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

Our Global Health (GH) program harnesses advances in science and technology to save lives in low and middle income countries. We focus on the health problems that have a major impact in developing countries but get too little attention and funding. Where proven tools exist, we support sustainable ways to improve their delivery. Where they don’t, we invest in research and development of new interventions, such as vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics. Our work in infectious diseases focuses on strategies to fight and prevent HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, neglected and other infectious diseases, enteric and diarrheal diseases and pneumonia. These strategies are supported by functional teams that focus on Discovery and Translational Sciences, Vaccine Development, and Integrated Development.

The Accelerator funds the creation of novel technology capabilities that enable the achievement of the foundation’s mission by fostering the conception, design, and testing of fundamentally new biotech platforms that have the potential to change current best practices or business models and show proof of concept for these platforms. By leveraging grants, equity, and donor capital, we work to ensure the capabilities advanced further the foundation’s objectives and support the transition of these new technology platforms to execution partners. Some platform capabilities that we are exploring include harnessing the power of chemo-sensing for ultra-high sensitivity detection of volatiles, programming immune system responses for design of next generation vaccine modalities, and engineering antibodies for oral delivery. We will be exploring exciting new transformative technology capabilities beyond these within our broad mandate. Our team also includes more mature programmatic units aiming to achieve a “single-shot cure” for HIV and sickle cell disease in the next ten years, harness AI and machine learning tools to radically advance drug discovery and development to cure HPV and pre-eclampsia, and develop five new preclinical oral polio vaccine candidates in the next two years.

Your Role

As a key member of the Accelerator team, the Senior Program Officer, Preclinical Vaccine Development, is accountable for a portfolio of investments and partnerships on priority product development efforts for new oral polio vaccine candidates. These will consist of several “next generation”, innovative vaccines and approaches to vaccine development expected to deliver high-impact in the near term, with a goal to develop five preclinical candidates for down selection to clinical development within two years.

You will provide leadership, strategy development, and communications on polio preclinical candidate development priorities to Product Development Partners, and other internal and external foundation partners. You will also partner closely with the Vaccine Development and Polio teams to contribute to the continued development of the oral polio vaccine candidates as they transition to those teams for clinical phases. The Accelerator works predominantly in preclinical innovation for fundamentally new modalities, requiring expertise and comfort in development of novel clinical products.

*This is a 2-Year LTE position.

What You’ll Do

• Partner closely with team leadership, including the Director, Accelerator and Distinguished Fellow, AI-Enabled Cures Frontier, to develop, communicate, and implement the overall strategy for novel oral polio vaccines.
• Act as foundation “Project Lead” for the novel oral polio preclinical vaccine development programs.
• Negotiate, implement, and manage a portfolio of grants or performance-based contracts; including alignment of internal and external stakeholders, review of letters of inquiry and grant proposals as well as providing clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for funding.
• Consult, provide thought partnership, and support to grantees and other partners to maximize the impact of projects and the creation of well-integrated vaccine preclinical development plans.
• Serve as an advisor on preclinical vaccine study design.
• Provide technical guidance and support on the foundation process for Integrated Product Development Plans (IPDPs) and the development process including definition of critical milestones and stage gates. Support product development process as defined by the foundation for our internal and external partners.

• Forge collaborations with key global experts in vaccine development.
• Work with external advisors to maintain cutting edge approaches to vaccine development.
• Represent foundation interests in developing networks for the program.

• Play a strategic role on preclinical vaccine development related issues relevant to CMC and regulatory interactions.
• Identify and cultivate partners to build coalitions and achieve objectives; manage partnerships to achieve impact.
• Serve as a leadership partner and technical resource to grantees to achieve strategic objectives
• Attend internal meetings to represent the Accelerator as well as being a representative of the foundation at external meetings.
• Actively search for and create opportunities to develop new partnerships between external partners that will advance GH programs.
• This role will require the ability to travel up to 20% domestically and internationally.

Your Experience

We are looking for people who enjoy the opportunity of working on complex projects and collaboratively creating solutions that have the potential for transformational change. We seek a self-starter who can integrate a diverse set of perspectives to build consensus, structure and drive forward progress on complex topics, and provide both strategic and operational capacity to the Accelerator team.

We are looking for individuals with:

• Tolerance for ambiguity and ability to apply structure to simplify complex problems
• An understanding of regulatory requirements necessary for various phases of vaccine and biologics development
• Commitment to innovation and advancing new technologies in vaccine development
• Intellectual quickness, curiosity, discipline, resourcefulness and resilience
• Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and enthusiasm in a fast-paced and complex internal and external environment
• Experience working with partners in low- and middle-income countries
• Experience with business and technical due diligence assessments of potential corporate, product or technology investments; ability to synthesize technical and commercial information towards strategic decision making
• Strong judgment with a demonstrated ability to handle complex issues, multiple tasks, confidential information, and competing priorities with skill, discretion, a strong attention to detail, flexibility and diplomacy
• Exceptional listening, verbal, and written communication skills, able to effectively calibrate input and synthesize information to connect with diverse audiences
• Demonstrated experience in scientific writing and data analysis, written and oral communication skills, and experience advocating and communicating with a broad and diverse audience
• Solid understanding of the realities and complexities of matrix-based organizations

Other Attributes

• Experience in working on teams with diverse culture and professional backgrounds
• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic, and operational situations, demonstrating culturally-sensitive behavior
• Strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills
• Excellent relationship management skills to develop trusting and productive relationships with a wide range of colleagues, dignitaries, leaders, grantees, consultants and other partners
• Commitment to transparency and real-time information sharing
• Ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, enthusiasm, and diplomacy both individually and as part of a team effort
• Demonstrated passion for the Foundation’s values and commitment to deliver results against the Foundation’s mission

The salary range for this role is $233,600 to $362,200 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $254,700 to $394,700 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.

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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

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

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.