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Job Vacancies at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people- especially those with the fewest resources - have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation 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 are recruiting to fill the positions below:
Job Title: Senior Communications Officer
Ref No: B014600
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Job Type: Full time
Position Reports to: Deputy Director, Program Advocacy and Communications, Nigeria
Group Summary
- The External Communications team helps advance the foundation’s global advocacy priorities through strategic communications while strengthening and protecting the foundation’s reputation.
- The team is responsible for driving the foundation’s overarching communications strategy through targeted issue-specific and cross-cutting campaigns designed to reach and engage influencers.
- We oversee editorial planning and develop strategies to optimize leadership voice, brand, and creative content through the foundation’s owned channels and earned media.
Leadership & Culture:
- Our culture shapes our choices about what we do and how we do it. We believe that energized people, working well together, fueled by great leadership in an inclusive environment can do extraordinary things.
- We expect foundation employees to intentionally and consistently embody our four agreements; show respect, offer trust, be transparent, and create energy.
Position Summary
- The primary responsibility of the Senior Communications Officer, Nigeria, is to develop and implement a coordinated and innovative communications and media strategy that will use a range of high-quality communications tactics, dissemination strategies, materials, specific events/initiatives; and creative tools, including social media to help achieve the foundation’s programmatic and advocacy goals in Nigeria.
- This will be done in close collaboration with Nigeria-based leadership and staff, communications partners in the Gates Foundation’s Africa Regional and Seattle offices, program teams, and other policy and advocacy colleagues. It will also involve collaboration with a range of external foundation grantees and partners, including-given the Gates Foundation’s work with Nigeria’s government-government communications professionals at both federal and state levels.
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works in close partnership with Nigeria’s federal and state governments, civil society, the private sector and development partners in support of the country’s development goals—particularly in Human Capital Development, Health, Agriculture, Digital Innovation and Data, Nutrition, Gender and Financial Services for the poor.
- The Senior Communications Officer must be well-positioned to lead communications interventions that support the country program and will have a good understanding of reputation risk management.
- The Senior Communications Officer will report to Nigeria-based Deputy Director for Policy, Advocacy, and Communications, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Africa Regional Office’s Deputy Director for Communications, based in Johannesburg.
Core Responsibilities
- With leadership and staff colleagues, develop and implement a Nigeria communications strategy that deploys foundation assets (e.g., grants and contracts, leadership voice, convening ability, staff time) in support of the Gates Foundation’s strategy and its programmatic, policy and financing goals.
- Work internally with Abuja-based, regional, and global program partners and communications colleagues to align strategies, gather information and lead on communications projects, including managing partners and consultants to work on communication work.
- Work with internal partners - and lead investments in outside partners - to develop communication materials, events, and initiatives.
- Collaborate with colleagues in the region and in Seattle to support the foundation’s advocacy goals and corporate communications priorities, including dissemination of the foundation’s flagship campaigns and publications.
- Lead and manage communications and media engagements of executive and foundation leadership visits to the country(primarily the Nigeria Country Director, but potentially including Co-chairs, CEO, Division Presidents and other Directors visiting Nigeria).
- Build and maintain relationships with Nigerian media partners, and communications partners at other relevant government, donor, and civil society organizations in Nigeria - in coordination with internal foundation communications colleagues.
- Work closely with the global External Communications team, the Africa Communications team, the Program Advocacy, and Communications team, and Program Strategy teams to coordinate and prioritize the foundation’s use of voice in Nigeria.
- Potentially represent the foundation and the Nigeria program to internal and external audiences, including both formal and informal presentations - explaining the foundation’s priority issues, policies and operational goals, making speeches, attending conferences and other meetings as necessary.
- Lead project development, coordination and post-production activities of specific communications initiatives.
- Drive strategic insights to ensure that communications strategies are aligned with the broader foundation and advocacy objectives.
- Risk Management: monitor perceptions, track shifts in opinion and respond to inquiries while providing and updating key facts about the foundation’s priority issues.
- Identify opinion leaders and influential organizations in Nigeria at national and states levels and guide a strategy for engagement.
Education and Experience
- Master's or Bachelor's degree in relevant field; Communications, English, Journalism, Literature, Public Relations, Political Science or other relevant area of study.
- At least 7+ years of progressive experience to include senior and leadership roles, or equivalent experience in relevant fields including marketing, PR, media, and communications, public policy or international relations.
- Senior level roles held working in non-profit/public health or development, government, communications agency, or private sector organization is strongly preferred.
- Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.
Core Knowledge and Skills:
- Outstanding knowledge, experience and expertise in media and communications in Nigeria - either directly involving global health and development issues or in areas that have provided strong and meaningful experience that can be translated to health and development issues.
- Experience and/or shown ability in engaging with government communications partners in Nigeria, preferably at both national and sub-national levels. Experience communicating around policy and advocacy efforts, and in working with NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and the private sector (in addition to the media and government), preferred.
- Experienced in crafting an essential communications portfolio and building and developing strategic communications and media partnerships.
- Collaborate within teams and across boundaries. Encouraging partnerships that strengthen support for the foundation’s priority objectives and mitigates reputational risk.
- Understanding of strategic audience segmentation, and how to use communications channels, traditional and social media, and multi-media approaches to reach audiences with appropriate messages. Able to recommend appropriate distribution channels that reach intended audiences.
- Deep awareness of communication industry trends, channels, and resources. Demonstrated experience in a multicultural team. Demonstrates awareness of global differences when communicating with people in other countries.
