The Program Officer (PO) – Postsecondary Delivery is a new role responsible for managing a grant portfolio focused on dramatically increasing completions and equity in U.S. higher education by scaling, with fidelity, evidence-based practices for improving student success. The PO will be responsible for managing current opportunities to develop a national infrastructure for scale in specific segments, and for identifying new opportunities to improve ecosystem effectiveness with states and across segments.
Areas of Responsibility:
The key responsibility of the PO - Postsecondary Delivery is to plan and manage a wide range of activities that enable high-profile higher education partners to execute on complex investments, including interdependent investments that involve multiple partners, that build national infrastructure for scale. This is an interim Limited Term Employee role as part of our parental leave program and targeted for 15 months starting in June 2018, however the start and end dates for this assignment may change.
Specifically, the Program Officer will:
- Support the full PS Delivery team in the synthesis of key findings related to partnership integration and system effectiveness; review and evaluate results from multiple fields to inform PS strategy approach and execution
- Identify and access partnerships and other resources from throughout the Higher Education ecosystem that will connect to and enable implementation effectiveness; build partner capacities for connectivity in a value chain; refine and enable workflow of key partners operating interdependently for impact at scale
- Develop complex investment opportunities; review letters of inquiry and grant proposals; establish learning and impact objectives; provide clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding
- Draft and edit proposal summaries for review by foundation leadership; guide and consult with PS team members regarding key partner due diligence, investment structures, and evaluation of progress against both learning and impact objectives; work closely with state-based Delivery PO to connect national to local infrastructure through cross-cutting investments
- Manage complex grant agreements, including external relationships with key partners in the PS strategy; draft and edit progress and final reports for existing investments; make recommendations based on learning and impact progress
- Consult with potential partners to explore investment opportunities; work closely with grantees to achieve desired objectives; conduct site visits, provide technical guidance, convene meetings, evaluate milestone-based performance
- Manage internal processes and portfolio progress while ensuring appropriate documentation, grant budgeting and reporting; work closely with PS colleagues to continuously improve operational efficiency and effectiveness
- Maintain highest standards of stakeholder engagement, including straightforward, open, and transparent interactions; establish extremely clear and consistent communications with external partners, internal team members, and foundation leadership
- Serve on external boards and working groups; exhibit strong negotiation and presentation skills; represent the foundation with stakeholders who may include public and private entities, grantee organizations, other funders, universities, think tanks, and government agencies
- Collaborate with foundation colleagues in related program areas to take advantage of cross-team and cross-sector investment; serve as point of contact on portfolio-related issues for internal team members focused on system efficiencies and interdependent workflows; lead and serve alongside PS colleagues in building an internal learning community that is unequivocally focused on student success
- Be available for travel up to 35%
Educational Background:
Bachelor’s or other advanced degree with 5+ years of experience, particularly in higher education, preferably with membership organizations or other college change networks.
Skills/Experience:
- Knowledge (preferably through direct experience) of public higher education systems
- Knowledge and skills related to institutional change processes (particularly past pilot level and into broader scale)
- Strong understanding of key student success concepts, particularly focused on practices that close opportunity gaps
- Strong analytical, writing and verbal skills for communicating with a broad and diverse audience
- Ability to absorb and quickly distill large amounts of information
- Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for understanding the complex challenges of scaling evidence-based practices
- Effective as a collaborator in complex internal and external organizations
- Extensive project contribution and management experience
- Takes direction well, continually and effectively incorporating feedback into work to address needs of the team and leadership
- Nimble and thoughtful while adapting to shifting priorities potentially at a rapid pace
- Able to provide counter opinions and novel viewpoints with a rigorous, constructive and diplomatic approach
- Practical, proven experience working in partnerships / collaborations
- Experience collecting / analyzing data or applying programmatic innovations at a state/system/regional/consortia levels
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
May 26 2018
Active Until:
Jun 26 2018
Hiring Organization:
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
industry:
Nonprofit