Senior Program Officer, Nutritious Food Systems

Senior Program Officer, Nutritious Food Systems

Gates Foundation

Seattle, WA, United States

Your Role

In this role, you will contribute to the strategic evolution of the Nutritious Food Systems portfolio within the AgDev team and will manage a large portfolio of grants and contracts requiring skills in active grant making and management, monitoring, and evaluation. As a key advisor for nutrition on the AgDev team, you will contribute to the team’s strategic vision of ensuring equitable consumption of safe, affordable, nutritious diets year-round in pursuit of inclusive agricultural transformation.

What You’ll Do

• Partner with foundation colleagues and external partners to implement and assess the Nutritious Food Systems portfolio. Advance a forward-looking strategy for Nutritious Food Systems and the whole of AgDev that generates demand for nutritious foods; improves market function for nutrition, including addressing food loss and food safety; and works to integrate nutrition activities and objectives across AgDev investments;
• Negotiate, execute, and manage a complex grant portfolio. Provide clear, concise, and insightful written analyses of investments and recommendations for funding;
• In partnership with the Director and Deputy Director, contribute to strategy and operational planning in the Adaptive & Equitable Food Systems pillar, including strategy setting, tracking of progress against defined metrics, and annual investment planning;
• Understand the linkages between and implement coordinated work on improving women’s empowerment, nutrition, and climate adaptation in food systems;
• Liaise with other internal program teams, particularly Nutrition, Maternal, Child, and Newborn Health, and Program Advocacy and Communications, to ensure strategy alignment and cross-team collaboration, capitalizing on opportunities of mutual interest, and communicating a unified foundation approach to nutrition;
• Regularly consult with grantees and other partners to maximize impact of projects and ensure grants are contributing to strategy goals. This may include conducting site visits, providing technical and operational guidance, and convening meetings of key stakeholders;
• Represent the foundation on key program-related external constituencies, as appropriate, and serve on external bodies (e.g. technical advisory groups, steering committees) related to area of expertise;
• Remain up to date on the literature and advances in the field of the nexus of agriculture, food systems, and nutrition;
• Ability to travel internationally and domestically approximately 25% of the time.

Your Experience

• Advanced degree in nutrition, agriculture, food systems, public health or related field;
• 15+ years of post-terminal degree experience working at the intersection of agriculture and nutrition;
• Recognized by the global professional community as a specialist within food systems, with a deep understanding of agriculture-nutrition pathways, barriers to the increased consumption of healthy diets within agricultural development, underpinnings of multi-sectoral approaches to improve nutrition, and policy-related efforts to build resilient, equitable nutritious food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia;
• Specific experience working at the intersection of climate change, gender, and nutrition;
• Demonstrates multi-sectoral critical thinking and analytical skills;
• Capability to lead and influence others in a constructive manner and to build and sustain collaborative relationships;
• Excellent problem solver with experience in strategy development;
• Strong initiative, organizational skills, and ability to work autonomously and cross-functionally while remaining flexible to changing tasks, priorities, and roles and responsibilities;
• Ability to communicate technical concepts and synthesize information for diverse audiences, including leadership, program staff, governments, grantees, and external partners, both written and verbally;
• Previous residence or extensive work experience in a Sub-Saharan African or Asian country or countries preferred.

Apply Now