Senior Program Officer, Digital Public Finance, Development Policy & Finance

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 mission of the Global Policy & Advocacy (GPA) division is to understand and shape the public policy debates affecting the foundation's work, build support for its major program and policy objectives, and develop partnerships and alliances that can advance the foundation's objectives nationally and globally. Because the foundation's resources alone are not enough to solve the challenges ahead, GPA also supports advocacy efforts to engage diverse stakeholders and promote innovative solutions that advance our program goals. We work in close partnership with grantees, our colleagues in the Global Health, Global Development, Global Growth & Opportunity, U.S. and Gender Equality programs and Foundation Communications to build the environment in which all people have the opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives. In particular, this position will also work closely with our Africa regional office located within the Global Development Division.

The Development Policy & Finance (DPAF) team is the foundation’s development economics and finance team, accountable for ensuring GPA’s work – and by extension the foundation’s work – is informed by strong economic and financial analysis and viewpoints, resonant with economic trends, and connected with key decision-makers at major multilateral development banks (MDBs), development finance institutions (DFIs) and think tanks focused on development economics and finance. This is not a research team but a group of economists, grant makers and development finance experts accountable for using economic analysis and perspectives to strengthen foundation policy and advocacy strategies, and for growing the community of economic policymakers engaged in foundation issues such as global health, human capital, and gender equity. DPAF’s focus and primary customer client is the Ministry of Finance in a developing country – and we have the goal of helping them transform their public finances via digital public infrastructure.

Your Role

The Senior Program Office, Digital Public Finance (SPO) reports to the Deputy Director, Digital Public Finance and will play a critical role in advancing the digital public finance agenda at the country level in Africa. This will entail leveraging digital public infrastructure (DPI) to enhance public financial management, increase effective and equitable revenue administration, improve transparency, and support sustainable development across low- and middle-income countries. The SPO will develop, manage, and oversee strategies and programs related to digital finance systems, with an emphasis on scaling impactful technologies in public financial systems, building interoperability, and ensuring inclusion in global finance ecosystems.

This role requires strong expertise in public financial management, digital infrastructure, and collaboration with multilateral organizations, governments, and private sector partners to shape and advance the global digital public finance agenda.

* This position is a limited-term position for 24 months. Relocation will be provided. A competitive salary and generous benefits package complements this role.

*Applicants for this role will only be considered if they are able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

What You'll Do

• Drive efforts to transform public finance in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) via digital public infrastructure for more effective public expenditure, service delivery and/or domestic resource mobilization, working in close collaboration with DPAF team members and other foundation teams. Within the Gates Foundation these partners would include our country and regional office teams, the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) team, Primary Health Care (PHC) team, and Inclusive Financial Services (IFS) team. Outside of the Gates Foundation, it would include LMIC government partners, think tanks, tech companies that provide solutions to governments, system integrators, global and regional open-source communities, and other key players such as the World Bank country offices, IMF, Co-Develop and DPI donors. The focus is to build momentum and coalitions and encourage partners to test and showcase that an infrastructure-first/DPI approach to problem solving can solve challenges in public finance and state capability.

• Partner with governments in LMICs by connecting DPAF’s broader public finance portfolio and partners with promising initiatives.

• Explore opportunities to support African governments in particular, (including but not limited to Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, and Ethiopia), regional organizations and multilateral development banks, with interventions such as proof of concepts (POCs), pilots and documentation of DPI for public finance:

  • Based on the needs of needs of the African government running the interventions, identify and support a coalition of partners who can provide direct technical assistance and/or funding to these interventions, e.g. support with digital architecture, layer government capacity building, advice on institutional arrangements, contracting consultancy / advisory support and project / change management

• As part of exploring opportunities for DPI with government partners, this role will also help the Foundation:

  • Gain an understanding of governments’ current status of digitalization (DPI or otherwise) efforts including digital maturity level and capacity.

  • Identify case studies of digitalization in Africa that we (and others) can learn lessons from

  • Gain an understanding of the barriers, islands of excellence, positive deviants, and pathways to implementing DPI in African countries. The subjects of study would include state and market capacity), financial, political, and social factors.

