Senior Program Officer, Evidence for Systems Improvement (11-month LTE*)

Gates Foundation; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 209,000 - 324,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Paid time off

Family leave

Retirement contribution

Job summary

The Foundation in Washington, DC invites applications for a role in the Advocacy & System Improvement team. You will manage a portfolio of education grants and contracts, collaborating to catalyze investments that improve student outcomes through scalable interventions and credible evidence.

You’ll shape investment strategies, support model development, and build ecosystems with researchers, practitioners, and partners to sustain impact.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• Significant experience leading complex initiatives with budget responsibility.
• Experience working with higher education institutions, school districts, or education agencies.
• Demonstrated experience in R&D of education-related interventions impacting student success.
• Experience leading research initiatives or design projects in education.
• Experience in development and distribution of education products or services; investment expertise is a plus.
• Strong knowledge of education sector across school, district, state, and federal levels.

Responsibilities

• Negotiate and manage a complex portfolio of program-related grants and contracts.
• Support the development and validation of models, tools, platforms, and solutions for student outcomes.
• Design investments to improve access to market information on product quality and pricing.
• Identify gaps in digital product availability and guide investment mechanisms.
• Foster an ecosystem of product developers and maintain feedback loops with practitioners and researchers.
• Evaluate and support business models for scalable, sustainable field solutions.
• Apply user-centered design to understand incentives and needs of end users and decision makers.
• Catalyze additional funding sources to scale proven solutions.
• Manage and nurture partner relationships with shared program goals.
• Provide technical guidance to U.S. program colleagues on education topics.
• Review letters of inquiry and grant proposals with clear analyses and funding recommendations.
• Collaborate with grantees to improve project impact and ensure strategy alignment.
• Align programs with foundation strategy and integrate with other programs.

Skills

Grant management

Education policy

Education R&D

Stakeholder engagement

Project leadership

Budget ownership

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree in Education

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 Advocacy & System Improvement team operates as an engine for sustainable impact at scale within US Program. The role of this team is not to develop or deliver solutions, but to enable systems to adopt and sustain effective practices, and to change how systems operate so those practices become standard, scalable, and durable. In this context, the solutions our colleagues develop and deliver are more likely to reach more learners, driving collective progress toward our shared goals.

Within this team, the Assessment Initiative works to advance the field’s capacity to generate credible, actionable evidence of student learning particularly for learners traditionally furthest from opportunity. The Initiative invests across two interconnected areas of work: upstream innovation in assessment capabilities, AI interpretation methodology, and the measurement science that makes AI-mediated assessment trustworthy; and the evidence infrastructure, tools, and field practices that enable schools and systems to act on that evidence in time to accelerate the pace of improvement for students.

Read more about our updated strategy here: https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/documents/usprogramoverview.pdf

Application Deadline

Friday, October 30, 2026

Your Role

You develop and manage a portfolio of investments (grants and contracts) to advance a solution specific goal. You collaborate with colleagues and the broader field to develop and implement an investment strategy that catalyzes the development and validation of interventions and innovations that improve student outcomes.

• This is an 11-month limited-term opportunity with Foundation benefits. Please note that relocation assistance is not available for this position.

What You'll Do

• Negotiate and manage a complex portfolio of program-related grants and contracts that advance solutions from early-stage development, validation, commercialization, and implementation at scale.
• Support the development and validation of new models, tools, platforms, and solutions that advance student outcomes and meet key criteria of affordability, usability, and other dimensions of quality.
• Design investments to improve availability and transparency of market information around digital content and tools that ensure that key partners have access to up-to-date information on product quality, pricing, and use cases.
• Identify gaps in current digital product availability and quality, develop and manage investment mechanisms to catalyze product development and improvement.
• Cultivate an active ecosystem of entrepreneurial product developers, ensure strong feedback loops between innovative practitioners, researchers, and the developer community.
• Evaluate and support the development of business models for organizations and companies that design and deliver solutions that serve the needs of the field in a scalable and sustainable manner.
• Foster a user-centered design approaches to help understand incentives for and needs of end users, institutional decision makers, practitioners, developers, distributors, funders, and policy makers in ways that improve the impact of the priority solutions.
• Help catalyze additional sources of capital, including philanthropic, public, and private funding that contribute to the scaling of innovation and the growth and the sustainability of proven solutions.
• Manage collaborative and trusting partner relationships in ways that ensure productive feedback loops between partners and the foundation around shared goals.
• Provide technical guidance and insights to colleagues cross the U.S. program on research and development related topics in education.
• Review letters of inquiry and grant proposals and provide clear, concise, and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding.
• Consult with grantees and other partners to improve impact of projects and ensure grants are meeting strategy goals.
• Manage and implement a program that aligns with foundation strategy and is operationally integrated with other foundation programs.
• Contribute to the design of new strategies, collaborations, and implementation plans to ensure long-term sustainability and impact.
• Represent the foundation to key program-related external constituencies, as appropriate, on committees related to area of expertise and responsibilities of the position.
• Support inclusive culture through modeling behaviors and actions; raise issues in a timely fashion to appropriate colleagues.

Your Experience

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• Significant experience leading complex initiatives with budget responsibility at the institutional or organizational level.
• Significant experience working in or closely with a higher education institution, school district, state education agency, charter management organization, or other education-related organization.
• Demonstrated experience in research and development of relevant education-related interventions that impact conditions for student success.
• Experience leading significant research initiatives or design projects in education.
• Significant experience in development and distribution of education products or services; venture capital or private equity investing; venture philanthropy or impact investing; management consulting; education entrepreneurship; education program management; education research.
• Experience with grant design/development and management with an investor’s approach.
• Strong working knowledge of the education sector at multiples levels (school, district, state, and federal).
• Mastery level understanding of education research funding mechanisms, evaluation, and synthesis processes and methodologies.
• Ability to build a strong network of relationships with key influencers across the research to commercialization continuum.
• Knowledge of inclusive user centered design processes, research and evidence building methodologies, and study design.
• Strong knowledge of state and institutional policy relevant to the design, adoption, and implementation of education solutions.
• Ability to conduct pattern and trend recognition, cost analysis, and product-market fit analysis.
• 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 $190,100 to $294,700 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $209,100 to $324,100 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.