Portfolio and Platform Lead, MNCNH Artificial Intelligence (*3-Year LTE)

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 233,600 - 362,200; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Inclusive hiring practices

Job summary

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeks a Portfolio and Platform Lead to manage AI projects across maternal, newborn, and child health programs. This role involves overseeing the lifecycle of AI initiatives, ensuring alignment with operational goals and effective stakeholder coordination.

The ideal candidate will possess strong expertise in AI product management, human-centered design, and health systems integration, with at least 8 years of experience in managing technology portfolios, and will be responsible for developing strategies that enhance AI adoption in diverse service settings.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience managing technology product portfolios, especially in a commercial setting.
• Strong understanding of AI product evaluation and adoption.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Manage AI projects and grants from concept through scale.
• Build frameworks for tracking timelines, budgets, and milestones.
• Align product strategies with organizational goals.

Skills

AI product management

Stakeholder coordination

Human-centered design

Health systems integration

Analytical skills

Education

Advanced degree in biotech, pharmaceutical, or life sciences

Tools

APIs

Dashboards

Data analysis tools

Job description

About the Role

The Portfolio and Platform Lead will play a central role in managing the lifecycle of MNCNH’s AI projects—from proof‑of‑concept to regional or national scale across maternal, newborn, and child health programs. The individual will bridge the gap between product development and operational implementation, ensuring that AI initiatives are technically sound, scalable, and aligned with the antenatal, intrapartum, postnatal, and early‑childhood care settings where MNCNH operates. This is a 36‑month limited‑term position with relocation provided.

Responsibilities

Portfolio and Product Management

• Manage AI projects and supporting grants/contracts from concept through scale.
• Build frameworks to track timelines, budgets, milestones, and grant performance.
• Assess project readiness at each stage and inform follow‑on investment decisions.
• Identify and address product bottlenecks across the portfolio.
• Keep the portfolio aligned to the MNCNH Clinical Decision Support and Patient Self‑Care AI Strategy.
• Work with Program Officers to source and design new grants and contracts, including investment memos, and guide proposals through the foundation’s review process.
• Serve as a technical thought partner to grantees, helping them hit milestones, course‑correct, and connect to the broader AI portfolio.

User Experience and Product Design

• Embed human‑centered design so tools reflect the workflows, literacy levels, and constraints of frontline cadres in LMIC settings.
• Identify usability gaps (interface, accessibility, low‑bandwidth performance) and drive fixes with partners and grantees.
• Commission and synthesize user research to inform portfolio priorities and partner expectations.
• Set portfolio‑wide design standards covering trust indicators, error handling, explainability, and workflow integration.

Stakeholder Coordination and Strategy

• Align product strategies with organizational goals across AI teams, grant managers, grantees, and external partners.
• Build relationships with ministries of health, country MNCH programs, multilateral partners, peer funders, and implementers to support AI adoption in service delivery.
• Develop AI product introduction strategies that reflect operational realities in LMIC contexts.
• Organize and facilitate partner convenings to share learning, align on standards, and surface cross‑cutting opportunities and risks.

Scaling and Resource Optimization

• Identify high‑potential AI initiatives (risk‑stratification algorithms, clinical decision support, and diagnostics for low‑resource settings) and guide them through the maturity pipeline.
• Identify barriers to scale and connect products to the enablers needed for adoption.

Systems Integration and Interoperability

• Define and enforce integration standards so products connect with existing health information systems (DHIS2, OpenMRS, national HMIS, and MNCH registries).
• Oversee API design and data exchange to ensure interoperability with FHIR‑compliant systems, national registries, and partner platforms.
• Identify and mitigate integration failure modes (data pipeline fragility, authentication friction, workflow disruption, and alert fatigue) that drive low uptake.
• Maintain an integration landscape map tracking which products are embedded in MNCH care‑continuum workflows and drive a strategy to close the gaps.

Deliverables

• AI Project Roadmap, Timelines & Dashboards.
• Central tracker for prioritized AI initiatives and their grants.
• Annual Portfolio Performance Report.
• Progress, challenges, and recommendations across products and the grant portfolio.
• Scaling Readiness Framework.
• Stakeholder Engagement Plan.
• UX & Design Standards Playbook.
• Integration Landscape Map.
• Data Access Agreements with Grantees.
• Partner & Grantee AI Enablement.

Your Experience

• Advanced degree in biotech, pharmaceutical, or life sciences, or equivalent.
• 8+ years of experience managing AI, digital, or technology product portfolios, ideally in a commercial setting, with demonstrated experience managing grants, contracts, or comparable investment vehicles.
• Strong understanding of AI product development, evaluation, and adoption, including the product‐layer factors (usability, integration, trust design).
• Experience in structuring and managing AI projects, tracking deliverables, and managing cross‑functional teams and grantees.
• Ability to engage with governments, donors, peer funders, and implementing partners to drive AI adoption.
• Strong analytical skills to assess project and grant performance and resource allocation.

Other Attributes

• Familiarity with the challenges of scaling AI and digital health solutions in MNCH programs in LMIC contexts strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience embedding human‑centered design or UX practice into digital health or AI product development, with the ability to commission and act on user research and to hold development partners and grantees accountable to design quality standards.
• Working knowledge of health system integration standards and architectures (FHIR, HL7, DHIS2, OpenMRS) and experience driving interoperability requirements with technical teams and implementation partners.

Hiring Requirements

• Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration‑related sponsorship for this role.
• As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Salary

The salary range for this role is $233,600.00 to $362,200.00 USD. The range for this role in Seattle and Washington D.C. is $254,700.00 to $394,700.00 USD. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job‑related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

Candidate Accommodations

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact [e-mail] with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.

EEO 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.