- Proven track record to generate ideas that support audience and channel strategies.
- Ability to translate sophisticated ideas and information into simple messages aligned to targeted audiences.
- A dedication to using facts and sound rationale to convey benefits to goals, as well as a demonstrated commitment to creativity and innovation.
- Outstanding verbal and written communication skills; with demonstrable experience of writing engaging articles on social impact issues.
- Experience working with international organizations (in a communication role) and/or in multiple countries is preferred.
- Experience or high ability to work in a complex, matrixed environment - requiring cultural awareness, and a collaborative nature that knows the benefits of seeking consensus.
- Ability to work with flexibility, entrepreneurship, and diplomacy both individually and as part of a complex team effort. A shown ability to effectively manage and adapt to a changing environment.
- Capacity to work simultaneously on a variety of issues and tasks independently, adjusting to priorities and achieving results with agreed objectives and deadlines
- Solid experience working in Africa, with a strong country experience. A deep dedication to development issues in Nigeria.
- Ability to travel up to 25% domestically and internationally.
Job Title: Program Officer - Data, Analytics, Measurement, Learning and Evaluation
Ref. No.: B014589
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Job Type: Full Time
Summary
- The Program Officer for Data, Analytics, Measurement, Learning & Evaluation will be responsible for supporting the Nigeria Country Office to advance and further develop an approach to and investments in Measurement, Learning & Evaluation and proactively analyze, articulate and track progress made to improve key health system and human capital outcomes with a particular emphasis on strengthening national and state level measurement and analytic capabilities.
- Reporting to the Country Director and working closely with the Nigeria leadership team, the Program Officer will work closely with the Program Manager and Program Officers to advance monitoring, learning and evaluation approaches to support Nigeria grants portfolio management.
Core Responsibilities
Internal BMGF portfolio monitoring and evaluation:
- Support Foundation program staff in the design of outcome-focused investments. Support non-MLE staff to strengthen their skills in measurement and evaluation and to design and implement practical and rigorous monitoring and evaluation approaches with their grantees.
- Monitor, learn from, and evaluate the implementation of the foundation Nigeria Country Plan, including both new and established bodies of work.
- Provide accountability and ensure efficiency in tracking progress and success including monitoring value for money.
- Review, refine, analyze and monitor the key performance indicators to be tracked on a regular basis.
- Develop, refine and operationalize the country plan’s Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (MLE) framework and plan in consultation with foundation leadership and project teams.
- Develop and manage clear measurement, learning, evaluation investments as required.
- Contribute to strategy refresh, portfolio development, and cross cutting data initiatives with focus on coherent, integrated theories of change, measurable impact models, collaborations and implementation plans to ensure long-term sustainability and impact.
Provide data analytics support to foundation strategies:
- Proactively engage and practically deep dive into improving analytics and data use at different levels, understanding data quality gaps and identifying areas of innovation and investment to improve overall data quality.
- Work with the NCO program officers, technical advisers and the leadership team to oversee regular program progress tracking and lead the preparation of relevant narratives and analytics.
Building and strengthening government data systems:
- Work to support both federal and state governments to strengthen their data and evidence ecosystem to produce better quality data more cheaply and rapidly for improved policy and programmatic decisions via management of data investments.
- Play a key role in strengthening and aligning with government measurement systems instead of creating parallel or vertical measurement approaches.
- Work closely with key relevant federal and state level government agencies to keep abreast of and advise on strengthening in-country institutional capacity for measurement, learning and evaluation.
- Work collaboratively with external partners and other stakeholders working in Nigeria’s data, analytics and measurement ecosystem to identify synergies and areas of collaboration.
- Proactively invest in strengthening in-country measurement, data and analytic capabilities.
- Spend significant amounts of time in the field actively learning from and practically monitoring how data and measurement interventions affect the health outcomes of citizens and workload of users.
Core Knowledge and Skills
- Advanced Degree in Statistics, Measurement, Evaluation or a related field with demonstrated skills (Development, Social Sciences, Public Health) and 5+ years proven experience in monitoring and evaluation.
- Demonstrated high level of technical proficiency as well as ability to manage the process evaluations of the implementation of a development/investment plan with the goal of contributing insights and evidence to drive investment strategies and decisions.
- Understanding of the nuances and pros and cons of different types of data systems and tools; understanding of how to sequence investments
- Proven experience working with/coaching/mentoring government staff to improve data analytics and measurement systems.
- Curious and proactive self-learner seeking to understand and engage with the complex political economy of data, analytics and measurement; and with convoluted data from multiple sources.
- Can analyze, understand and promote data use at different levels and to engage with a wide range of stakeholders.
- Track record of working on large scale, complex health systems strengthening programs across multiple geographies; working in localized settings and resource constrained environments
- In-depth knowledge of statistical methods, formative, summative, developmental and additive evaluation designs, nuanced approach with qualitative and quantitative methodologies, data collection and management
- Experience with and awareness of approaches to informatics
- Ability to critically design MLE tools, surveys, surveillance systems, and evaluations
- Expertise in the whole value chain of MLE needed by the Nigeria Country office:
- Strong government MLE/data system strengthening expertise
- Grants / portfolio performance management and MLE expertise and
- Strong data curation, analytics and presentation expertise.
- Self-critical and humble; reflective, immersive in understanding of contexts and ability to think out of the box.
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply
Note: 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.
