Interim Senior/Program Officer, Family Planning/Women’s Health

This is an interim backfill role to cover for an employee who will be out on parental leave. The duration of the assignment is targeted for 11 months starting in April/May. However, the start and end dates may change.

Position Title: Interim Senior/Program Officer, Family Planning/Women’s Health Financing Advocacy, Global Policy and Advocacy

Division: Global Policy & Advocacy

Group: Program Advocacy and Communications

Location: Seattle (TBC based on Mobility review)

Division Summary

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.

Position Summary

The Program Advocacy and Communications team works in partnership with program teams and other teams in Global Policy and Advocacy (GPA) to achieve their policy and finance goals by:

• Developing and coordinating the execution of advocacy and communications strategies.
• Using 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 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.

For this role, the Program Officer (PO), will own the foundation’s donor and domestic resource mobilization and financing efforts focused largely on Family Planning (FP) and Women’s Health (WH) and lead on the family planning advocacy and communication priorities in Francophone West Africa. The role will work across FP/WH global, regional, and country priorities to develop robust donor and domestic resource mobilization strategies to generate awareness, raise resources, form partnerships, and spur policy changes – with a specific focus on supporting a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and increased ability to access a range of contraceptive options; galvanizing civil society in donor and developing nations to increase political dedication to health and development issues, specifically FP/women’s health; crafting international financing channels for health and development issues and support the evidence-base to encourage sound financial decision-making.

The PO will support the development and execution of the Women’s Health strategy, specifically the resource mobilization strategy, that will elevate RMNH priorities. Additionally, the PO will lead on donor engagement and develop relationships with key FP/WH donors and work with key multilaterals in the space, including UNFPA.

Lastly, the PO will strategically lead a portfolio of donor advocacy and domestic resource mobilization, requiring a high-level grant management skills, monitoring and evaluation. As a key advisor on strategy initiatives, the PO will contribute to the continued development of the team’s advocacy and communications strategic vision, while collaborating closely with team leadership to set the overall strategy and goals for the team. The PO will also act as an advisor to the FP program team on donor engagement from an advocacy and communications standpoint.

Position Reports to: Deputy Director of FP/MNCH/PHC PAC

Core Knowledge And Skills

Core Responsibilities

• Lead on core work areas: FP/Women’s health financing and the women’s health strategy to complement advocacy goals to generate the attention, resources, and policy changes vital to achieve the foundation’s strategies. .
• Lead and manage a FP/Women’s health financing portfolio and various stakeholders, including grants and contracts, to ensure donors and countries increase their political and financial commitments to women’s health, including family planning.
• Contribute to the design of new strategies, collaborations and implementation plans to ensure long-term sustainability and impact specifically in supporting the vital financial structures to achieve women and girls’ health outcomes i.e., UNFPA, GFF, FP2030.
• Track and analyze key global policy and financing developments and trends relevant to advancing sustainable donor and domestic financing for FP/women’s health.
• Provide clear, concise, and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding. Counsel communication and PST colleagues on potential inclusion of advocacy elements into grant proposals.
• Serve as the primary interface for resource mobilization for family planning/women’s health, including for UNFPA/UNFPA Supplies. These teams include Program Advocacy & Communications (PAC), European, Middle East and East Asia office (EMEEA), Gender Equality team, the Family Planning program team. The PO is responsible for high-quality interactions with these teams and facilitates the implementation of relevant advocacy assets in support of the foundation's programmatic goals.
• Develop comprehensive and individual donors outreach plans with EMMEA and other resource mobilization leads to engage outside partners and ensure alignment with the foundation’s goals and strategies on immunization, health and development.
• Manage a budget envelope for grants and contracts in support of the resource mobilization advocacy and communications strategies.
• Builds, orchestrates, and participates in advocacy and policy activities including convenings, campaigns, leadership activities, external partner management and participation in policy and advocacy networks.
• Represent the foundation on program-related issues with external partners as required. This includes both formal and informal presentations such as making speeches, attending conferences, facilitating meetings, and other convenings as vital.
• Collaborate with grantees and other partners to improve impact of projects and ensure advocacy grants are meeting strategy goals. This may include monthly check ins, site visits, providing operational guidance and convening meetings of key partners.
• Prepares and synthesizes existing literature for strategy development and for leadership needs. Provides written analysis of key topics for foundation management and leadership and for leadership participation in events and meetings with policymakers and partners.
• Works on complex problems. Exercises judgment within broadly defined practices and policies in selecting methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for obtaining results.
• Represent the foundation to key program-related external constituencies, as appropriate
• This role is responsible for high quality interactions and clear and consistent communications with grantees and partners in the field

Position Reports to: Deputy Director of FP/MNCH/PHC PAC

Core Knowledge And Skills

We are looking for a team member who has knowledge of and experience working on FP, donor and domestic resource mobilization and women’s health issues including with UNFPA and UNFPA Supplies. They will bring a depth of experience in developing policy, advocacy and communications strategies, with an emphasis on advancing sustainable financing for FP and women’s health. Experience working on FP/MNCH or GE issues and advocacy in a donor or developing country context is a plus.

