Deputy Director, Leadership Advising, India Country Office

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 India Country Office (ICO) is part of the Africa & India Offices Division (AIO). We work closely with India’s central and state governments, and partner with community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, academic and research institutions, the private sector, and development partners to advance our shared objectives. Our strong networks and ability to convene intellectual and technical resources globally and across sectors enable us to respond effectively to emerging and complex challenges.

In India, our work focuses on key priorities that shape the future of the country’s most vulnerable communities, including reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition; urban sanitation; agricultural development; women’s economic empowerment; digital public infrastructure and digital financial inclusion, across several states in the country.

Your Role
The Deputy Director, Leadership Advising, India Country Office (“Deputy Director”) serves as a trusted strategic advisor to the Director, India Country Office, with responsibility for three critical priorities: strategic advising and enterprise alignment; executive leadership visits and engagement; and strategic communications and reputation management.

You are a critical partner to the Executive Team of Program Directors in the Country. You are responsible for enabling the Director’s leadership priorities through high-quality advising, effective internal coordination, and supporting external engagement. This includes supporting and representing the Director’s office across internal and external touchpoints, engaging with the other Chiefs of Staff, and ensuring strategic coherence based on external and ecosystem perspective, while working closely with the Deputy Director Cluster lead for Strategy Planning and Management (SPM) who leads on internal country program strategies and investment portfolio perspective.

You act as a trusted representative of the Director, cultivating and sustaining internal relationships, locally and with Seattle offices, guiding operational alignment. You also incubate high-priority initiatives on behalf of the Director, serve as the point person for senior leadership visits to the country, and steward the foundation’s reputation by curating the Director’s voice, participation, and visibility in strategic fora. You will work with the Country Director to anticipate and mitigate risks and guide a senior communication team on transparently disseminating locally grounded impact to support our country-level goals.

You will be responsible for planning and delivering executive leadership visits, ensuring seamless coordination, strategic alignment, and high-impact partner engagement.

You will report to the Director, India Country Office. You will manage a team, support the Director’s office, and broader cross-functional efforts. You will sit on the ICO Management Team and other ICO leadership structures, as needed. You serve on the India Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Council to foster an inclusive, collaborative culture across the country.

*Applications accepted until Friday, November 20th, 2026. This role is based in our India Country Office in New Delhi, India.

What You'll Do

Strategic Advising, Leadership Support & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as a principal advisor to the Director, India – guiding ICO enterprise strategy, priorities, providing thought partnership, and helping navigate complex strategic and operational decisions.
• Maintain and strengthen relationships with critical Seattle-based team members, including Office of the Africa and India Office President (AIO OOP), other Divisional OOPs, Directors of Program Strategy Team (PSTs), FSO, and enterprise leadership teams.
• Maintains a strong cadence of engagement and builds relationship with DD Leadership Advisor to the Director of the Africa Region Office.
• Serve as a strategic liaison to the AIO Office of the President (OOP), shaping and aligning India priorities within the AIO ; contribute to defining agendas for AIO Executive Team (ET) and Leadership Team (LT) engagements; proactively elevate India’s strategic priorities and insights within AIO priority areas; and provide inputs into workforce planning for the Division.
• Support the Director’s participation in the Executive Partner Advisory Group (EPAG) and other cross-foundation leadership forums.
• Assess all external invitations and representational opportunities for the Director, working closely with Communications, Partnerships, and program teams to ensure strategic relevance and strengthen the foundation’s reputation.
• Maintain a candid, unbiased advisory role supporting effective decision-making while promoting sustainable leadership.

Leadership Coordination & Internal Team Orchestration

• Lead the planning, agenda-setting, and execution of:
  • Monthly India Executive Team (ET) meetings
• Ensure the Director is well-prepared for each meeting, including background materials, framing guidance, and follow-up.
• Enable internal coordination with program leaders to ensure seamless strategy execution and aligned team communications.
• Serve as overall point of contact for leadership visits to India, engaging across program teams, trip directors, to align strategic objectives, messaging, partner engagement, and operational execution.

Strategic Projects & Special Initiatives

• Incubate special projects and initiatives for the India team as needed, providing strategic support and coordination.
• Partner closely with Deputy Director SPM on the regular reviews and refinement of the strategy portfolios led by the Director’s Office.

External Communications and Engagement

• Provide strategic guidance and oversight for the ICO’s external communications priorities, working with Communications Leadership Team and relevant teams to ensure credible, locally grounded narratives that advance country priorities and strengthen the foundation’s reputation.
• Help shape and advance the Director’s strategic external engagement with government, private-sector, philanthropic, and development partners, strengthening institutional relationships and finding opportunities to advance shared goals.

Operations, Workforce Planning & Team Management

• Partner closely with DD SPM & People team colleagues to lead on workforce planning, aligning talent strategy with geographic, technical, and organizational needs.
• Support timely hiring and onboarding of key roles within the ICO Director’s portfolio.
• Partner closely with SPM and contribute to annual planning, budget alignment, portfolio strategy and performance tracking processes across the India Team.

Relationship Building & Influence

• Build and sustain high-trust relationships across the India Team, PSTs, enterprise functions, and external partners.
• Act as a connector across teams, and organizational levels - translating across contexts, building alignment, and enabling collaboration.
• Represent the Director’s office with credibility, care, and discretion, ensuring interactions reflect foundation values and advance mutual trust.

Culture, DEI & Internal Communications

• Serve as a member of the India DEI Council, leading leadership engagement and ensuring DEI principles are embedded in strategy, talent processes and communications.
• Design and implement internal communications, translating foundation priorities and leadership decisions into clear, transparent, and coherent messages that strengthen alignment and engagement across the India and Seattle teams.

Your Experience

• Advanced degree in business, international development, or related field preferred.
• 12+ years of experience in programmatic strategy creation, strategic advising, partner management, executive coordination, or organizational effectiveness roles in complex, global organizations.
• Experience supporting or coordinating executive-level engagements (e.g. board, CEO, Executive Leadership Team (ELT).
• Demonstrated experience with donors, bi/multilateral organizations; experience in India or cross-cultural settings preferred.
• Experience in engaging with leaders across public, private, and development sectors to align efforts and goals is preferred.
• Success in people leadership, cross-country portfolio coordination, and enterprise-level change initiatives.
• Knowledge of reputation management is preferred.
• Exceptional political competence, judgment, integrity, and discretion.

Key Competencies

• Strategic leadership: Synthesizes complexity into actionable insights; enables adaptive execution; supports systems-level impact.
• Executive presence & communication: Communicates with clarity, diplomacy, and intent across a wide range of audiences and settings.
• Enterprise coordination: Connects strategy, operations, people, and influence country and teams.
• Stakeholder engagement & relationship management: Builds and nurtures high-impact relationships across functions, geographies, and levels of seniority. Uses trust, emotional intelligence, and diplomacy to align stakeholders, resolve tension, and strengthen collaboration. Recognizes relationships as core to impact.
• Team leadership & talent development: Manages a diverse, high-performing team with care, accountability, and purpose.
• Workforce & operational planning: Leads with a systemic view of talent, performance, and organizational alignment.
• Cultural fluency & DEI advocacy: Models equity-focused leadership and fosters a culture of inclusion across geographies.

Other Attributes

• Comfortable working in culturally diverse environments and high-paced settings.
• Ability to travel up to 30% domestically and internationally.

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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

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact HR@gatesfoundation.org with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.

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.