Director, Economic Opportunity, Africa at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Your Role

• The Director, Economic Opportunity, Africa (“the Director”) is responsible for driving and supporting the achievement of outcomes across several programmatic areas of the foundation, notably those representing the Global Growth and Opportunity division and Gender Equality division. These will include Agricultural Development and adaptation, Financial Services for the Poor, Women’s Economic Empowerment and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Global Education and Nutrition. The Director collaborates closely with colleagues from these program strategy teams across the foundation to understand and support their programmatic priorities on the continent and seek opportunities to further enable impact in these areas. The Director manages staff that are based in the Africa regional team from across these program teams and ensure strong management and performance. The Director has oversight of pipeline and portfolio development and provides constructive insight and advice on content and partner engagement. As a member of the Africa Directors Forum and the Africa Leadership Team, the Director contributes to the strategic and operational performance of the Africa team, liaising with colleagues from across Africa offices and the broader foundation.

The Director role is based in Johannesburg, South Africa and reports to the Director, Africa,

Key relationships:

• President of the Global Development Division
• President of the Global Growth & Opportunity Division
• President of the Gender Equality Division
• Other Directors in the Global Growth & Opportunity, Global Policy and Advocacy and Gender Equality divisions
• Members of the Africa Director’s Forum (ADF)
• Deputy Director for Women’s Economic Empowerment, Africa
• Deputy Director for Agriculture Development, Africa
• Multilaterals (e.g. UN agencies, World Bank, WHO) Governments across the continent Regional institutions Donors

What You’ll Do

• Under the overall guidance of the Africa Director and in partnership with the rest of the Africa leadership, develop and shape an overall Africa strategy for economic opportunity that supports the achievement of outcomes set by program strategy teams, in alignment with the objectives of country and regional offices of the Africa team.
• Connect the dots and bring synergies by developing an integrated “one foundation” approach across foundation programs that effectively use the strengths and advantages of each program and yield optimal results for countries and partners in the continent.
• Encourage an Africa led and owned strategy that seeks to strengthen African institutions to ensure sustainable and long-term execution in key foundation program areas.
• Partner in strategy development, programmatic bodies of work, budget planning and management; develop and implement a portfolio management approach that develops strong stewardship, effective planning, and resource allocation.
• Understand various program strategies and priorities that Seattle based PSTs are implementing on the African continent.  Provide advice and insight to program teams in Seattle on strategy and program design and implementation in the continent, as well as partner engagement and partnerships.
• Represent the PSTs and Africa team at high levels internally and externally on topics relating to economic opportunity.
• Partner with PSTs to enhance impact by working with partners along with PSTs. Drive high quality interactions by ensuring clear and consistent communications with grantees and partners in the field.
• Support PSTs in driving strategic partnerships with the private sector with the purpose of optimizing economic opportunity for the most vulnerable.
• Manage Deputy Directors and program teams on the continent to design and implement approved strategies in Africa to ensure high quality grant making and robust relationships with local partners.
• Ensure that the foundation’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion framework, as well as its gender integration approach, are applied to the economic opportunity portfolio with the purpose of enhancing impact.  
• Ensure strong people and organisational management through hiring the talent needed to achieve our goals, ensuring successful employee onboarding, communicating performance expectations, creating goal alignment, supporting change management, giving, and seeking feedback, providing coaching, measuring progress and holding people accountable, supporting employee development, and recognizing achievement and lessons learned.
• Ability to travel frequently.
• Other duties as assigned.

Your Experience (i.e., Qualifications and Education)

• Advanced degree Master’s/MBA/PhD in a relevant field such as international development, economics, business administration, management, or relevant social sciences is preferable.
• Minimum of 15 years of professional experience desired, with ideally 10 years in a program management capacity, preferably leading projects across a region or multiple countries on the continent. Experience of working in a global organization with high degree of complexity would be an advantage.
• Ability to communicate in French would be a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in managing economic growth programs in at least one of the areas namely; Agriculture development, Women’s economic empowerment, Financial Services for the Poor (Financial Inclusion), Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Global Education and Nutrition.

Key competencies

• Competency 1: In-depth understanding of government, regional and international development organizations working on the continent, that work in several of the foundation’s key economic opportunity areas (ie. Agriculture Development, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Financial Services for the Poor, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene).
• Competency 2: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared/joint objectives, both internally and externally. Ability to orchestrate effective decisions across a broad range of issues and partners, assess progress, analyze gaps, and make necessary changes.
• Competency 3: Diplomatic and political acuity. Relationship management at senior levels across governments, regional economic organizations, development finance institutions, donors and other partners.
• Competency 4: Strategic thinking: seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into strategies, concrete theories of change and actions. Ability to think/act like an investor and a creative and generative problem solver. Innovative and open-minded approach; ability to question and challenge colleagues including senior managers and partners in a constructive manner.
• Competency 5: Managing complexity and ambiguity effectively: Making sense of complex, high quantity and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems – especially in managing relations. Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, fast-paced environment both in country office and at headquarters.
• Competency 6: Communication skills - communicating in complex situations in a clear and concise manner with a broad and diverse audience.
• Competency 7: People management skills -  managing teams of impactful self-directed professionals and acting as a partner to team members managing specific portfolios.
• Competency 8: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion behaviours - Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behaviour with a diverse range of people; diverse international working experience.