Senior Officer, Advocacy, International Relations and Policy Planning, North America Team (16 month LTE)

The Foundation

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 mission of the Global Policy & Advocacy (GPA) division is to understand and shape the public policy debates affecting the foundation's work, build support for its major program and policy objectives, and develop partnerships and alliances that can advance the foundation's objectives nationally and globally. Because the foundation's resources alone are not enough to solve the challenges ahead, GPA also supports advocacy efforts to engage diverse stakeholders and promote innovative solutions that advance our program goals. We work in close partnership with grantees, our colleagues in the Global Health, Global Development, Global Growth & Opportunity, U.S. and Gender Equality programs and Communications to build the environment in which all people can lead healthy and productive lives. The North America Team (NAT) is a team within GPA that develops and executes policy, advocacy, communications and government relations strategies to build political support and advance domestic and global programmatic priorities that are funded by, or executed within, the United States, Canada, and the United Nations.

Your Role

The Senior Officer, Advocacy, International Relations and Policy Planning (IRPP), North America Team, will be responsible for translating foundation strategies and priorities into policy-relevant arguments and advocacy opportunities across priority IRPP markets, including Canada and the UN. The role will also lead special advocacy initiatives to advance maternal and child survival through sport and new partnerships, and related to global AI governance. Working closely with the Deputy Director, Canada and UN leads, AI policy lead, and partnering with program, policy, communications, and other teams across the foundation, this role will support a collaborative, One Foundation approach to market engagement. The successful candidate will bring strong political and institutional judgment, the ability to synthesize complex global health and development strategies, and experience connecting programmatic priorities to the political economy and institutional context of government and multilateral audiences.

• This is a 16 month limited term employment role.
• Salary plus benefits are provided.
• Relocation assistance and employer Visa support are not available for this role.
• Role can be located in Seattle, WA or Washington, DC.
• 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.).

What You'll Do

Special Projects:

• Lead special projects that test and strengthen new advocacy approaches to advance maternal and child survival, including:
• Sports advocacy model: Lead development of a strategic approach to better leverage sport to advance maternal and child survival.
• Support the operationalization of new ideas and engagement models, connecting efforts and learning across IRPP markets.
• Global political coalition: Lead an emerging initiative to build a new global political coalition in support of maternal and child survival through a new partnership.
• Help shape the advocacy approach, develop relationships with new champions, and connect the initiative to foundation and market priorities.
• Supporting emerging AI global governance advocacy partnerships: Partner across the foundation: Build effective working relationships with program, policy, communications, and other relevant teams to bring technical expertise and market insight together, align priorities, and coordinate contributions to shared work.
• Understand foundation priorities: Work with program and issue advocacy teams to understand the global development challenges the foundation seeks to address, the solutions set out in its strategies, and their intended impact, drawing on technical expertise across the foundation.
• Assess market context: Work with Canada and UN leads to assess the political economy, institutional mandates, priorities, capabilities, and constraints shaping each market, including Canadian interests and the forward-looking agenda of the UN ecosystem in New York.
• Translate into market opportunities: Bring these analyses together with market leads to identify how each market could advance foundation priorities and the expected impact of its contributions.
• Develop market-specific policy proposals, arguments, and concrete asks with relevant foundation teams, supporting market leads in developing their advocacy approaches.
• Support broader policy and development architecture work: Partner with the Deputy Director on broader policy and development architecture questions, i.e. global cooperation trends, system reforms, etc., examining how global trends and institutional changes affect foundation priorities and the roles IRPP markets can play.
• Partner and Contract Management: Engage and manage external partners and consultants supporting these workstreams. Develop scopes of work, manage contracts, oversee deliverables and budgets, and coordinate with relevant internal teams to ensure work remains aligned with agreed objectives.

Your Experience

• 10+ years of experience in advocacy, government relations, public policy, multilateral engagement, or strategy, ideally in a nonprofit, governmental, philanthropic, or international setting.
• An advanced degree is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience translating complex global health or development strategies into clear policy arguments, market-specific asks, and practical advocacy approaches, combining broad policy understanding with the ability to engage deeply with technical subjects.
• Proven ability to craft big-picture strategic direction while developing and executing flexible, practical implementation plans.
• Experience engaging external partners and managing contracts, including scopes of work, budgets, timelines, and deliverables.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with an ability to synthesize complex concepts, evidence, political context, and recommendations succinctly and persuasively.
• Demonstrated ability to lead ambiguous or emerging workstreams, assess competing priorities, and deliver high-quality analysis and products for multiple internal collaborators.
• Knowledge of global health, Canada’s development policy and political ecosystem, and the UN system would be an asset.
• Highly collaborative, and low ego.

The salary range for this role is $212,800 to $329,800 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle, WA and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $234,000 to $362,800 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 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. 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.