Senior Program Assistant, Communications

Gates Foundation; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 51,000 - 71,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage—$

Generous paid time off

Paid family leave

Foundation retirement contribution

Regional holidays

Employee communities

Job summary

The Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA is seeking a Senior Assistant to provide comprehensive administrative support to multiple principals, including calendar management, travel coordination, and expense processing. You will help optimize team operations, planning events and retreats, and supporting knowledge management systems across the division.

With strong judgment, discretion, and collaboration, you will be a central connector ensuring smooth, efficient functioning for leaders and the broader

Qualifications

• Broad experience in high‑level administrative support for senior management.
• Ability to manage calendars across multiple time zones and prioritize competing priorities.
• Experience with travel and expense management, and event planning.

Responsibilities

• Provide high‑level administrative support for principals, prioritizing competing priorities.
• Coordinate calendars, travel, and expenses across time zones.
• Plan events and manage team rhythm of business activities.
• Support knowledge management systems and SharePoint/org chart upkeep.
• Assist with onboarding and team culture initiatives.

Skills

Calendar management

Travel coordination

Expense processing

Knowledge management

Team coordination

Communication

Discretion

MS Office

Outlook

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience

Tools

SharePoint

CoPilot/ChatGPT/AI tools

MS Teams

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 Communications Division, led by the Chief Communications Officer, oversees the foundation’s global communications strategy. The division brings together internal and external communications to advance the foundation’s mission to create a more equitable world.

Your Role

The Senior Assistant plays a vital role in providing comprehensive support to multiple principals, one of whom must be at the director level or above. This includes managing complex calendars, coordinating a high volume of meetings across time zones, and ensuring leaders’ time aligns with key strategic priorities. Acting as a trusted partner, the Senior Assistant anticipates needs, resolves scheduling conflicts, and offers thoughtful recommendations to optimize productivity.

In addition to core administrative responsibilities such as calendar management, travel coordination, and expense processing, the role contributes meaningfully to team operations and culture. This includes planning events and retreats, supporting knowledge management systems, and assisting in the team or division rhythm of business. With strong judgment, discretion, and a collaborative approach, the Senior Assistant is a central connector who helps ensure the smooth, efficient functioning of both individual leaders and the broader team.

This is a Seattle, WA based role with anticipated travel up to 15% domestically and internationally.

What You’ll Do

Core Administrative Support

• Provide high-level administrative support by anticipating and managing competing priorities, proactively handling high volumes of complex emails, travel and expense report management, coordination of workflow and rhythm of business support, and fostering strong collaborative relationships with internal and external partners.
• Leverage technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, and digital tools to streamline support, ensuring efficiency and accuracy.
• Support or lead knowledge management as needed
• Assist with maintaining the team SharePoint site and/or org chart

Calendar Management

• Provide proactive, strategic calendar management for principals, which includes leaders at the director level, aligning schedules with priorities and division goals, anticipating and continuously addressing calendar conflicts, prioritizing meetings effectively, coordinating complex cross-time-zone meetings, and managing time and communication. This may also include overseeing team calendars, representing principals in routine matters, and supporting division-level decision-making.
• Offer proactive thought partnership and specific recommendations to principal(s) re workload balancing and time management

Division/Team Support and Coordination

• Provide team support and coordination by organizing meetings and activities aligned with team goals to boost team effectiveness and culture.
• Support the team’s navigation of business operations through collaboration and information sharing.
• Organize team assistant community; this may include hosting and leading assistant meetings, providing mentorship, information dissemination from division Senior Assistant meetings, onboarding and training support
• Assist with the onboarding process for new employees, which may include onboarding meeting coordination
• Support initiatives to create and sustain team culture in collaboration with principals, as needed

Division/Team Events and Logistics Management

• Lead planning of and manage logistics for events and convenings, including internal and external meetings, retreats, team-building events, field visits, presentations, and domestic or international conferences.
• Provide thought partnership and coordination for activity and retreat objectives, outcomes, and agendas in support of building team culture. This may include preparing and disseminating materials and post-event follow-up.

Travel, Visa and Passport Support

• Manage all aspects of principal travel, including flights, lodging, visas, ground transportation, and security, by coordinating with internal and external partners, ensuring readiness of all logistical and content-related materials, supporting leadership-level trip planning, and tracking related resources to enable seamless, efficient travel execution.

Communication

• Engage with principals and stakeholders to ensure clarity on calendar-related questions, conflicts, and trade-offs, exercising sound judgment and professionalism to support informed decision-making, manage sensitive information with discretion, and ensure timely escalation and knowledge-sharing across the team and foundation.
• Proactively provide clear, timely, and audience-appropriate communications for all inquiries and requests of principals, while maintaining consistent communication with internal and external partners.
• Communicate team and foundation knowledge management changes to the team in a timely manner

Business Operations

• Support and help optimize division and team effectiveness by tracking and coordinating rhythm of business (ROB) processes in collaboration with SPM and OCCO roles, while leading or contributing to knowledge management systems and assistant cohort process improvements, including team distribution lists, SharePoint sites, or MS Teams channels.

Your Experience

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• Broad knowledge of the mission, values, resources, culture and business strategies.
• Ability to prioritize effectively, utilize time precisely, and communicate decisions and process to execution in a clear and effective manner.
• Knowledge of how to best make decisions on behalf of leaders, speaking in the voice of and to the key messages, vision, and goals agreed upon by the leadership team.
• Understanding of how to identify team needs and opportunities and how to champion and resolve them.
• Intermediate experience in an administrative job supporting senior management or executives.
• Experience leading and building relationships to gain the respect and trust of others.
• Experience adopting approach, goals, and methods to achieve solutions and results in dynamic situations, helping others deal with the ongoing demands of change.
• Experience working with MS Office suite, especially Outlook, and including CoPilot, ChatGPT, and other AI tools is strongly 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.