnylands/Annenberg retreat on HIV cure. This one focused specifically on development and delivery of interventions for resource-limited areas of the world.
  • Define the unique contribution that the foundation could make to discovery and development of a cure for HIV.

TB Biology, Vaccines and Host-Direct Therapies (HDT):

Provide thought partnership to the TB PST on their strategy refresh:

  • Assimilate past, current, and future internal and external work plans for a TB vaccine and host-directed therapies against TB.
  • Given foundation assumptions of the program as well as new “signals” in the TB vaccine space (i.e., CMV vaccine and IV BCG), serve as an advisor/thought partner in ongoing discussions about future directions.
  • Contribute to foundation knowledge capture, evaluation, learning, and dissemination.

Represent the foundation and program to both internal and external audiences related to position responsibilities:

  • Provide advice to key foundation partners, including participation in strategic meetings, committees and boards; including representing the foundation in public events, forums and meetings.
  • Provide briefings to educate the staff on program related issues.
  • Represent foundation interests in building networks for the program.
Educational Background: 
The ideal candidate should have an MD, MD-PhD or PhD.
Skills/Experience: 

The ideal candidate should have an MD, MD-PhD or PhD with deep knowledge and experience in fields related to TB eradication:

  • Microbiology, Immunology, Pathology, etc.
  • Infectious disease research, preferably in tuberculosis.
  • Minimum 10 years of experience working in relevant field.

Additionally, s/he will have:

  • Experience in a role requiring collaboration as well as a demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency and diplomacy both individually and as part of a complex team effort; ability to work in a cooperative and collegial fashion.
  • Demonstrated ability to successfully assemble, coordinate, and manage complex inter-group collaborations and partnerships, guiding such programs to meet programmatic and strategic goals.
  • Demonstrated outstanding written and oral communication skills in positions requiring communications in a broad and diverse audience on a range of complex technical issues.
  • Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills with the ability to solve problems with energy and positive attitude.
  • Solid understanding of the realities and complexities of matrix based organizations.
  • Ability and willingness to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.
  • A sense of humor.
  • Demonstrated passion for the foundation’s values with a commitment to deliver results against the foundation’s mission.

Organization Info

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Overview
Headquarters: 
Seattle, WA, United States
Annual Budget : 
More than $500M
Founded: 
2007
About Us
Mission: 

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, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

We work with partner organizations worldwide to tackle critical problems in four program areas. Our Global Development Division works to help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. Our Global Health Division aims to harness advances in science and technology to save lives in developing countries. Our United States Division works to improve U.S. high school and postsecondary education and support vulnerable children and families in Washington State. And our Global Policy & Advocacy Division seeks to build strategic relationships and promote policies that will help advance our work. Our approach to grantmaking in all four areas emphasizes collaboration, innovation, risk-taking, and, most importantly, results.

Programs: 
  1. Global Health
  2. Global Development
  3. United States
  4. Global Policy & Advocacy

Listing Stats

Post Date: 
Mar 5 2018
Active Until: 
Apr 5 2018
Hiring Organization: 
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
industry: 
Nonprofit