Senior Program Officer, Advising Solutions and Distribution at Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA

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 Postsecondary Courseware and Navigation team harnesses AI-enabled tools to remove widespread barriers that stand between learners and a postsecondary credential that reflects their skills and knowledge and delivers sustained economic value. The team recognizes that some barriers are about learning itself, and others are about navigation—the ability for learners to move within and across fragmented systems with ease, cost-effectiveness, and recognition of the skills and knowledge they’ve gained along the way. This team invests in AI-enabled gateway courses, personal advising, and learning mobility; taken together, these efforts support today’s learners to build momentum across enrollment, persistence, and credential completion. Your Role You are responsible for advancing the foundation’s strategy to develop AI-native advising solutions that help students navigate the transition from high school to postsecondary education and into the workforce . You lead investments to build and steward an organization that manages the shared technical components powering AI-native advising products, broker engagement with enterprise technology providers to encourage integration of these solutions into the education platforms used by schools and districts, and shape the distribution strategy to reach the students and contexts where they will have the greatest impact. You bring mastery-level knowledge of AI product development, platform architecture, and the postsecondary advising landscape, combined with an entrepreneurial track record in standing up or stewarding new organizations through governance, business model development, and pathways to scale. *Applications accepted until 12 PM/Noon Pacific Time on Monday, September 28, 2026. Relocation assistance is available for this role for the hired candidate. What You'll Do Design, negotiate, and manage a portfolio of grants and contracts to advance the design, build, and launch of AI-native advising solutions that improve student outcomes at scale. Lead investments to stand up and steward a new or existing organization that bundles navigation public goods into a middleware platform and deploys exemplar low-code AI-native advising systems of engagement that travel with students across institutions and sectors. Develop and steward the foundation’s distribution strategy for AI-native advising solutions, sequencing investments across enterprise platforms, incumbent providers, and direct-to-institution channels to ensure solutions reach the students and contexts where they will have the greatest impact. Lead team engagement with enterprise technology providers (e.g., major cloud and productivity platform companies) to encourage integration of navigation solutions into their education platforms, while ensuring incumbent college and career advising software providers can harness shared technical components to strengthen their products. Steward the long-term health and durability of core product partners, monitoring governance, business model viability, leadership, and pathways to sustainable scale, bringing an impact orientation that connects each investment decision to meaningful change for students. Continuously scan