Program Officer, Immunization Country Advocacy (LTE)
Program Officer, Immunization Country Advocacy (LTE)
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Seattle, WA, United States
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 Program Advocacy and Communications (PAC) team works in partnership with program teams and other teams in GPA to achieve their policy and finance goals by:
- Developing and coordinating the execution of advocacy and communications strategies.
- Leveraging leadership and foundation voice to implement advocacy strategies.
- Developing and managing a grant portfolio dedicated to achieving advocacy outcomes.
- Directly advocating with sector leaders, influencers, media and government officials in order to achieve advocacy outcomes.
- Leading issue-specific communications in service of advocacy goals.
- Developing policy recommendations or proposals in partnership with programmatic and regional offices.
Your Role
Responsible for leading a discrete grant portfolio and/or providing research and analysis work in support of grant-making, strategy development, and advocacy communications. Focus on country immunization advocacy as part of a cluster leading on advocacy for Immunization, Enteric Diarrheal Diseases, and Pneumonia. The Program Officer will develop and strengthen relations to generate and support awareness, political dedication, financing, country partnerships, and policy changes for immunization in select countries.
What You’ll Do
- Work in coordination with Program Strategy Teams, functional teams and PAC colleagues to translate programmatic goals into effective advocacy plans.
- Develop an ongoing dialogue with government and key political actors in a subset of countries in Africa and South Asia, working in partnership with the foundation’s representatives in these countries as well as the polio advocacy team to drive political engagement on routine immunization.
- Work with other program, country, and regional teams to recommend engagements for foundation leadership that will drive political support for immunization efforts and support these engagements as needed.
- Prepare high-level briefings for foundation leadership, and plan and implement high-profile events and support leadership trips.
- Provide intelligence and insight to support the execution of immunization advocacy strategies.
- Use the best of the foundation’s assets and build and lead partnerships and alliances to advance and refine policy, advocacy, and communications strategies
- Consult with leadership of partner organizations, ministries, and other governmental and nongovernmental entities to increase the impact of advocacy strategies. This work may include: development of annual plans, providing strategic mentorship, site visits, providing operational guidance, and convening meetings of key partners.
- Work closely with other foundation staff and/or consultants in the execution of these responsibilities, applying effective communications and demonstrating leadership and strong personal initiative.
- Plan and complete activities in support of crafting strategy, development of investment opportunities, grant management and external relationship management.
- Review inquiries and grant proposals; provide clear, concise and factually written analyses and recommendations for funding, including drafting and editing proposal summaries and progress reports for existing grants for review by foundation leadership.
- Handle a portfolio of investments, collaborate with grantees to achieve desired impact of grants; conduct site visits when appropriate, provide mentorship, convene meetings and apply and evaluate milestone-based performance objectives.
- Handle internal processes and portfolio progress while ensuring appropriate documentation, grant budgeting and reporting. Improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.
- Prepare and write briefs and synthesize literature. Provide written analysis of key topics for foundation management. Fulfill data requests from leadership.
Your Experience
- Bachelor’s or other advanced degree with 5+ years of experience, or equivalent experience.
- Strong understanding across global health, with a focus on immunization and other relevant technical area/expertise.
- Experience developing and implementing influence strategies in low-income country contexts sought at achieving specific policy or financing outcomes.
- Leadership abilities to work with multiple partners, including grantees, government, other donors, and grantees to build a common vision and visualize simple and effective but implementable solutions to sophisticated problems.
- Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
- Experience interpreting scientific literature and data for a lay audience.
- Strong analytical, writing and verbal skills for presenting with a broad and diverse audience.
- Effective as a collaborator in sophisticated internal and external organizations.
- Experience in tact, advocacy, and communications with a knowledge of development and global health with strong leadership skills
- Experience developing and running sophisticated efforts in support of policy initiatives, advocacy programs and events at the global, regional, national, and sub-national level.
- Experience handling a portfolio of grants and familiarity with the global immunization ecosystem is helpful.
Other Attributes
- A master’s degree (or equivalent work experience) in international relations, development or business preferred.
- Ability to work with flexibility and a high level of rigor, collaboration, tact and diplomacy, both individually and as part of a sophisticated team effort.
- Ability to travel up to 20% time.
- High standards of personal integrity.
