Senior Communications Officer, Brand Creative Lead

Seattle, WA 98109, USA
Posted on  

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

In June 2020, the foundation established a new Communications Division, led by the Chief Communications Officer, to oversee the foundation’s global communications strategy. The division brings together internal and external communications to advance the foundation’s mission of a more equitable world.The Global Content and Campaigns team is responsible for engaging priority audiences with compelling content and campaigns to help advance the foundation’s advocacy and programmatic goals and support its brand. The team’s responsibility also includes the development and implementation of integrated marketing campaigns and managing foundation channels (e.g., gatesfoundation.org, The Optimist newsletter, social media for foundation and leadership, etc.) and platforms (e.g., Goalkeepers report and events, the Discovery Center, Make Me Care About podcast, etc.).




The Brand, Editorial and Content team develops brand, campaign, and content strategies in alignment with foundation’s mission and its program and advocacy objectives. The team is accountable for leading all aspects of the successful execution and evolution of those strategies, in close collaboration with program and regional partners. The team defines the brand and creative direction in alignment with the brand strategy and works with our program and regional communications functions to develop and implement premier content for a variety of digital channels and campaigns.

Your Role

As the Senior Communications Officer, Brand Creative Lead you will report to the Deputy Director, Brand, Editorial & Content, and you will work with content and brand storytelling colleagues in our offices globally, including Delhi, Johannesburg, London, Beijing, and Washington DC. You are creative, thoughtful, and curious leader that has a consistent track record of leading creative teams and creating a culture of innovation, creative exploration, and audience-inspired content. You will own the development of brand creative campaigns and content, and you will work in partnership with regional content colleagues to ensure that all creative and content efforts accrue our agreed BMGF brand storytelling ethos; human-centered stories that ensure the agency and aspirations of all story contributors comes through clearly in creative content. You will be responsible for the brand visual guidelines, ensuring all content creators and colleagues have the tools and templates needed to produce content that aligns to a cohesive global brand identity. And you will partner with regional brand leads to support a global/local operating model that increases the impact and efficiency of brand storytelling across all brand content producers at the foundation.

What you'll do

  • Creative Leadership:

  • Lead creative concepting for all priority creative efforts, including brand and advocacy-driven campaigns, partnering with key internal collaborators and creative agencies.

  • Elevate the creative practice on the Brand, Editorial and Content team, driving consensus on processes and practices that facilitate creative thinking under constrained timelines.

  • Define processes (RFPs, Call for Concepts, etc.) for selecting new creative agencies and contractors, ensuring fit for project, and supporting our efforts to diversify and localize our creative partners.


  • Brand Creative:

  • Deliver powerful brand campaigns; direct creative agency partners and contractors in end-to-end brand creative development process from creative storytelling through production, and partner with brand strategy lead, regional communications colleagues, and channels leads to ensure effective campaign implementation.

  • Work in tandem with the brand strategy lead to clarify the brand architecture of the foundation and its related brands (e.g. IDM, Goalkeepers, Grand Challenges, etc.) and other Gates family organizations (e.g. Pivotal Ventures, Gates Ventures, Gates Medical Research Institute, etc.)

  • Lead global brand design guidelines and provide direction, guidance, and education to agency partners and internal teams on brand standards, visual identity, including consistent, cohesive approach to visual design language, animations, data visualizations, as well as establishing standard processes for governance

  • Build and improve brand standards and templates while maintaining and developing new standards to meet the evolving needs of the foundation, the sector, regional political sensitivities, including ongoing/annual updates of brand guidelines, icon libraries, templates, overview presentation decks, etc. Lead all aspects of maintenance, enhancements, and updates to BrandHub website (brand.gatesfoundation.org) to ensure it remains a trusted central location for all brand guidelines, tools, and templates.

  • Serve as subject matter expert and point of contact for review and guidance around the application of brand standards across a variety of communication materials. Champion design and collaborate with cross-disciplinary colleagues to drive quality brand identity and communications materials (e.g., fact sheets, overview brochures, reports, etc.) that communicate the foundation’s work and impact.

  • Supervise strategic evolution of brand design guidelines as needed, to align with evolving norms and practices in the sector, such as asset framing, decolonization of development, etc.


Your Experience

The ideal candidate will be an experienced creative leader with a deep background in visual design, who can encourage great creative work and sell it across a matrixed organization. They will be comfortable generously supporting and collaborating with creative colleagues to elevate creative concepting across a range of content types and campaigns. They will have shown experience elevating the craft of creative and production. They will have knowledge of and experience working on brand, with a robust portfolio demonstrating a point of view and approach to brand building.

They will be a solutions-oriented, systematic problem solver with proven experience directing creative agency partners/teams to support implementation of design guidelines and achieve consensus on design solutions. They should have a strong sense of curiosity, excellent judgment, and willingness to engage and collaborate with colleagues across a global organization. Experience demonstrating the ability to lead separate creative agencies to collaborate on projects, a plus.

Additional qualifications include:

  • Bachelor’s degree in relevant field; Brand, Graphic Design, Communications, or other relevant area of study

  • Significant (7 years) experience leading a creative team in an in-house or agency environment.

  • A minimum of 5+ years of dynamic professional experience in brand management or brand design strategy and/or program management, and account management in an in-house or agency environment

  • Experience working in non-profit/public health, government, communications agency, or private sector organization is strongly preferred

  • An obsession with design fundamentals and visual design skills

  • Confirmed ability to think strategically and creatively with a sharp eye for detail

  • Shown experience building asset libraries and maintaining an expert level of organization across assets, timelines, and results

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills with multiple teams and partners across the organization, with an ability to forge partnerships at all levels

  • Ability to gracefully lead and work on multiple projects simultaneously under tight deadline pressure with strong project and time management skills.

  • Unafraid to roll up their sleeves, and demonstrates a bias to action

  • Global experience and/or proficiency in additional languages is a plus.

  • Ability to commit to 25-40% both domestic and international travel if needed.

  • Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.


The typical salary range for this role is $149,800 to $278,700 USD. The exact offer will be determined by a variety of factors such as the candidate’s individual skills, qualifications, and experience relative to the requirements of the role.

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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.

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