As Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning and Management (DDSPM), you will support the Director and GE team in achieving its impact goals by leading the strategic, financial and operational aspects of the program work. You will bring complimentary strategic and investment acumen to the technical expertise of the team to assist in defining program strategy and portfolio, initiative and investment-level decision making including the development of strategy execution plans. You will lead annual planning and reporting cycle processes for the GE team, including framing and analysis on issues and investments central to strategy and implementation, ongoing pipeline and portfolio management, business analysis and the coordination of business strategies to work the team manages directly (e.g. Women’s Empowerment Collectives and Gender Data) as well as to the work the team partners on with others (e.g. Women’s Financial Inclusion and Market Inclusion). You will serve as an advisor to the GE team’s program leadership, and lead on process improvements, policies and procedures that support the strengthening of team effectiveness, communications and culture development.
Strategy and Body of Work Definition
- Work with Director and team to define and clearly articulate the GE program strategy, Bodies of Work (BoW), and investment priorities. Ensure that these are supported by team and initiative structures.
- Partner with Deputy Directors to develop sub-initiative strategies, execution plans and ensure effective strategy prioritization & refinement.
- Ensure overall prioritization of activities needed to plan, implement and achieve the strategic plan are aligned and additive.
- Lead or co-lead complex strategic projects that are cross-functional in nature.
Strategy Implementation and Operations
- Drive alignment of team's work to strategy and implementation plans; including the development of processes and/or instruments to ensure alignment of activities with strategy results.
- Lead the annual strategy review process and articulation of strategic priorities; including the process to define and assess GE BoW. Ensure that strategy review materials effectively portray and support the continuation and/or refinement of the GE program.
- Develop and execute a portfolio management approach that fosters effective stewardship, strategic planning and resource allocation. Cultivate insights to communicate portfolio allocation and progress.
- Responsible for framing GE program progress including working with the data team to define strategy metrics, progress metrics and setting of targets and goals for overall GE program and portfolio. Continuously refine data, metrics and models.
- Accountable for strategy hierarchy; including developing and implementing process improvements and other efforts.
- Oversee overall rhythm of business across the GE team; including cross-team communication.
- Provide overall alignment of grantee partner engagement with program priorities. Ensure that partner feedback and learning supports the team’s grant development process. Provide feedback and advisory support to initiative teams on development and administration of major grants.
- Advise Director and program team on business-related decisions; including the identification and assessment of key portfolio risks and the development and management of mitigation and/or contingency plans at the portfolio level.
- Planning and management of co-chair meetings, defining meeting objectives, content development, stakeholder engagement, and after-action review to track and institutionalize learning.
Strategy, Planning & Management Team Guidance
Currently, the Strategy, Planning & Management (SPM) team is a shared resource across multiple teams. As the GE portfolio grows over time, there is the potential to directly manage a small SPM team.
- Guide the shared business team (Program Manager and/or Program Coordinator) to support the activities needed to plan, implement and achieve our strategic plan. This will include ensuring effective onboarding, communicating clear performance expectations, creating goal alignment, integrating project and change management activities, giving and seeking feedback, providing coaching, measuring progress and holding people accountable, supporting employee development, and recognizing achievement and lessons learned.
- Actively manage extended SPM relationships across the foundation (e.g. with Finance, Grants & Contracts, and Legal).
Trusted Advisor to Director and GE Leadership Team
- Act as an advisor to program leadership and co-lead the GE leadership team to ensure the team is high-functioning and that process improvements, policies and/or procedures support and promote strengthening of team effectiveness, communications, culture and performance.
- Given the matrixed nature of our work, develop a rhythm of business and associated modalities that enable clarity in communication, collaboration and synergies across the core gender teams within the Global Growth and Opportunity division and foundation country offices.
- Play a leadership role in the design of the GE team’s organization structure, promotion of culture and values, and facilitation of team retreats and cross-organization collaboration. Monitor and manage succession planning, team performance and development.
- Act as a “sounding board” and thought partner to the Director on a broad set of topics impacting the overall management of the team (e.g., program and partner strategy, HR and team fulfillment, management issues, addressing division and broader foundation requests, partnerships across program strategy teams, etc.) and team effectiveness (e.g., communications, collaboration, team culture).
Cross-Division and Foundation Continuous Improvement
- Actively engage with the foundation DDSPM community and support continuous improvement and change management initiatives.
- Participate, where appropriate, on foundation-wide projects representing the GE program perspective.
- Cultivate innovation and support simplification of processes.
We believe that energized people, working well together, fueled by great leadership in an inclusive environment in which they thrive, will do phenomenal things.
We are looking for someone who enjoys the opportunity of working on complex problems and building solutions that have the potential for transformational change in the lives of low-income women and girls around the world. We seek a creative, dedicated professional who has an outstanding portfolio of accomplishments in roles of increasing responsibility and leadership. You will have deep knowledge of strategy development and implementation and experience with the design of performance management system(s) of goals, targets and monitoring processes. You must be prepared to work across a diverse set of disciplines, bridging a wide range of expertise all the while being a team player, with a demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency and diplomacy in an exciting, challenging environment.
Additional skills and experience desired include:
- Deep knowledge of strategy development and implementation, design of performance management systems of goals, targets and monitoring process.
- Demonstrated strength in systems thinking, structured problem solving and strategic business planning, with the ability to synthesize disparate information and critically analyze development challenges.
- Skilled at growing teams through maturity stages (e.g. start-up to establishment). Excellent people management and team building skills including a “coach” mindset with demonstrated ability to indirectly leverage human resources and to guide teams to effectively achieve clear, yet complex goals and objectives.
- Skilled in group problem solving and collaboration to resolve problems with complex concepts in a dynamic setting.
- Adept at project management, including critical path thinking, detail orientation, setting priorities and planning.; particularly in a resource-constrained setting. Ability not only to establish priorities but also to adhere to priorities in a thoughtful way.
- Track record of managing in a resource-limited environment; experience in setting and adhering to priorities in a smart way
- Excellent communicator, always seeking information pertinent to the issues being dealt with in the program, on the team, and/or across the foundation.
- Proficiency in working effectively with decision makers as it pertains to strategy development and operations.
- Deep financial knowledge, including the ability to use or create complex financial models and effectively communicate data and results to inform sound strategic and tactical decisions.
- Ability to fluidly switch from strategic to tactical tasks.
- A highly-cultivated sense of resilience. Ability to accept and recover from setbacks, adapt well to change, and drive forward in the face of adversity.
- A hands-on, team-oriented leadership style with the ability to be flexible and adjust to changing circumstances.
- Knowledge and experience in gender equality program and strategy design preferred.
- Advanced degree and a minimum of 10+ years’ experience in international development, international business strategy, business development; including experience with negotiations with collaborators. Experience in and/or familiarity with our focus geographies helpful (e.g. India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda).
- Commitment to the foundation’s core values, mission and programs with an approach that is consistent with the foundation’s guiding principles while holding oneself to the highest ethical standards.