Senior Program Officer, Data & Insights Role at Gates Foundation: Lead Philanthropic Data Strategy in Global Health. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is seeking a Senior Program Officer to shape and execute a groundbreaking data strategy for global philanthropy. This full-time role, based in Seattle or Washington D.C., focuses on improving philanthropic data flows, curating high-impact giving opportunities, and exploring AI’s transformative potential in charitable giving. With a competitive salary range of $186,400 to $288,800, this position requires 7+ years of experience in nonprofit data strategy and grantmaking. Applications are being accepted until August 27, 2025. Discover how you can use your data expertise to mobilize resources that fight global poverty and disease.
Background & Job Description
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation stands as one of the world’s largest private foundations, driven by the belief that every person deserves the chance to live a healthy, productive life. Fighting poverty, disease, and inequity globally, the foundation operates with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in both its workforce and its mission.
We are sharing a prestigious career opportunity for a Senior Program Officer, Data & Insights within the foundation’s Philanthropic Partnerships team (PPT). This team works to mobilize resources and build the next generation of champions for global health and development, ensuring philanthropy effectively supports the world’s most vulnerable populations.
The Data & Insights portfolio is a critical function that strengthens the information infrastructure supporting smarter giving toward global health and development. This role focuses on three pivotal areas: improving data flows to ensure more timely and usable philanthropic data; curating giving opportunities to help donors align their resources with needs; and exploring how AI and emerging technologies can improve charitable decision-making. This is a high-impact position that serves as the internal and external go-to expert on global philanthropic data and research.
Tasks and Responsibilities
The Senior Program Officer will be responsible for a comprehensive portfolio of strategic activities:
- Strategy and Program Development: Lead the ongoing development of the Data & Insights core bodies of work, scoping, shaping, and building support for specific grant strategies that align with PPT’s resource-mobilization objectives.
- Grantmaking and Partnerships: Develop and steward a grant portfolio that cultivates a rich, actionable philanthropy-data ecosystem. Cultivate partnerships with data providers to enable deeper integration, shared standards, and common strategic direction.
- Thought Leadership and Influence: Serve as a philanthropy data thought leader internally and externally, representing the foundation at conferences and events while contributing to shaping the foundation’s position on issues related to philanthropy and charitable giving.
- Insights into Action: Support the team’s measurement, learning and evaluation work, ensuring strong tracking and actionable insights for decision-making. Proactively identify opportunities to integrate sector lessons into PPT’s work.
- Collaboration and Coordination: Work effectively across a highly matrixed environment, linking data insights with various PPT levers including Products & Innovation, Partnership Development, and The Giving Pledge to unlock catalytic giving.
Senior Program Officer, Data & Insights Role at Gates Foundation: Lead Philanthropic Data Strategy in Global Health.
Qualifications
This senior role requires an exceptional candidate with significant expertise in philanthropy data and strategy.
Education and Certification
- A Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Economics, Finance, Public Policy, Business, Gender Studies, or Data Science is required.
- An advanced degree in any of these fields would be considered a strong asset.
Experience
- A minimum of 7+ years of progressive experience in nonprofit strategy consulting, leading grant strategies in nonprofit data, or leadership of nonprofit/philanthropic data initiatives.
- Demonstrated experience in strategic thinking and shaping investment portfolios that align with broader organizational goals in philanthropy or international development.
- Significant familiarity with philanthropic and nonprofit data, and how it can be used to inform giving, build tools, or influence practice.
- Proven experience in grantmaking or partnership design, ideally at the intersection of data, insight, and philanthropic practice.
- Experience working directly with ultra-high-net-worth donors and knowledge of the philanthropic landscape in Africa, India, the Middle East and/or China is highly desirable.
- Experience in measurement and evaluation within philanthropy and translating research into practice for diverse audiences.
Additional Information
Please note that our platform is sharing this opportunity independently; we are not directly affiliated with the Gates Foundation’s recruitment team. All applications must be submitted through the official Gates Foundation career portal.
This is a full-time position based in Seattle, WA or Washington, DC. In some cases, domestic remote work within the United States may be considered, but remote work from outside the U.S. is not permitted. The role requires approximately 20% travel. Visa sponsorship and relocation assistance are not provided for this position.
The salary range for this role is $186,400 to $288,800 USD, with a higher range of $203,100 to $314,900 for the Seattle and Washington D.C. areas due to market differences. Applications will be accepted until 5 PM PT on Tuesday, August 27, 2025.
The foundation requires a background check as part of the hiring process and is committed to creating an inclusive workplace that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion of voices, ideas, and approaches.
To Apply: Interested candidates must apply through the official Gates Foundation career portal (requisition id: B021128) and include a short cover letter explaining how their professional and/or lived experience connects with the Philanthropic Partnerships Team’s work and the foundation’s values.
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