Your Role

At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, you will join a team of mission-driven professionals dedicated to solving some of the world’s most pressing challenges. As the Foundation strengthens its presence in Africa during this impact acceleration phase, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape and lead transformative HR work at scale—while contributing to lasting impact both across Africa and globally. This is a pivotal moment to help establish a truly global foundation.

The Deputy Director, Regional HRBP, Africa is a senior leader and strategic advisor within the People division, accountable for advancing the foundation’s talent, leadership, and organizational effectiveness agenda across Africa. Serving as a key global partner to members of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), the Executive Program Action Group (EPAG), and other senior regional and global leaders, this role is charged with shaping and implementing enterprise-level people strategies within a dynamic and evolving global context.

In partnership with business leaders you will design and implement forward-looking organizational solutions tailored to the specific countries and regions you support. Drawing on your deep understanding of dynamic business contexts and operating environments, you will proactively shape talent and organizational strategies that drive measurable impact.

In this role, you will lead a team of HR professionals aligned by division or region. You will also play a key role in establishing, evolving, and enhancing the people experience in fast-changing organizations and locations—bringing sound judgment and agile, adaptive approaches to meet evolving needs.

The role reports to the Director, People Partnerships based in Seattle, Washington. The role is based in Nairobi, Kenya.

What You'll Do

• Act as a strategic partner and advisor to one or more ELT, EPAG, and/or senior leadership teams— You will be embedded in these executive forums to shape organizational direction, strengthen alignment and lead both near-term and long-term people planning across the region.

• Own regional decision making on key people programs, initiatives and policies and drive regional perspectives into global solutions. Serve as a voice of the customer and drive the connection between regional leadership and Seattle-based teams, ensuring alignment of global priorities while adapting enterprise-wide initiatives to reflect regional context, culture, and operational realities.

• Define a talent strategy with senior leadership team and provide oversight and direction of the execution of core people processes in alignment with these plans, including performance partnership, talent development, compensation, and engagement cycles, tailoring approaches to strategic priorities and regional and/or division level readiness. Ensure people processes are executed with consistency, rigor and relevance across divisions and countries.

• Drive the development and delivery of organizational solutions with senior leaders and to meet priority business needs which may include organization design, organizational effectiveness, culture and engagement, talent and succession strategy, and workforce planning.

• Provide leadership on regional HR compliance and operations, ensuring legal and policy adherence while fostering operational excellence and mitigating organizational risk

• Represent the people function in business strategy conversations, providing insight and foresight to guide decision-making from a human capital perspective, including global workforce trends and emerging capability needs.

• Diagnose root causes and provide comprehensive solutions to complex organizational challenges. Steward transformation initiatives that advance both near- and longer-term results.

• Lead with a systems-level approach, identifying structural, cultural, and leadership enablers to build global capability, inclusive leadership, and a high-integrity culture.

• Champion and embed a global, inclusive approach, fostering equity, belonging, and cultural competence across leadership practices, systems, and structures.

• Advise and coach senior leaders, acting as a trusted confidante and thought partner in moments of transformation, ambiguity, or disruption.

• Model and advocate for inclusive and ethical leadership behaviors, raising issues with integrity and urgency while creating environments of psychological safety and trust.

Your Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree or PhD in Business, Human Resources, or Organizational Psychology preferred. A minimum of 12 years of experience operating at senior leadership levels in HR.

• Operate effectively in a highly matrixed, global organization. Build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across functions and geographies, influencing decisions and driving alignment while respecting regional and cultural nuances.

• Operational experience defining and managing people and employment practices within the countries within the scope of role

• Experience in creating and managing global HR solutions and balancing local requirements with global intentions

• Expertise as a collaborator and bridge-builder across teams and within human resources

• Experience in owning and advising on complex decisions that require the balance of teams/organizational needs and enterprise priorities.

• Proven ability to drive transformation and growth to build a high integrity culture.

• Strong leadership skills, business acumen, influencing and advising skills.

• People management experience leading global and/or cross functional teams.

• Proven track record of building, aligning and implementing a sustainable HR agenda that fuels business performance and organizational capability development.

• Significant experience and demonstrated ability to interface effectively with all levels of management and employees while working in a non-profit, and/or global organization.

• Ability to use people analytics and HR technology platforms to inform decisions, track impact, and continuously improve the employee experience.

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