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Senior Assistant, Foundation Strategy Office, 2-year LTE

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Seattle, WA, USA
USD 35.67-50 / hour
Posted on Nov 18, 2025

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 Foundation Strategy Office (FSO) is the primary function supporting the creation and evolution of our program-level strategies as well as exploring new paths to impact that align with our mission. This includes supporting the CEO, CFO, and Chief Strategy Officer in key accountabilities like strategy development, strategy revision, strategy performance measurement, portfolio management, and special initiatives to accelerate the impact of the foundation.

We are a close-knit team that places a significant emphasis on maintaining and growing our positive, humble, and intellectually curious culture. We believe that small groups of deeply committed team members can do phenomenal things. We encourage debate and discussion of tough issues and are committed to the success of our clients. We invest proactively in each other’s personal and professional growth.

*The posting deadline for this role is December 3, 2025, at 11:59pm PST.

Your Role

The Senior Assistant plays a vital role in providing comprehensive support to multiple principals, including no less than one director and one deputy director. This includes managing complex calendars, coordinating a high-volume of meetings across time zones, and ensuring leaders’ time aligns with key strategic priorities. Acting as a trusted partner, the Senior Assistant anticipates needs, resolves scheduling conflicts, and offers thoughtful recommendations to optimize productivity. In addition to core administrative responsibilities such as calendar management, travel coordination, and expense processing, the role contributes meaningfully to team operations and culture. This includes planning events and retreats, supporting knowledge management systems, and assisting in the team/division rhythm of business. With strong judgment, discretion, and a collaborative approach, the Senior Assistant is a central connector who helps ensure the smooth, efficient functioning of both individual leaders and the broader team.

Ideal candidates are self-motivated, proactive, and driven to support both principals and the team as a whole. They will have excellent attention to detail, responsiveness, and accuracy.

*This position is a limited-term position for 24 months and will report to the Deputy Director of Strategy, Planning, and Management. Relocation will not be provided.

What You’ll Do

Core Administrative Support

  • Provide high-level administrative support by anticipating and managing competing priorities, proactively handling high volumes of complex emails, travel and expense report management, coordination of workflow and rhythm of business support, and fostering strong collaborative relationships with internal and external partners
  • Leverage technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and digital tools to streamline support, ensuring efficiency and accuracy
  • Support or lead knowledge management as needed

Calendar Management

  • Provide proactive, strategic calendar management for principals (which includes leaders at the director level), aligning schedules with priorities and division goals, anticipating and continuously addressing calendar conflicts, prioritizing meetings effectively, coordinating complex cross-time-zone meetings, and managing time and communication; may also oversee team calendars, represent principals in routine matters, and support division-level decision-making
  • Offer proactive thought partnership and specific recommendations to principal(s) re workload balancing and time management

Division/Team Support and Coordination

  • Provide team support and coordination by organizing meetings and activities aligned with team goals to boost team effectiveness and culture
  • Supporting team’s navigation of business operations through the practices of collaboration and information sharing
  • Assist with the onboarding process for new employees, including onboarding meeting coordination
  • Support initiatives to create and sustain team culture in collaboration with principals, as needed

Division/Team Events and Logistics Management

  • Lead planning of and manage logistics for events and convenings, including internal/external meetings, retreats, team building events, field visits, presentations and domestic or international conferences
  • Provide thought partnership and coordination for activity and retreat objectives, outcomes, and agendas, in support of building team culture; this may include preparing and disseminating materials and post-event follow-up
  • Team event support may include acting as project manager, coordinating arrangements and reimbursements for participants, handling venue and travel logistics, room set-up, and preparing and disseminating materials

Travel, Visa and Passport Support

  • Manage all aspects of principal travel, including flights, lodging, visas, ground transportation and security, by coordinating with internal and external partners, ensuring readiness of all logistical and content-related materials, supporting leadership-level trip planning, and tracking related resources to enable seamless, efficient travel execution.
  • Liaise with trip coordinators for leadership-level trips, including joining planning calls and responding to requests in a timely manner

Communication

  • Engage with principals and stakeholders to ensure clarity on calendar-related questions, conflicts, and trade-offs, exercising sound judgment and professionalism to support informed decision-making, manage sensitive information with discretion, and ensure timely escalation and knowledge-sharing across the team and foundation
  • Proactively provide clear, timely and audience-appropriate communications for all inquiries and requests of principals, while maintaining consistent communication with internal and external partners

Business Operations

  • Support and help optimize division and team effectiveness by tracking and coordinating rhythm of business (ROB) processes in collaboration with other teammates, while leading or contributing to knowledge management systems and assistant cohort process improvements, including team distribution lists, SharePoint site, or MS Teams channels
  • Track and support processes by which the division or team’s assistant cohort can optimize efficiency and effectiveness
  • Other duties as assigned

Your Experience

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience
  • 3+ years of experience in executive-level or senior management support
  • 3+ years of event planning and/or project management experience
  • Ability to prioritize effectively, utilize time precisely, communicate decisions, and process to execution in a clear effective manner
  • Understanding of how to identify team needs and opportunities and how to champion and resolve them.
  • Experience leading and building relationships to gain the respect and trust of others
  • Experience adopting approach, goals, and methods to achieve solutions and results in dynamic situations, helping others deal with the ongoing demands of change
  • Experience working with MS Office suite, especially Outlook, and AI tools including CoPilot and Chat GPT


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

The salary range for this role is $35.67/hour to $50.00/hour USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hire salaries are typically between the salary range minimum and the midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

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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

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.