The Strategy, Innovation, and Impact group is the primary function supporting the creation and evaluation of our strategies, as well as exploring new paths to impact that align with our mission. This includes supporting the CEO, CFO and Chief Strategy Officer in key accountabilities that include responsibility for governance of the organization, overseeing strategy development, strategy performance measurement, portfolio management, exploring special initiatives and in managing relationships both internally and externally. The Strategy team is one of two key pillars of the Strategy, Innovation, and Impact group, alongside Measurement & Evaluation.
Located in Seattle, WA, the Associate Strategy Officer will report to the Deputy Director, Strategy. On a project by project basis, this person will report into other Strategy Team members (Strategy Officers and Senior Strategy Officers).
The Associate Strategy Officer (ASO) supports critical strategy projects within the foundation. Working within a team structure, ASOs execute high quality qualitative and quantitative analyses, synthesize key insights, and communicate those insights with senior foundation stakeholders.
More detailed responsibilities include:
- Support strategy development process:
- Participate in the design of the overall process for strategy development
- Support Senior Strategy Officers (SSO) or Strategy Officers (SO) with the day-to-day management of the strategic process and be responsible for catalyzing discrete bodies of work
- Develop materials to facilitate project implementation – e.g. analyses, project plans, meeting materials, ultimate strategy document outputs
- Contribute and participate in discussions with internal team, external experts, and other partners
- Employ strategic resources to develop and assess options, ensure reasonable reasoning, and challenge assumptions
- Support strategy development process with a customer-focus orientation (e.g. effective communication and relationship management skills)
- Support the implementation of creative solutions to manage group processes (e.g. managing conflict and encouraging alignment).
- Perform research and problem-solving work in support of the strategy development and execution planning processes:
- Contribute to the identification and design of required research and analytical work
- Research and analyze data to support resolution-making, including statistical analysis and working with third party resources to develop analytical methodologies and analyze results (e.g. collating information required from economic literature and existing public databases)
- Participate in the development and use of resources to facilitate strategy development and processes associated with budgeting, portfolio management, and other areas as needed.
- Contribute to knowledge management processes and tools for the Strategy team.
- Provide project management and analytical support to cross-cutting strategy projects.
- Contribute and participate in team building activities such as team vision and goal refinement, professional development, training, recruiting, onboarding, broader Foundation Strategy community of practice, team social events and retreats, etc.
- Participate in foundation-wide activities (e.g., learning sessions, all staff meetings, performance reviews).
We are looking for people who enjoy the opportunity of working on complex problems and collaboratively creating solutions that have the potential for transformational change in the lives of people around the world. They must be prepared to work across a diverse set of disciplines, bridging a wide range of expertise all the while being an excellent team player, with a demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a fast-paced, exciting environment.
We seek an experienced professional with three years’ experience; preferably with at least two years’ experience gained in strategic planning functions preferably at a top tier strategy consulting firm. Additional knowledge and skills desired include:
- Broad understanding of global health/development issues and some global health/development experience is preferable.
- Ability to learn new content quickly, identify connections and second-order implications and demonstrate competence with internal/external teams.
- Some experience with strategy execution, measurement, review and adjustment is preferable.
- Deep knowledge of strategy development and end-to-end complex project management (including process design, team structure, analytical requirements, development of novel communication tools and external/senior stakeholder engagement).
- Demonstrated strength in structured problem solving and strategic business planning, with the ability to easily identify and communicate framework to analyze issue.
- Demonstrated ability to bring new frameworks and tools to facilitate strategy development process.
- Ability to work in a self-guided manner, care for multiple priorities and to demanding timelines.
- Experience in a role requiring collaboration (both internal and external) as well as an excellent understanding of the realities and complexities of working within and effectively managing projects within a complex matrixed environment.
- Experience with supporting overall leadership and direction to varied consulting projects to assure the quality of content and interaction with client – as well as motivating team performance and productivity.
- Ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners in constructive manner.
- Comfortable with highly unstructured and ambiguous situations; ability to proactively resolve.
- 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, facilitation, oral, and written communication skills.
- Ability to function successfully in a politically demanding environment.
- Ability to work effectively and with sensitivity across barriers such as language, culture and distance. Excellent listening skills and empathy.
- Excellent software skills with Microsoft Office applications. Ability to quickly learn new software modules. Knowledge and fluency in Stata or other statistical program is useful.
- Ability to travel up to 20% domestically and internationally.
- A sense of humor.
- 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.