Program Coordinator, US Program

Gates Foundation; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 51,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

The Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA is seeking a Program Coordinator to manage a diverse portfolio of investments within the U.S. Program (USP).

You will emphasize processes, due diligence, and timeline management to advance programmatic goals across grants, contracts, and related investments. You will collaborate with internal teams and external partners to ensure compliant, timely execution while supporting budget oversight and financial reporting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Experience in project/portfolio management.
• Unrestricted work authorization in the United States.

Responsibilities

• Work with investment makers to develop, manage, and maintain a portfolio of investments, including structuring investments and due diligence.
• Collaborate with partners, grantees, and vendors to move investments through processes and collect portfolio data.
• Lead cross-functional projects and contribute to Investment Workflow, IT, Finance, HR, and other areas.
• Assist program team with annual pipeline planning and budgeting efforts.
• Lead the Request for Proposal process for program staff.
• Provide training and ongoing support on processes, tools, and templates to ensure adoption.

Skills

Flexibility

Diplomacy

Influence without authority

Investment knowledge

Excel

SharePoint

Communication

Portfolio management

Project management

Financial reporting

Non-profit experience

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

Excel

SharePoint

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

The foundation’s U.S. Program (USP) works to expand access to life-changing opportunities. The evidence is still clear that having an education after high school is critical for success in today’s economy and we are deeply committed to transforming postsecondary education to become a better and more equitable producer of credentials of value for all students. Critically important is that race, ethnicity, income, and wealth are not predictors of student success. To drive the change we believe is necessary, we invest in large-scale transformation of postsecondary policy and practice that results in increased attainment of credentials of value with special attention to addressing the systemic inequities that impact students, including Black, Latino and Indigenous students, and students from low-income backgrounds.

Skills

The foundation’s U.S. Program works with partners to ensure that people navigating U.S. education systems and job markets can develop the knowledge, skills, and agency they need to thrive in their communities. Our mission is to work with partners to:

• Generate insights by using data, research, and evidence to illuminate inequities in education, workforce, and social systems and evaluate potential solutions;
• Accelerate innovation of digitally enabled solutions and high-impact practices and supports that help educators and community leaders eliminate disparities;
• Strengthen capacity of institutions, intermediaries, and leaders to implement these solutions, practices, and supports in their contexts to further test and prove their effectiveness and impact;
• Improve enabling conditions, including data infrastructure, policy, and funding, so that proven solutions, practices, and supports can scale to ensure equitable outcomes; and
• Engage partners to ensure that community voices, student voices, and other key stakeholder voices are included, heard, and incorporated into our work.

Your Role

As a Program Coordinator, you will coordinate, develop, and manage a portfolio of investments, with an emphasis on processes and systems, initial investment due diligence, and timeline management. Investment portfolios may contain a range of investment complexity. In support of programmatic strategic goals, you may provide or support budget oversight and planning, financial analysis and reporting, and process management for the portfolio of investments, which may include grants, contracts, and program related investments.

We are hiring for multiple opportunities aligned with this role profile across several teams within the U.S. Program (USP) division. While the core responsibilities and qualifications are consistent across these opportunities, some positions may be full-time roles, while others may be two-year limited-term roles. Positions will be based in either our Seattle, Washington, or Washington, D.C., office. As part of the interview process, we will consider candidates based on both their interests and the evolving needs of the teams and workstreams. If you have a strong preference regarding role type, team, or location, please indicate it in your cover letter.

What You’ll Do

• Works closely with investment makers to develop, manage, and maintain a portfolio of investments. This may include advising on investment structure, ensuring compliance with foundation processes, maintaining internal systems, initial investment due diligence, and timeline management.
• Collaborates with business partners, grantees and vendors throughout the investment lifecycle to lead investments through internal and external processes. Collects portfolio data, identifies trends and communicates issues to program team.
• Plans and participates in cross-foundation and cross-program projects as appropriate. Areas of involvement may include Investment Workflow, IT, Finance, HR, and others.
• Assists program team with annual pipeline planning process.
• Leads Request for Proposal process for program staff.
• Acts as subject matter expert on processes, tools, systems and templates and provides training, ongoing coaching and process change support to program team and external partners to ensure successful adoption and sustained use.

Your Experience

• Able to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a fast-paced, challenging environment. Open to rapid change and able to learn new things quickly. Able to distill what is needed next, even without expertise in programmatic content.
• Demonstrates effectiveness influencing individuals and teams without explicit authority.
• Recognizes complexity and assesses risks and alternatives in light of competing requirements and incomplete knowledge.
• Understands basic investment rules, regulations, policies, processes and practices and can advise when they are applicable. Is an expert in all phases of investment-making, and engages stakeholders and decision-makers, as needed.
• Ability to effectively communicate with external partners.
• Demonstrates expert knowledge of, and ability to work across multiple investment-making systems, based in Excel, SharePoint, and other web-based software applications. Basic SharePoint site administration skills, including metadata tagging, document view creation, archiving, and creating and maintaining confidential files.
• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• Project management, portfolio management, program management, financial management, financial reporting, non-profit or related industry, and/or business experience preferred.
• Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. This includes direct company sponsorship and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (eg: H-1B, O-1, L-1, E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.).

The salary range for this role is $36.68 to 51.39 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hires salaries are typically between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

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

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.

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.