Deputy Director, Global Ed Innovation and Country Implementation

Gates Foundation

Washington, DC, United States

Your Role

The Global Ed team is recruiting a Deputy Director (DD), Innovation and Country Implementation reporting to the Director, Global Education. As Deputy Director, you will lead the team and our partners to design and implement the foundation’s strategy and investments to innovate, pilot, and scale up education innovations that drive learning outcomes at country scale. Specifically, you will oversee and be accountable for the Global Ed portfolios on 1) Innovation and Research, and 2) Focus Country implementation.

You will directly manage program officers and cultivate and direct a growing and complex portfolio of investments and (internal and external) partnerships. The areas of focus include teaching and learning solutions for literacy and numeracy, quality EdTech and AI to address key challenges to improve foundational learning, and improving instruction at key transition points (e.g., lower to upper primary, and language transitions). You will oversee investments in our focus countries (India, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa) that seek to create at-scale exemplars through government education systems.

You will take a One Foundation approach by partnering with our regional offices so that our in-country activities are collaborative. You will also partner with other foundation teams working in education and adjacent areas to exchange takeaways and leverage partnerships, including our K-12 Education Team and functional teams such as Digital Public Infrastructure and K-12 Data.

Lastly, the DD will also collaborate closely with the Global Ed Director and other DDs on a range of issues of joint interest, such as partnerships with global and regional partners, leverage local expertise and ensure alignment of activities with regional offices and staff. The Global Ed team is in a growth phase and you will be comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment across a geographically dispersed team and serving as an active thought partner as we build our team and culture.

What You’ll Do

Technical leadership in education innovation, research, and country scale-up: Lead the Global Ed team’s Innovation and Research and Focus Country portfolios and investment making. Ensure that these two portfolios are intrinsically linked so that country investments relate to what the sector is learning about key innovations, and the innovation research questions are driven by demand from the countries and regions;
Oversee investment making and management: Lead program officers to shape investments including identifying gaps and potential alignments across initiatives. Develop and/or guide the development and management of related investments and requests for proposals (RFPs). Provide strategic guidance in crafting grants and contracts that require complex research or analytics. Implement internal processes and progress while ensuring appropriate documentation, budgeting and reporting. Supervise technical and business analysis of investments;
Partnership development and representation: Consult with grantees and other partners to enhance the impact of projects and ensure optimal learning. This may include conducting site visits, providing operational guidance and convening meetings of key partners. Conduct high quality interactions and clear and consistent communications with partners in the field. As requested by the Director, manage relationships with key partners. Represent the foundation with collaborators who may include public and private entities, partner organizations, other funders, universities, think tanks, local technical and civil society organizations and government agencies. May serve on external boards and working groups;
Strategic planning and leadership engagement: Facilitate the development of annual investment plans and budgets. Contribute to periodic reviews and evaluations of the strategy’s implementation and impact. Accountable for the identification and assessment of key portfolio risks, and the development and management of mitigation/contingency plans at the portfolio level. Implement internal processes and portfolio progress while ensuring appropriate documentation, budgeting and reporting;
Strategy operationalization: Contribute to the refinement and operationalization of new strategies, collaborations and implementation plans to ensure long-term sustainability and impact. Work with foundation leadership as requested to address cross-cutting issues and improve functions and performance;
People management: This role will manage several program officers and may be responsible for communicating performance expectations, leading individual goal setting and performance evaluation, integrating project and change management, giving and seeking feedback, providing coaching, measuring progress and holding people accountable while supporting employee development and recognizing achievement and lessons learned.

Your Experience

An advanced degree in education, education policy, or a related field;
A minimum of 10 years’ experience working on applied research in global education and large scale education program roll-out and/or experience working within the donor environment and managing a portfolio of education investments in low- and middle-income countries;
Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and India required;
Track record of leadership roles and proven ability to lead and influence others, including working with senior education officials at government and donor environments;
Experience in strategic planning and strategy implementation;
High detail orientation and affinity for data, with the ability to artfully manage tactical execution while remaining objective when absorbing and presenting information;
Demonstrated ability to exercise independent judgement in developing methods, techniques and evaluating criteria for obtaining results;
Demonstrated excellence in data analysis, written and oral communication skills, and experience advocating and communicating with a broad and diverse audience;
Demonstrated capacity and initiative to solve problems with energy and a positive attitude and experience in a role requiring collaboration (both internally and externally), prioritization and results-orientation in a fast-paced, complex organization;
Experience in building and managing teams, including coaching and growing direct reports through inclusive leadership;
Intellectual quickness, curiosity, discipline, resourcefulness and resilience;
Demonstrated ability to work with efficiency, diplomacy, and flexibility particularly as part of a team. Experience working on geographically dispersed teams with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds;
Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.