Program Assistant, Immunization

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 Global Development division (GD) includes a diverse range of program areas focused on finding creative ways to ensure solutions and products get into the hands of people in low-income countries. We focus on areas with the potential for high-impact, sustainable solutions that can reach millions of people. Our strategies include Emergency Response, Immunization, and Polio Eradication. A common theme across these programs is focus on innovative delivery, including an emphasis on strengthening primary health care systems. Our teams work in close partnership with our Country Office Teams to align the foundation’s health and development equity agenda with the government’s broader priorities.

Vaccines are a core priority of the Gates Foundation and can save millions of lives a year when delivered effectively. The mission of our Immunization Program Strategy Team (PST) is to urgently reach children, adolescents, and adults -- no matter where they live -- with the vaccines they need. Our goal is a world free of vaccine-preventable diseases, and we do this by working with countries, development partners, and civil society organizations, to make sure that vaccines and immunization are effectively prioritized and delivered. Robust and resilient immunization programs are critical to achieving the promise of vaccination and are a cornerstone of primary health care, and we work to ensure that there are sufficient, affordable supplies to meet demand. We seek to bring new perspectives to challenging problems as we focus on results that can be delivered at scale. All our work on vaccines and immunization contributes to ia2030, which is a vision and commitment by the global community to extend the full benefits of immunization to all by 2030.

Your Role

The Program Assistant is an integral member of the team and works with principals to prioritize scheduling needs for the team, acting as a thought partner to look at the overall needs for meeting requests and alignment with team strategic priorities. The Program Assistant provides wide and varied administrative and organizational support for the program and operations leaders and teams. Efficiency, attention to detail, flexibility, good interpersonal and problem-solving skills are essential in this role.

What You’ll Do

Core Administrative Support

• Provide comprehensive administrative support by managing high volumes of email, tracking priorities, handling expenses and reimbursements, and engaging in special projects as needed

• Leverage technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and digital tools to streamline support, ensuring efficiency and accuracy

• Support knowledge management for individual sub-teams in alignment with overarching team knowledge management strategy

• Assist with maintaining the team SharePoint site and org charts

Calendar Management

• Provide high-level scheduling and calendar support for multiple principals —including those in leadership — by coordinating complex, high-volume meetings across time zones, managing calendars, prioritizing tasks, and ensuring effective communication and conflict resolution

• Continuous calendar(s) conflict management and meeting prioritization for Deputy Director and above.

• For Deputy Director and above: Proactively review upcoming weeks/months and support principals with planning, recognizing potential bottlenecks and making recommendations for how to best allocate time/make trade-offs when scheduling issues arise.

Division/Team Support and Coordination

• Support team effectiveness and culture by serving as a resource on business operations, participating in assistant meetings, and collaborating with leadership on team culture initiatives

• In partnership with team and sub-team leads, support new team members with onboarding meeting coordination

Division/Team Events and Logistics Management

• Assist in planning and logistics for events and convenings, including internal/external meetings, retreats, team building events, presentations, domestic or international conferences, which may include coordinating arrangements and reimbursements for participants, handling venue and travel logistics, room set-up, and preparing and disseminating materials.

• Support or provide project management, planning, coordination, and preparation for deliverables and workstreams (as needed / if of interest to PA)

Travel, Visa and Passport Support

• Provide travel and visa support to principals, which may include coordinating flights, lodging, ground transportation, and security, confirming meetings and venues, preparing travel materials, and managing visa/passport processes

Communication

• Communicate effectively with principals to ensure clarity on questions, conflicts, and trade-offs related to calendar management, facilitating informed decision-making

• Provide clear, timely, and audience-appropriate communication for all inquiries and requests, while maintaining consistent communication with internal and external partners

• Establish and manage relationships with grantees in the field as well as internal and external partners. 

Your Experience

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience

• Some experience in an administrative job for a complex and fast-paced organization

• Experience working with MS Office suite, especially Outlook, and including CoPilot, Chat GPT and other AI tools is strongly preferred.

• Experience setting priorities and meeting deadlines while balancing multiple competing priorities

• Proven positive, collaborative approach to work, including a dedication to problem solving. 

Other Attributes

• Professional level French language capabilities will be prioritized as this person will support Francophone partner engagement and staff.

• Has excellent decision-making skills, can prioritize effectively, and communicate decisions and processes to execution in a clear effective manner. 

• Able to find solutions that are fitting for diverse groups with differing interests and needs by providing high-quality interactions, and clear and consistent communication. 

• Experience working on teams with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds.  

• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain credibility and positive working relationships with staff.

The salary range for this role is $31.44 to $44.04 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.

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 (e.g. H-1B, O-1, L-1, E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.).

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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 View email address on click.appcast.io 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.