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, weโre committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.
The TeamExemplars in Global Health (EGH) is a global initiative that helps public health decision-makers learn from successful โpositive outliers.โ EGH identifies countries that have achieved exceptional progress in health outcomes, analyzes the drivers behind their success, and shares insights to inform strategic decisions, policymaking, and funding allocation.
EGH operates through two primary verticals:
โข Research & Content (R&C): In-depth research across global health topics.
โข Partnerships & Insights (P&I): Translating research into policy impact by engaging stakeholders, strengthening partnerships, and disseminating findings.
Through a global network of partners, EGHโs research covers maternal, newborn, and child health; epidemic preparedness and response; health systems strengthening; womenโs health, health equity, and nutrition; and climate-resilient health systems. Originally incubated at Gates Ventures, EGH transitioned to the Gates Foundation in July 2025.
This role will also support the newly created Center of Excellence (COE) for Primary Healthcare within the Exemplars team, which leverages technical expertise in foundational health systems reforms, stakeholder partnerships, and service delivery innovation to drive an investment portfolio focused on insight generation and development/uptake of public goods to improve access, quality, and efficiency in primary healthcare. The COE will also provide technical assistance internally to other foundation teams to support health systems-related investments and priorities.
*This is an 11-month Limited Term Opportunity. Relocation will not be provided.
*The application deadline for this role is December 11, 2025, at 11:59pm Pacific Time.
Your Role
As the Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning, and Management (DDSPM), you will serve as the strategic and operational backbone of the integrated Exemplars in Global Health and Center of Excellence teams. You will partner closely with the Director to provide high-level strategic advising across the entire portfolio, oversee operational excellence, and drive integrated planning across both EGH and the COE. You will lead an integrated SPM team across the EGH and embedded COE teams โ enabling business operations, strategic decision-making, and research command. In addition, your role will be pivotal in ensuring effective strategy execution, optimal resource allocation, and alignment of cross-team priorities. You will guide strategic planning, annual budgeting, portfolio management, research-to-policy integration, and external engagement, while ensuring that both the COE and EGH workstreams reinforce each other to maximize impact.
What Youโll Do
Serve as a strategic advisor to the Director, shaping team strategy, priorities, managing trade-offs, and anticipating emerging opportunities across the integrated team and the broader foundation ecosystem.
Drive integration of research insights across EGH, the COE, and program strategies, aligning evidence with priority questions.
Strengthen connections between research outputs and broader health system strengthening, digital transformation, and PHC reform agendas to maximize real-world impact.
Guide prioritization of research areas, ensuring resources and efforts are strategically aligned.
Translate complex research and analysis into actionable strategies, policy tools, and decision-making frameworks.
Facilitate collaboration across program teams, regional offices, and global research partners to ensure coherence and shared learning across the integrated program.
Build and lead a high-performing, inclusive strategy, planning & management (SPM) team that balances operational excellence, strategic foresight, and research command.
Lead the SPM team to ensure effective operational planning, annual budgeting, and portfolio management to ensure impact.
Oversee the rhythm of business and continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen efficiency and adaptability of the integrated team.
Foster a high-performing, inclusive team culture across the integrated team, including co-designing team and leadership team retreats, modeling inclusive behaviors & actions, and addressing issues in a timely manner
Support change management, operating model definition & implementation, as well as consistent leadership team, EGH, and COE team building and uplift with a focus on continuous improvement
Enable growth & professional development across the team, including hiring, managing, and coaching team members through change
Rigor in your approach but also a sense of humor
Your Leadership Capabilities
Strategic & Research Advising: Provides vision, anticipates challenges, and translates complex research evidence into actionable priorities that guide global health strategies.
Operational Excellence: Oversees business processes, portfolio management, and the rhythm of business while aligning diverse stakeholders to deliver impact at scale.
Creating an Inclusive Team Culture: Inspires and develops diverse teams, sets clear objectives, and fosters a high-performing, equitable, and collaborative environment.
Navigating Ambiguity & Change Management: Leads through complexity and uncertainty, driving continuous improvement and enabling teams to adapt to evolving contexts.
Your Experience
An Advanced degree in public health, business administration, health economics, public policy, or similar fields (e.g., MD, MPH, MBA, PhD) or equivalent demonstrated experience. Familiarity and engagement with global health research is a big plus in this role.
Comprehensive experience leading complex initiatives with budget responsibility at the institutional or organizational levels.
Knowledge of strategy development and implementation, including end to end innovation to uptake research processes and policy translation efforts.
Extensive experience in strategic and operational planning, as well as expertise of structured problem solving and strategic business planning with the ability to easily identify and communicate frameworks to analyze issues.
An understanding of global health research ecosystem, as well as mixed methods approaches to translating evidence into action at the global and national scale.
Ability to inform portfolio design and management to tailor innovation investments to targeted outcomes, as well as ability to sunset efficiently.
Broad experience in developing and managing strong partnerships and relationships inside and outside of the organization, managing conflicts, and building consensus.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to identify and communicate external and internal dynamics, as well as articulate implications for strategy, priorities, and team evolution.
Experience working in global health or development in low-income settings strongly preferred, ideally in a research or implementation science role.
*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.
The salary range for this role is $233,600 to $362,200 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 $254,700 to $394,700 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 candidateโs job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.
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
If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.
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 โ of voices, ideas, and approaches โ 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.