SPO Adolescents and Youth, Family Planning Job - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Seattle, WA

Division
Global Development Program

Department
Family Planning

Location
Seattle

Foundation Overview

Guided by the belief that all lives have equal value, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation pride ourselves in being ‘impatient optimists’ whose purpose is to work to reduce inequity. Our vision is to ensure a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. We have four missions to:

-Ensure more children and young people survive and thrive;

-Empower the poorest, especially women and girls, to transform their lives;

-Combat infectious diseases that particularly affect the poorest; and

-Inspire people to take action to change the world.

Key to enabling these missions is our commitment to science and innovation, collaboration and partnership, measurement and rigor, as well as optimism and risk taking. Based in Seattle, the foundation has a worldwide staff of 1,500 people and is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. We have offices in the United States, Europe, India, China and Africa.

Group Summary
The goal of the Global Development Program (GDP) is to increase opportunities for people in the developing world to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty and to help deliver targeted healthcare solutions in these regions. Our strategies focus on Polio, Agriculture Development, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Financial Services for the Poor, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Family Planning and Nutrition. These strategies are supported by functional teams that focus on Vaccine Delivery and Integrated Delivery. GDP also has Special Initiatives that focus Urban Poverty, Emergency Relief, Global Libraries and Value for the Money.

Responsibilities
The largest cohort of young people in history is entering their reproductive years. There is an urgent need to address unmet need for contraception and increase access to a full range of voluntary, quality family planning information and services among adolescents and youth. While there is some existing evidence regarding how best to increase uptake of contraceptives among this population, greater attention and investment is needed to identify and test innovative youth-driven models that are cost-effective, scalable and replicable. Within the family planning context, we also recognize the need to better understand and address gender equality and empowerment among adolescents and youth. For this reason we have created an important new position of Senior Program Officer (SPO), Adolescents and Youth on the Family Planning team. The SPO will contribute distinct expertise and perspective to further define and launch the Family Planning team’s cross-cutting focus on adolescents and youth. The SPO will strategically develop and manage a portfolio of grants as well as be responsible for collaboration and coordination across relevant teams within the foundation working to advance the health and development needs of adolescents and youth. We seek an individual that is recognized as a leader for their global work with adolescents and youth and with specific experience working in reaching adolescents through non-public sector channels.

Responsibilities include:

• Provide leadership and strategic direction for new and existing investments within the adolescent and youth portfolio, serving as the team’s subject matter expert and visionary on youth and adolescents.

• Remain up-to-date on evidence and best practices of Family Planning (FP) and Reproductive Health (RH) for adolescents and youth. Ensure that approach and execution build not only from the existing evidence base but also leverage new, groundbreaking investments that will address the evidence gaps.

• Establish strong relationships with external partners working within the field of adolescent global health and other non-traditional partners in order to build creative partnerships. Look beyond existing and obvious partners to identify the next frontier of opportunity in all sectors, including the private sector.

• Manage grantee relationships, ensuring investments are on track and grantees receive the support they need as well as fully understand strategic objectives related to our youth strategy. May include performance based investments.

• Ensure appropriate documentation, grant budgeting and reporting for existing grants as well as draft and edit proposal summaries and progress reports for review by foundation leadership.

• Consult with grantees and other partners to maximize impact of projects and ensure optimal learning. This may include: site visits, providing operational guidance and convening meetings of key stakeholders.

• Monitor and evaluate the impact of FP adolescents and youth grant making by working with the foundation’s Strategy, Measurement and Evaluation team as well as lead the refinement of the youth portfolio across the different Family Planning team’s Initiatives.

• Engage across all FP initiative areas to ensure a comprehensive approach to adolescents and youth within the FP strategy, and ensure strong collaborations across matrix internal collaboration.

• Participate in the cross-foundation work on girls and gender equality by building strong internal partnerships to strengthen our collective work and extend our shared knowledge base.

• Supervise, review and contribute to the development of letters of inquiry and grant proposals; provide clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding.

• Serve as a mentor to members of the FP team in support of their professional development. As required provide direct supervision to team members.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will be passionate and energized to foster increased contraceptive information and services for adolescents. S/he will have an exceptional track record of working with innovative approaches, new technologies and the private sector to engage young people. We are looking candidates that are ambitious, strategic, deeply grounded in the existing evidence base and eager to think creatively and boldly to advance our adolescent family planning and reproductive health goals. S/he will have experience of designing and/or implementing cost-effective, scalable models in the field. The successful candidate will also demonstrate a clear understanding of the sociological literature on norms and adolescent development, including the role of young men in family planning programs. Additionally, they will be a credible voice to provide technical leadership within the FP team, across the foundation and with external partners.

The candidate should have the following qualifications:

• MPH, MPP, PhD or equivalent advanced degree and minimum 10-15 years of experience leading programs related to youth and family planning, reproductive health, empowerment, and access to health services.

• Familiarity working across a wide range of health service channels, including a strong level of experience with the private sector.

• Proven experience running, replicating, and evaluating youth-focused programs. Experience in key geographies (DRC, Ethiopia, India (UP and Bihar), Indonesia, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, and/or Tanzania) with in-country field work is strongly preferred.

• Understanding of and appreciation for the complexities of the lives of young people in different geographical regions.

• Familiarity with current evidence-based approaches to gender, empowerment, and reaching youth with sexual and reproductive health information and services.

• Experience in strategy development and measurement with specific experience in the area of adolescent FP/RH.

• Experience and knowledge of family planning program provision for adolescents in public and private sector delivery channels.

• Fluency in the technical literature on adolescent sexual health and family planning.

• Experience with user-centered design approaches and evaluation.

• Experience collaborating with international donors, private sector industry, research institutes, and other foundations working in the global health arena, particularly in the area of youth and adolescents.

• Demonstrated excellence in scientific writing and data analysis, written and oral communication skills, and experience advocating and communicating with a broad and diverse audience.

• Demonstrated ability to work with diverse teams including scientists, business analysts, program implementers and developing country stakeholders is required.

• Experience supervising team members.

• Proven ability to lead and influence data-driven strategy planning and implementation.

• Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Requisition Number
5544BR