Senior Program Officer, Development Policy & Finance

Job Description

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 mission of the Global Policy & Advocacy (GPA) division is to understand and shape the public policy debates affecting the foundation’s work, build support for its major program and policy objectives, and develop partnerships and alliances that can advance the foundation’s objectives nationally and globally. Because the foundation’s resources alone are not enough to solve the challenges ahead, GPA also supports advocacy efforts to engage diverse stakeholders and promote innovative solutions that advance our program goals. We work in close partnership with grantees, our colleagues in the Global Health, Global Development, Global Growth & Opportunity, U.S. and Gender Equality programs and Foundation Communications to build the environment in which all people have the opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives.

The Development Policy & Finance (DPAF) team is the foundation’s development economics and finance team, accountable for ensuring GPA’s work – and by extension the foundation’s work – is informed by strong economic and financial analysis and viewpoints, resonant with economic trends, and connected with key decision-makers at major multilateral development banks (MDBs), development finance institutions (DFIs), think tanks and other actors focused on development economics and finance. This is not a research team but a group of economists, grant makers and development finance experts accountable for using economic analysis and perspectives to strengthen foundation policy and advocacy strategies, and for growing the community of economic policymakers engaged in foundation issues.

Your Role
DPAF has an opening for a Senior Program Officer (SPO), our most senior technical role, to further develop our analytical and advisory functions related to development finance. This is an exciting role given ongoing global debates about what types of financing are needed to support development needs at the country level while also addressing the growing financial demands posed by global challenges such as climate change and pandemic preparedness. We are especially looking for someone who can map, model, and analyze a range of development finance flows (e.g., ODA, TOSSD, domestic resources, remittances, capital flows) at global and country levels. The SPO will support the important work of this team’s remit by:

• Understanding the major dynamics and challenges within global development policy and finance, including ongoing debates about how to reform the global financial system and development cooperation, and how these changes translate to the country level.
• Bringing familiarity with key financing databases, have strong modeling and analytical skills, and be comfortable working across multiple teams in the division (sometimes with diverse analytical needs).
• Demonstrating deep subject matter expertise, contribute to the global debate, be able to translate financing trends and insights for strategic decisions within the foundation, including in meetings with the co-chairs.
• Translating analytical insight into different knowledge management products to raise awareness and respond to demands from the foundation.
• Designing and leading complex contracts and grants to support team and division financial modeling needs.

What You’ll Do

We are currently looking for an SPO with the expertise, network, and passion to lead our work in the following areas:

• Analytical and advisory function, including creating knowledge products and context setting, to be used in the external dialogue or internally to support strategy and investment decisions.
• Translating global development and financial trends to implications at the country level and for strategic decisions within the foundation. In particular, tracking, modeling and analyzing key domestic and external financial flows for low- and lower middle-income countries and how they may impact the work of the foundation in priority regions and countries.
• Analyzing and explaining the relationships between different financial flows and describing the strategic implications of shifts in these flows, not least for the future of ODA.
• Maintaining division-wide model of development finance flows at global levels as well as ability to track flows by (select) country and BMGF issue.
• Constructing scenarios based on trends in flows to support organizational decision-making, for example in terms of health finance prioritization, but also analytics and insights on a diverse set of topics, for example climate finance and humanitarian spending trends.
• Maintaining the foundation’s relationships with key data providers in the field such as the OECD, IMF, and World Bank, amongst others.
• Contributing to strategy development and overall priorities for the DPAF team and wider GPA division.
• Translating data analytics to robust leadership presentations with an eye to the “so what…”. Preparing spreadsheets, financial models, and presentations for internal and external use by foundation teams and leadership.
• Building out policy positions, best practices and analysis for the team and the broader foundation, to ensure we are continuously learning from prior efforts, including those of our partners.

This position reports to DPAF’s Deputy Director but will work closely with the Office of the President for Global Policy and Advocacy. The position is based in Washington, DC.

Your Experience

• Advanced degree in economics, finance, or data analytics, with 7+ years of experience.
• Fluency in key modelling software.
• Extensive experience translating data and analytics to support organizational decision-making.
• Extensive experience working with key players in governments, research institutions, think tanks, advocates, International Finance Institutions (IFIs), multilaterals, and bilateral aid agencies
• Experience leading others in a direct reporting relationship and creating a coaching environment for people to test, learn, and grow. 
• Strong technical background, skills, and expertise in tracking, analyzing, and modeling development finance flows.
• Passion for using analytics and modeling to inform decision-making at the highest levels.
• Ability to support teams with diverse analytical needs and to address their questions about financing flows with high-quality analyses and presentations.
• Excellent knowledge management experience, including the ability to develop easily accessible materials that can be used, as appropriate, across the foundation including at different levels of leadership.
• Experience in developing and managing strong partnerships and relationships with senior technical authorities within the field.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, and ability to use the power of data to accessibly translate research to strategic decision making, policy solutions, ‘fundable’ ideas, advocacy and action.
• Proven track record of successfully shepherd issues across large institutions, various levels of staff and different cultural contexts.
• Proven ability as a great teammate defined as someone who shares ideas generously, adjusts flexibly to changes in context, and is motivated to act with some urgency.
• Strong project management experience with excellent planning, execution and analytic skills
• Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.

*Applicants for this role will only be considered if they are able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

The salary range for this role is $137,500 to $206,200 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences where our offices are located, in Seattle, Washington D.C., and Boston (Cambridge). The range for this role in these locations is $149,800 to $224,600 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission and new hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary 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.

#LI-TO1

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 — 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.