Specifically, The Effective Candidate Will Have

• Extensive strategy development and execution experience, donor relations management, excellent writing and editing skills, and a validated capacity to translate sophisticated health and development issues into compelling persuasive writing.
• Strong analytical, writing, and verbal skills for communicating with a diverse audience, including internal leadership and external high-level stakeholders.
• Demonstrated understanding, experience, and expertise of the role of advocacy and communications efforts to increase awareness of development issues and build political/financial support for FP and Women’s health in both donor and LMICS working with civil society organizations, coalitions, governments.
• Experience in developing, leading, and implementing resource mobilization strategies, with experience tailored to FP/Gender equality/women’s health issues; ability to handle the development of a variety of deliverables and provide insightful feedback in a timely and effective manner.
• Knowledge of global health and development issues as well as the ability to learn new concepts quickly and communicate effectively with different audiences.
• Experience developing and using advocacy tools and working with partners to achieve financing goals and policy change at the global and/or country level.
• Experience developing, running, and implementing projects, including working with partners on the definition of objectives and deliverables and monitoring and evaluation of results; ability to present ideas to internal audiences and articulate vision/goals and desired outcomes to all levels of leadership.
• Shown ability to lead and influence others in a constructive manner and to build and sustain collaborative relationships; ability to present publicly in meetings, defend different strategies or approaches and keep various parties abreast of both the work in play and the ultimate results/impact.
• Ability to work with flexibility, entrepreneurship, and diplomacy both individually and as part of a complex team effort.
• French speaker a plus.
• High standards of personal integrity; and comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.

Education And Experience

• Bachelor’s or other advanced degree with 5+ years of experience, or equivalent experience.
• Experience in resource mobilization and donor relations management is essential, working in government (developed and developing countries), United Nations, academia, and civil society strategic and/or advisory roles aimed at influencing policy change in donors, developing countries and multilateral organizations (UNFPA and UNFPA Supplies) preferably with a mix of service in the public and non¬profit sectors).
• Experience developing and leading sophisticated projects and/or grants in support of policy initiatives, advocacy programs and events at the global, regional, national, and sub-national level.
• Deep understanding, experience and expertise in resource mobilization, global health and development issues, particularly in defining advocacy and communications strategies to achieve advocacy goals and policy change.
• Leadership abilities to work with multiple partners, including government, other donors, grantees to build a common vision and visualize simple and effective but implementable solutions to complex problems.
• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
• Strong analytical, writing, and verbal skills for communicating with a broad and diverse audience.
• Ability to work with flexibility and a high level of rigor, collaboration, and diplomacy, both individually and as part of a complex team effort.
• High standards of personal integrity.
• Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

**The foundation requires a COVID-19 vaccination for in-person business in the United States. Therefore, all U.S. employees are required to present proof of vaccination status upon hire unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

The employee transfer policy applies to internal backfill positions. An employee may apply for an open position after at least 12 months in their current position. If you meet this requirement and wish to pursue a backfill opportunity, you are required to have a conversation with your manager to confirm their support before you apply. In rare cases, the requirement of a minimum of 12 months in a position may be waived if a transfer is critical to the foundation’s goals and is approved by the current manager and their HR Consultant (HR Business Partner or Generalist).

All backfill positions are posted as LTE roles. With current manager support, if selected for the role, FTEs will retain their FTE status during the backfill assignment. Managers will have the option of backfilling for the individual moving to the interim position for a similar duration via the same hiring channels and options as this position. However, current managers may be unwilling or unable to hold headcount for the duration of an interim assignment and may deny the employee’s request. In such cases, the employee may apply for the open LTE position, but if selected, would effectively be resigning as an FTE and would be hired as an LTE for the duration of the interim assignment. As an LTE, employment with the foundation is expected to end at the end of the assignment, and the employee would not be eligible for severance.

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices.