Senior Manager, Strategy & Implementation Management

Seattle, WA

Washington, DC

Full time

B021839

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The Philanthropic Partnerships team (PPT) works to mobilize resources and build the next generation of champions for global health and development (GH&D), ensuring that philanthropy helps the world’s most vulnerable children survive and thrive. Alongside this, we help advance philanthropy and grow giving around the world, strengthening the broader philanthropic ecosystem through issue agnostic communities such as The Giving Pledge.

Our strategy is designed to close the gap between intent and action, ensuring philanthropy supports lasting change. We engage with ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI), corporate and private foundations, philanthropic collaboratives, advisors, family offices, and social impact investors — through initiatives such as Gates Philanthropy Partners, Proponent Labs, and others that enhance the infrastructure for GH&D giving.

Over the next five years, the majority of our work will focus on mobilizing resources for GH&D priorities, including: expanding our approaches and partnerships to unlock more capital; growing our work across global regions; and cultivating the next generation of GH&D champions - while continuing to strengthen philanthropic ecosystems and grow giving globally.

Your RoleThe Senior Manager enables the Philanthropic Partnerships Team to translate strategic vision into practical and coordinated execution across seven global markets: North America, India, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. This role sits within the Strategy, Planning & Management (SPM) function, which drives strategy development, planning, performance monitoring, and operational excellence at the Foundation. You will guide and facilitate business planning processes, manage the team’s portfolio of investments, strengthen organizational systems, and lead business improvement initiatives that enhance impact, alignment, and collaboration. You will be part of a 41-person team, that works across the foundation’s global offices and stewards an annual budget of $47m. You will manage a team of four program assistants who support the day-to-day operations of the team.

*Our preference is for this role to be based in Seattle, WA (with secondary preference for Washington, DC). Remote work arrangement is not available. Relocation assistance can be provided for a hired candidate not living within a commutable distance to our offices. Visa support is not available. Applications accepted until 5 PM Pacific Time on November 10, 2026.

**When applying please combine a one-page cover letter/statement of interest with your resume (in one attachment) that answers one of these prompts (your choice):

Option 1: Trade-offs under resource constraints “Describe a time you had to help leaders choose between competing priorities given a fixed budget. How did you make the trade-off clear and what did you learn from how the decision played out? (Please include rough numbers or scale.)

Option 2: Making systems work togetherDescribe a process or system you improved that people were already using, such as disconnected tools, reporting, or planning cycles. What needed improvement, how did you get adoption from colleagues, and what did you learn? (Please include rough numbers or scale).**What You'll Do

You are energized by a mission to mobilize philanthropic capital from ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI), family offices, and institutional funders for global health and development. You are a strategic thinker and problem solver who brings analytical rigor, operational discipline, and strong interpersonal abilities to drive progress on complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives in a matrixed organization. You balance strategy and execution, structure and creativity, and bring both rigor and empathy to your work.

Strategy and Governance Moments

• Drive the team’s operational rhythm of business, including annual governance moments, goal setting, budgeting and resource allocation, body of work updates, performance tracking, and measurement, evaluation and learning.

• Partner with the Deputy Director, SPM, and the Philanthropic Partnerships Leadership Team to drive strategic planning, including the research and analysis that informs strategic pivots across the portfolio. Translate strategic goals into annual implementation plans for each sub-team and market.

• Prepare the team for annual governance moments, learning sessions, briefings with the chair and foundation leadership. Compile, analyze, and write strategy documents and progress narratives. Project manage the submission of all required materials.

Portfolio Management and Operations

• Oversee portfolio management, including investment pipeline planning, budget forecasting, and performance tracking. Drive and monitor progress against budget and key resourcing decisions. Partner with internal collaborators including Finance, Contracts, Legal. Prepare quantitative analysis and recommendations that support data-driven trade-offs and effective resource stewardship.

• Accelerate the team’s adoption of division-wide tools that enable decision-making and coordinated execution, including dashboards, performance management and MLE tools, core portfolio artifacts, and knowledge-management practices. Apply AI and digital tools thoughtfully to improve efficiency, quality, and collaboration.

• Identify, design, and manage a network and portfolio of external strategy resources and consultants to meet planned and surge needs and to strengthen team strategies.

Business Improvement and Project Management

• Lead business improvement projects that connect the division and team’s existing processes and systems (e.g., Salesforce, PowerBI) into more coordinated ways of working. This could include division compacts, investment management, resource mobilization reporting, or risk management. Manage and lead these special projects, by establishing clear objectives, workplans, and accountabilities while maintaining momentum through ambiguity and competing priorities toward strategic outcomes.

• Represent the team in cross-foundation forums, ensuring strategic alignment, coordination, and timely information flow between the foundation, the division, and the team. Connect PPT’s work to division priorities and to program, regional, and country office strategies. Represent the team’s needs and contributions in broader divisional and team planning and decision-making processes.

People Management

• Provide day-to-day supervision, guidance, and mentorship to a team of four program assistants, fostering a collaborative and high-performing work environment. Direct and oversee the operational work they lead, including administrative and calendaring support and special projects (including the teamwide engagements below).

• Design and implement high-quality team engagements, including all-staff meetings, foundation week programming, team building, and learning opportunities that enable the team to deliver its strategic goals across its key geographies and by implementing the foundation’s core values (collaboration, innovation, optimism, rigor, and inclusion). Coordinate thoughtful onboarding of new members of the team.

Your Experience

• A Master’s degree in business, public policy, international development or equivalent demonstrated experience.

• 10+ years of experience in strategy, planning, portfolio management, or operations within philanthropy, resource mobilization, or international development, including substantial experience working in or with markets outside the US. This should include one or more of PPT’s priority markets: India, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

• Direct experience supporting fundraising or partnership efforts that engage ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutional funders such as corporate and private foundations. Examples include pipeline management, prospect and partnership strategy, co-funding structures, and donor engagement planning.

• Strong financial and operational savvy, including budget planning, forecasting, and performance tracking. Ability to create structures and develop frameworks to increase clarity and transparency of decisions, trade-offs, and impact on financial and organizational resources.

• Demonstrated ability to translate strategy into implementation, through exceptional project management, content mastery, business operations, monitoring & evaluation, and change management practices.

• Excellent analytical and communication skills, able to synthesize complex ideas and data into clear insights and practical recommendations.

• Exceptional relationship management and a track record of building trust and alignment across diverse teams, functions, and partners in a matrixed, global organization.

• Demonstrated people management skills, including experience leading teams through change and developing teams by fostering collaboration, professional growth, and accountability to deliver high-quality results.

• Deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the ability to integrate those values into strategy, operations, and culture.

*Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. This includes direct company sponsorship and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (eg: H-1B, O-1, L-1, E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.).

The salary range for this role is $190,100 to $294,700 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $209,100 to $324,100 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hires salaries are typically between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

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Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate Accommodations

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact [email protected] with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all our employment practices.

All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Gates Foundation (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/) works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, we work with partners to create impactful solutions so that people can take charge of their futures and achieve their full potential. In the United States, we aim to ensure that everyone—especially those with the fewest resources—has access to the opportunities needed to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Bill Gates and our governing board.