  • This work will collaborate with teams across the foundation, particularly the DPI team, that see shared digital infrastructure as an opportunity for large scale societal impact, including in public finance

• This role will document and apply findings from: 1) Digitalization in India, Estonia, Singapore and countries in Africa over the past two decades, and 2) Shifts in the global market for digital technology products and platforms over the last five decades, particularly productization and platformization of features and capabilities the in digital ecosystem over time. This will inform DPAF’s global advocacy efforts, including identifying where there are gaps that need to be addressed by the global DPI movement / actors, e.g.:

  • Refining the narrative around ‘Why build DPI’ / ‘How to build DPI / Which DPI to build’ to ensure that it resonates with African government partners.

  • Providing additional tools / resources to aid DPI deployments such as standards, specifications, source code, and how-to guides.

  • Spotlighting digitalization exemplars in Africa and amplifying the voice of African DPI / digitalization champions.

• Other key aspects of the role:

  • Collaborate with other team members working on DPI and other public finance interventions

  • Partner with foundation DPI collaborators to use the foundation’s voice and platforms to advance Foundation DPI goals.

  • Support the partner/grantee ecosystem for digital public finance in LMICs to ensure the achievement of Foundation DPI goals and its sustainability by institutionalizing through anchor partners over the long run.

  • Negotiate, implement, and manage portfolio of investments with impact measures.

  • Provide clear, concise and insightful written analyses and recommendations for investments.

  • Conceptualize and manage high impact partnerships, coalitions, and advocacy campaigns.

  • Represent the foundation to external constituencies. This could include formal and informal presentations, attending conferences, sitting on working groups, and holding board seats as appropriate.

  • Write and produce briefings, reports, email updates, and other materials on key global and local DPI policy, funding and other relevant issues for foundation leadership.

  • Serve as a point of contact on DPI policy and advocacy issues for internal and external partners, working within the complex matrix-style organization across the foundation. 

  • Ability to travel up to 35% domestically and internationally

Your Experience

This job requires a unique mix of skills and experience spanning the field of public finance and the field of digital transformation. We are looking for a senior professional with deep technical and sector expertise in either digitalization or public finance with African governments (ideally combined), and a demonstrated interest and agility to grow in the other.

• Understanding of how investments in digitalization can advance a range of development objectives, including public expenditure management and/or domestic resource mobilization.

• Deep experience of working on digital transformation programs, particularly agile and interoperable systems.

• Deep experience of working in partnerships with African governments on reforms.

• Understanding of the key issues driving digitalization, as well as barriers impeding progress on these issues, the policy and regulatory enablers for digitalization, and the supply side and demand side barriers and opportunities.

• Excellent strategic problem solver and strategy development experience.

• Demonstrated ability to organize/prioritize work and meet deadlines within a fast-paced environment with multiple and competing demands.

• Innovative problem solver who is hands-on and willing to go as deep or broad as necessary to achieve outcomes.

• Demonstrated ability to question and challenge colleagues in a constructive manner.

• Agility to rapidly tailor communications, advocacy, and intervention strategies based on what works and what doesn’t.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to effectively synthesize information to reach diverse audiences and create consensus.

• Experience of working on DPI (please see our note above on the broader definition of DPI) and Ministries of Finance.

• Experience working in philanthropy.

• Advanced degree or equivalent experience preferred in public policy, technology, business, international relations, development or a related field (preferably with a mix of service in the public and private sectors).

• Experience developing and implementing advocacy and communications strategies to influence policymakers, donors, and other external partners, including personal interactions with senior policy makers, civil society organizations, the media and other key external constituencies.

• Experience managing research and measurement grant portfolios.

• Understanding of the role of the donors in advancing digitalization efforts

The salary range for this role is $169,700.00 to $254,500.00 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle, WA and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $185,00.00 to $277,400.00 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.

*Applicants for this role will only be considered if they are able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

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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

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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.