The Strategy Officer will lead critical strategy projects in within the foundation, while managing 1-2 associates on the central strategy team. The SO will help design high quality qualitative and quantitative analyses, elevate key insights, communicate those insights with senior foundation partners, and engage in ongoing project and client management.
- Lead strategy development:
- Lead scoping and design of overall strategy development and act as day-to-day manager of strategy development
- Liaise closely with internal clients to co-develop and test strategy concepts, and facilitate change management
- Bring a customer-focused skillset of effective communication and relationship management to partner engagement
- Support the implementation of creative solutions to guide group processes (e.g. managing conflict and encouraging alignment).
- Contribute to the identification and implementation of research and analytical work to support decision-making, including quantitative analyses
- Provide recommendations to improve overall foundation strategic planning and management process based upon experience supporting teams.
- Contribute and participate in ongoing improvement of the Strategy team including overall vision, brand, staffing composition, operational processes, performance development, etc.
- Provide project management, problem-solving support, and initiative leadership on cross-foundational strategy projects
- Regularly contribute to team developing “extra 10s” such as team vision and goal refinement, professional development, training, recruiting, onboarding, team social events and retreats, etc.
- Participate in foundation-wide activities (e.g., learning sessions, all staff meetings, performance reviews)
Representative Project Examples
- End-to-end support in scoping, developing, and launching new foundation strategies. Past examples include Global Education and Gender Equality.
- End-to-end support to programmatic Directors and their leadership teams as they revise foundation strategies (“strategy refreshes”). Past examples include Malaria, Family Planning, MNCH, Nutrition, Philanthropic Partnerships, K-12 Education, and others.
- Spearheading cross-cutting foundation strategy initiatives sponsored by the foundation’s Executive Leadership Team. Examples include:
- Developing a strategy taxonomy to enable consistent development and articulation of strategy across program teams
- Facilitating cross-team exploration of new technological tools (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning) on development topics
We are a close-knit team that places a significant emphasis on maintaining and growing our positive, humble, and intellectually curious culture. We believe that small teams groups of deeply committed team members can do phenomenal things. We encourage debate and discussion of tough issues, and are committed to the success of our clients. We invest proactively in each other’s personal and professional growth and look for candidates who are similarly intentional about developing themselves and those around them.
Core Knowledge and Skills
We are looking for team members who enjoy working on complex problems and collaboratively crafting strategies that have the potential to transform the lives of people around the world. You are an excellent team player who is excited to work across a diverse set of disciplines and issue areas.
We seek experienced professionals with at least 5+ years of progressive experience, preferably with some experience leading projects at a top tier strategy consulting firm. Additional knowledge and skills desired include:
- Ability to learn new content quickly, identify connections and second-order implications and demonstrate proficiency with internal/external teams.
- Demonstrated strength in structured problem solving and strategic business planning, with the ability to easily identify and communicate frameworks to facilitate strategy creation and analyze core issues
- 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 external/senior partner engagement).
- Ability to work in a self-guided manner, manage multiple priorities and to demanding timelines.
- Ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners in constructive manner.
- Accustomed to highly unstructured and ambiguous situations; ability to actively resolve.
- Excellent organizational, facilitation, oral, and written communication skills. Ability to work effectively and with sensitivity across barriers such as language, culture and distance. Excellent listening skills and compassion.
- Excellent software skills with Microsoft Office applications, including a demonstrated ability to convey complex information using supporting tables, graphs and other visual representations. Knowledge and fluency in Stata or another statistical program is useful.
- Broad understanding of global health/development issues and some global health/development experience is preferable.
- 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.