Deputy Director, Contraceptive Technology (Gender Equality)

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 Team
In 2020, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the creation of a new division, Gender Equality (GE), driven by our determined leadership and partnership to accelerate progress for women and girls globally. Since then, we have seen an unprecedented confluence of energy on this issue, and we have a greater understanding than ever before of the centrality of gender to all development outcomes embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Created to capitalize on the belief that we are at a pivotal point in history for gender equality, the Gender Equality division signals our intent to fully maximize our voice and our co-chairs’ commitment to accelerate impact.

The newly formed Women’s Health Innovations (WHI) program combines several portfolios related to
women’s health and is founded on the belief that accelerating the development and adoption of high-quality health products to address the needs of women and girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is essential to ensuring they have an opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives. Included in this program will be portfolios focused on: contraceptive technology, vaccines and diagnostics that primarily address sexually transmitted infections (STI), gynecological problems such as bacterial vaginosis, and products for menstrual health and hygiene.

The Contraceptive Technology (CT) team leads product development strategy in partnership with colleagues from our Family Planning, Integrated Development, and Discovery and Translational Sciences teams. The goal is to ensure that women and girls in low-resource settings have access to innovative modern contraceptive products that meet their needs, that the products being pursued are useful for local contexts and given the implementation support to promote their adoption. Our approach targets innovative drug delivery approaches with known active pharmaceutical ingredients as well as novel drug targets.

This position reports to the Director, Women’s Health Innovations and will have management responsibilities.

US based remote work may be considered dependent on the state in which a candidate lives.

Your Role

As Deputy Director, Contraceptive Technology you will own the development of the CT portfolio strategy and co-lead our investment teams overseeing the grant making process for a wide range of product developers in the CT space. Specifically, you are responsible for reviewing the clinical development plans generated by our partner organizations ensuring they provide planning to address key go / no-go decisions for each product candidate. These plans will also address differentiating clinical characteristics that are important to women in Low Income Countries using groundbreaking approaches.

What You’ll Do

• Develop long term portfolio execution plans aligned with team’s high-level strategy and lead the CT domain within WHI

• Responsible for advice on the clinical plans and execution for the CT product candidates, including those that have reached the pre-IND and clinical development stages.

• Collaborate closely with and translate Family Planning's strategy to ensure their decisions are reflect in WHI's development portfolio

• Collaborate across Gender Equality, Global Development, and Global Health teams to develop and execute plans with Foundation partners and grantees

• Identify and assess key risks at the portfolio level; develop and lead mitigation/ contingency plans

• Serve as a leader and thought partner to Contraception Technology investment teams on product development challenges, metrics, standard methodologies, and approaches

• Enable decision making across teams and encourage effective project planning

• Manage relationships with key internal partners within the matrixed organization

• In collaboration with colleagues from Discovery and Translational Sciences, Family Planning, Integrated Development, and fellow WHI colleagues, work closely with key external product development partners to enable effective project planning practices and timely visibility of challenges and issues

• Communicate information related to the portfolio dynamics that will support portfolio decision-making

• Serve on the WHI leadership team

Your Experience

• Advanced degree required (MD or PhD preferred) and 15+ years’ experience in product development in contraceptive technology, women’s health or related fields with extensive product development experience or medical affairs experience if there were significant interactions with the clinical development team

• Worked in all phases of product development within the pharma / biotech industry and be familiar with regulatory requirements for contraception products. Solid understanding and / or specific knowledge of several elements of product and / or service development and launch (e.g., discovery, development, commercial launch)

• Proven experience in contraception product development and analytical skills required to interpret clinical and preclinical data

• Problem solves using data driven methods and innovative approaches

• Basic understanding of Model-Informed Drug Development

• Likely candidate profiles include clinical development lead, Project Leader, Regulatory Affairs lead, Clinical Team Leader; etc.

• Portfolio management (in pharma/ biotech context) and associated tools

• Project management, implementation planning and associated tools

• Risk assessment and management (mitigation and contingency plans)

• Strong oral and written communication skills

• Strong meeting and relationship facilitation abilities

The typical salary range for this role is $170,980.00 to $317,240.00 USD. The exact offer will be determined by a variety of factors such as the candidate’s individual skills, qualifications, and experience relative to the requirements of the role.

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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.

Depending upon your work location, we may require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and any recommended booster doses. All employees based in the United States are to provide proof of full vaccination upon hire and any recommended boosters, subject to applicable laws.

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.