As the Senior Program Officer you will partner with the director on strategy development across all program initiatives as well as lead team’s investments on Work and Opportunity.
Areas of Responsibility:
Strategy Development:
- Partner with the director on overall strategy and execution of the program to achieve impact. This will include working with the director to lead a strategy development process for team that builds and applies robust insight to deliver impact in a fast-changing environment.
- Collaborate with the director to lead the Work and Opportunity initiative and, with associated team members, to scope, develop, manage, measure, learn from an evolve all related investments. This will include managing, resourcing, implementing, and continually improving a Work and Opportunity program that delivers outcomes, drives insights for the field and the foundation, aligns with foundation strategy, and is operationally integrated with other foundation programs.
- Develop and apply processes to prioritize among a quickly evolving set of opportunities in a way that is aligned with program strategy.
- Partner with director and senior officer on coordination of team process for developing content for annual program reviews with leadership.
- Help represent strategy and investment portfolios to leadership.
Make and Manage Investments:
- Consult with grantees and other partners to generate creative and high impact projects and ensure grants are meeting outcome goals. This may include: site visits, providing operational guidance and convening meetings of key stakeholders.
- Build relationships/connections and approaches to engaging the field (e.g. scholars, practitioners, community voice) that will enable efficient landscaping of investment opportunities linked to pillars of strategy.
- Represent the team and foundation to key program-related internal and external constituencies, as appropriate, on committees related to area of expertise and responsibilities of the position.
- Review letters of inquiry and grant proposals; provide clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding, including drafting and editing proposal summaries and progress reports for review by foundation leadership.
- Manage internal processes and portfolio progress while ensuring appropriate documentation, grant budgeting and reporting. Improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.
Team Building/Management:
- Help cultivate an inclusive, welcoming team culture.
- Serve as an effective manager, which includes providing coaching on strategic analysis and development through direct reporting lines and an engaged mentor across reporting lines.
- Works with director to help ensure consistent approach to strategy development and analysis across portfolios.
Skills/Experience:
- Prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion and acts on these priorities by fostering diverse, equitable and inclusive practices to create a work environment where everyone can do their best work in contributing towards our impact.
- Seeks input from and values the uniqueness of people of different groups and cultures.
- Challenges practices or policies that may be exclusionary.
- Skilled at building relationships through diplomacy and tact.
- Some experience working on issues of mobility and poverty or related areas (e.g. workforce initiatives; worker organizations; community and economic development) in the United States.
- Experience working independently and collaboratively to build and launch new initiatives, including ability and judgment to balance rigor with flexibility as new challenges, insights and opportunities arise.
- Demonstrated competency in effective people leadership and building high-performing teams.
- Proven ability to lead and influence others in a constructive and inclusive manner; and to build and sustain collaborative relationships.
- Highly-skilled in relationship development; experience working with high-level/senior leaders.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to effectively synthesize information to reach diverse audiences and build consensus.
- Demonstrated curiosity and ability to learn quickly and effectively apply new insights and knowledge.
- Strong strategic, creative and critical thinking skills using a diverse set of approaches and sources of insight (e.g. experience of individuals in poverty) and data.
- Ability to lead quantitative and qualitative analyses in ambiguous areas that inform strategy and decision-making.
- Called to action by solutions that seek to address systemic barriers to opportunity.
- Culture contributor: can endorse, model, and reinforce creation of the team’s culture in the areas of developing trust, showing respect, being transparent, and creating energy.
- Team player.
- 10+ years of related experience, or equivalent experience.
- Familiarity and comfort with economic and public policy around issues of poverty and economic mobility - required
- Experience working on dimensions of poverty and barriers to opportunity within the U.S. - required
- Experience designing, developing, and changing strategy based on new insights and opportunities, around large-scale, complex problems - required
- Experience connecting to/working within communities, the private sector, or the public sector on addressing systemic barriers to opportunity - required
- Quantitative skills/familiarity with economic analysis - strongly preferred.
- Experience and comfort leading programs in a startup environment - preferred
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
Jul 16 2019
Active Until:
Aug 16 2019
Hiring Organization:
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
industry:
Nonprofit