Your Role

As the Senior Program Manager, Global Business Design, you will play a pivotal role in leading a cross-functional, cross-organizational transformation initiative to redesign and improve operational shared services for the foundation and its affiliate organizations. This effort will require deep solution design expertise and the ability to bring together collaborators at every level across multiple organizations to align on a shared set of principles and frameworks for structuring, delivering, and governing shared services.

In this role, you will own the planning and execution of initiatives that drive efficiency, effectiveness, and strategic alignment across the foundation and its affiliates. You will be responsible for designing and implementing decision-making frameworks that guide how shared services are structured and governed, ensuring that solutions are both scalable and responsive to the unique needs of different entities. Success in this position requires a balance of big-picture critical thinking, attention to detail, and the ability to navigate highly complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

You will work closely with leadership and cross-functional teams across the foundation, ensuring that collaborators are engaged in a collaborative and transparent process. Your role will involve facilitating discussions that bridge organizational priorities, operational realities, and long-term strategic goals. More than just delivering solutions, you will be responsible for shaping how work gets done – championing an approach that aligns with the foundation’s values and fosters a shared sense of ownership, innovation, and accountability.

What You’ll Do

• Integrating Solutions Across Diverse Teams: Bring together teams with varied perspectives from various regional and country offices, as well as affiliate organizations, to collaboratively design and implement cohesive solutions. Cultivate an inclusive environment where different viewpoints are valued, ensuring that initiatives are comprehensive, culturally advised, and aligned with global goals while addressing local needs.

• Strategic Planning: Assist in the strategic planning process by capturing data, conducting analysis, and contributing to the development of strategies that align with organizational objectives. Collaborate with key partners to identify priorities, assess risks, and provide actionable insights that help shape long-term plans and guide leadership in making informed decisions.

• Workshop Design and Facilitation: Design and facilitate workshops that bring together cross-functional teams to collaboratively vet approaches, explore solutions, and reach consensus. Use structured frameworks and interactive techniques to guide discussions, align different perspectives, and drive toward actionable outcomes that support organizational objectives.

• Executive Communication and Presentation: Develop and deliver high-impact presentations and communications for senior leadership, distilling sophisticated information into clear, concise, and actionable insights. Facilitate executive decision-making by communicating strategic recommendations and key data in a compelling, easy-to-understand format that aligns with organizational priorities and goals.

• Leadership Through Influence: Cultivate strong relationships across teams and lead through influence by inspiring collaboration and consensus. Drive alignment on key initiatives by effectively communicating vision and strategic priorities, empowering teams to take ownership and achieve shared goals without relying on formal authority.

• Transformational Change Management: Collaborate across operations, programs, and regional and country leadership to drive crucial transformations focusing on addressing the underlying causes of challenges, reducing operational disruptions, and strengthening our ability to lead and maintain change in alignment with regional and national contexts.

• Measurement and Evaluation: Establish clear success criteria and apply a data-driven approach to measure and evaluate program effectiveness. Leverage insights to assess performance against goals and provide informed recommendation.

• Continuous Improvement: Apply lean methodologies to optimize processes and enhance operational efficiency. Drive improvement by solving challenges and implementing strategies that streamline workflows and support sustainable and scalable solutions.

• Systems Thinking:Understand the inform sections and interdependencies to frame the problem in the best way, evaluate issues, see affects, and identify implications across the end-to-end system to help prioritize solutions.

• Organizational Connector: Serve as a connector within the foundation by maintaining knowledge of updates and initiatives, ensuring information is communicated effectively to partners.

Your Experience

• Bachelor’s degree, Advanced degree preferred.

• 10+ years of foundation or foundation affiliate experience, or equivalent experience.

• Strong skills in Microsoft Office (e.g., Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, SharePoint (able to build simple sites, and PowerPoint); experience with Mural or other work shopping tools preferred.

• Shown ability to tackle sophisticated problems using a structured approach. Expertise in process improvement, business analysis, and strategic business planning to drive organizational success.

• Shown success in influencing and aligning collaborators with varied perspectives and without direct reporting lines.

• Experience leading ground-breaking projects that span multiple functions within an organization, from strategic planning through to implementation.

• Adept at developing and delivering senior leadership-level presentations and communications.

• Shown global experience, with a deep understanding of diverse cultural, socio-economic, and political landscapes. Strong interpersonal skills and a commitment to navigating cross-cultural environments with compassion and respect.

• Expertise in program management, improvement, and enhancing organizational agility.

• Skilled at assessing the scope and complexity of initiatives and allocating resources effectively, considering timing, capabilities, and strengths.

• Ability to quickly identify and communicate frameworks for analyzing issues and getting results. A strategic problem solver with a track record of aligning initiatives with broader organizational goals.

*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

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