Senior Program Officer, Gynecology

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 238,400 - 369,400; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage

Generous paid time off

Paid family leave

Foundation-paid retirement contribution

Regional holidays

Job summary

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle is looking for a Senior Program Officer, Gynecology to lead initiatives that address heavy menstrual bleeding for women and girls in low middle-income countries.

The role involves collaborating with private sector partners, researchers, and organizations to drive product development and align strategies that enhance women's health. The candidate should have a strong background in gynecologic care and extensive experience in women's health product development.

Qualifications

• 10+ years’ experience in women’s health product development.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complex environments.
• Strong knowledge of global health networks and organizations.

Responsibilities

• Lead initiatives for addressing heavy menstrual bleeding in LMICs.
• Develop portfolio of investments focused on gynecologic health.
• Collaborate with various stakeholders to align innovation.

Skills

Gynecologic care

Clinical trial design

Stakeholder management

Research expertise

Product development

Education

Advanced degree (MD and/or PhD) in gynecology

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 Gender Equality Division’s mission is to ensure women and girls in Africa and South Asia can enjoy good health, make their own choices, earn their own money, and be leaders in their societies. When women and girls have an equal chance to thrive and lead, everyone benefits. We know that women and girls are not a monolith. A woman’s experience and the barriers she faces are different depending on factors like where she lives, how old she is, and how much money her family has—alongside other factors including her race, caste, and education level. We seek to address these compounding barriers through deep partnership with our grantees. As a philanthropy, our role is to listen to and learn from these experts. We take risks in new areas, prove concepts, and bring these ideas to governments, partner organizations, and private sector companies to scale. The Gender Equality (GE) Division builds off our existing strengths as a foundation in areas like global health and data, partnering closely with all our global divisions. The Women’s Health Innovations (WHI) team within the GE Division is a newly established group focused on developing and accelerating the introduction and scale-up of interventions that disproportionately affect the health and economic outcomes of women and girls. WHI prioritizes three key areas: family planning and contraceptive technologies (CT), gynecological health, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In addition, the team focuses on two cross-cutting areas: product introduction and market access, and strengthening the women’s health R&D ecosystem.

Your Role

The Senior Program Officer, Gynecology (SPO) will lead a portfolio of investments and partnerships to support development and introduction of products to address high burden gynecologic conditions for women and girls in Low Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The SPO will collaborate with private sector partners, researchers and their institutions, global health organizations, professional societies, and government agencies, to align innovation with needs of women and girls within LMIC health ecosystems. We are seeking a technically skilled and strategically driven Senior Program Officer to lead initiatives that transform the landscape of the understanding and interventions for heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) for women and girls in LMICs. The ideal candidate will bring strong clinical perspectives for gynecologic care for HMB, have research and data generation expertise, product development experience, and a passion for addressing health barriers for women and girls in LMICs.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as an internal subject matter expert in gynecologic etiologies of heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and the relationship to anemia, as well as other key gynecologic conditions, such as vaginal dysbiosis.
• Develop a strategically aligned portfolio of investments focused on HMB.
• Identify and seek concepts for investments that align with WHI GYN strategy.
• Closely manage a diverse portfolio of investments.
• Work with grantees to ensure optimal output and impact of these investments.
• Lead WHI initiatives for HMB and gynecology/menstrual health (MH).
• Collaborate with data team to assess and address gaps in understanding of HMB etiology, prevalence, and burden, focusing on association with anemia and well-being.
• Assess efficacy of existing HMB treatments in reducing sequelae.
• Identify and address barriers to HMB treatment uptake and access to services.
• Support development of evidence-based HMB treatment guidelines/policies.
• Lead clinical assessment and development of point of care (POC) AI-guided ultrasound for gynecologic use cases, including evaluation of etiologies of HMB, in collaboration with internal matrix technical collaborators (EDGE, MNCNH).
• Drive collaboration with internal matrix partners (RHT, Discovery) and own investments to advance the understanding of the biologic mechanisms of key gynecologic conditions (i.e., HMB, bacterial vaginosis) to inform product development.
• Develop network with organizations and maintain current with cutting-edge innovations and innovators in these fields, actively engaging with key stakeholders in the ecosystem.
• Collaborate on workstreams with external partners on investments to develop, assess, and introduce new tools focused on addressing HMB/anemia.
• Assess and develop perspective on opportunities for WHI engagement in other gynecologic conditions such as adenomyosis, fibroids, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), menopause, and female genital schistosomiasis as outputs of the gynecologic learning agenda.

Your Experience

• Advanced degree (MD and/or PhD) in gynecology, or adjacent area.
• 10+ years’ experience in women’s health product development (e.g., therapeutics and/or diagnostics), research of gynecologic conditions, and/or gynecology clinical care, including assessment of and treatment of HMB, BV, and other priority GYN conditions.
• Demonstrated experience with design and implementation of clinical trials to support product development of solutions, preferably in the field of HMB.
• Critical assessment of epidemiological, population and clinical trial data.
• Strong knowledge of relevant global networks and professional societies (i.e., FIGO).
• Strong program and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to coordinate diverse stakeholders, including NGOs, industry, academia, and private sector.
• Demonstrated ability to translate technical knowledge into actionable strategies, influencing investment decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate highly sensitive or politically complex environments and operate effectively in ambiguous situations with limited information; comfortable executing and making decisions amid uncertainty.
• Experience in product development, conducting research, or clinical care in LMIC’s, and understanding of LMIC healthcare systems is desired.
• This role requires up to 30% global travel to partner sites, developing country settings, and internal/external meetings and convenings.
• The salary range for this role is $238,400 to $369,400 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 $262,200 to $406,400 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. Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, we work with partners to create impactful solutions so that people can take charge of their futures and achieve their full potential. In the United States, we aim to ensure that everyone—especially those with the fewest resources—has access to the opportunities needed to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Bill Gates and our governing board.