Deputy Director, DPI Emerging Innovations and Functional Team

Your Role 

As the Deputy Director, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Emerging Innovations and Internal Advisory Support you will report to the Director DPI and play a central role in building, designing, evaluating, and overseeing the development of cutting-edge DPI initiatives for impact across the foundation’s priority areas.  You will be working closely with a team overseeing our work in digital identity systems, and leading a team responsible for both establishing a learning agenda around emerging DPI components, and providing subject matter advisory services and deep collaborations across the Gates Foundation.    

Your primary responsibilities will be to refine the vision and articulate an execution approach for your team’s components of the DPI strategy, manage a team of investment makers, and lead projects that will lead to measurable progress against the team’s goals and vision. This may involve engaging with public and private stakeholders within low- and middle-income countries, as well as developing internal relationships and processes in support of the foundation’s work. The role will require working with a diverse range of internal colleagues, technical and scientific partners, governments, multilateral institutions across a wide array of domains and expertise.  

You will be expected to partner with team members within the DPI team and across the foundation to identify interdependencies, communicate execution requirements, track progress, make decisions, and identify and mitigate risks. You will also partner with the DPI program policy advocacy and communications team to ensure the insights from your portfolio are integrated into advocacy and communications opportunities to achieve our goals. International experience and deep technical expertise are crucial for success in this role. 

What You’ll Do 

• Provide thought leadership on DPI internally and externally, staying abreast of evolutions in the field, representing the foundation to external constituencies through formal and informal presentations, and supporting teams across the foundation with subject matter advisory services.   

• Shape emerging areas across the DPI field including, but not limited to, trusted data sharing, and voice technologies and language models.  

• Serve on the DPI Leadership Team and Investment Committee, informing overall strategy, grant making, team design, and culture, advising the director on areas related to your team’s expertise. 

• Build and maintain an understanding of the foundation’s digital investment landscape and identify areas across global health, global development, global growth, and gender equality strategies where DPI approaches can accelerate individual program impact and/or generate cross-foundation efficiencies. 

• Leverage internal resources, foundation processes, and relationships to increase foundation-wide understanding of what DPIs are, generate demand, and identify high-impact opportunities for collaboration and support. 

• Establish an approach to test and collate DPIs that can be reused across varying programs; register new DPIs in relevant public databases, and help teams discover how to apply them in relevant use cases. 

• Build, cultivate, and manage a cohesive, high-impact team that integrates a culture of inclusivity, rigor, collaboration, and continuous improvement.  

• Build systems, processes, and provide support for new investment makers to make high quality, data-driven investment decisions, and learning from them (e.g., identifying key levers and partnerships, measuring and tracking impact, managing risk, etc.)  

• Provide clear, concise, and insightful written analyses and recommendations for investments and team strategy, writing and producing briefings, reports, email updates, and other materials to inform foundation leadership.   

Your Experience 

We are seeking a thought leader in the Digital Public Infrastructure space, who is strategic, analytical, and highly collaborative, and who can engage effectively with technical experts across all levels of the organization.  Additional knowledge and skills include:   

• Advanced Degree: A graduate degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field such as engineering, computer science, and/or physical sciences that enables a deeply technical understanding of digital technologies and their deployments, risks, economics, policy, and societal implications is required. 

• Technology scaling expertise: 15+ years of demonstrated experience in designing, prototyping, scaling, and deploying digital systems, with a strong emphasis on open-source platforms, open standards and protocols, cloud infrastructure, and AI/ML technologies. Private sector experience in leading large teams, projects, systems development and deployment efforts is preferred. 

• Understanding of the DPI ecosystem in low resource settings:  Depth of technical, economic, and political understanding of the DPI ecosystem including key trends, barriers, and opportunities to test high impact use cases for under-resourced and underserved populations. Depth of knowledge of low-and-middle income contexts, as well as the experience of historically marginalized groups.  

• Global Perspective: Professional or lived experience in low-income (LIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMIC) is strongly preferred, with a nuanced understanding of their unique challenges and opportunities. 

• Critical Thinking: Ability to conceptualize, create, and implement strategies in complex, dynamic environments, integrating risk mitigation and sustainability. 

• Partnership Development: Shown success in building and leading partnerships across diverse collaborator groups, including governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector players. 

• Impact Orientation: Strong commitment to equity, sustainability, and reducing barriers for underserved populations. 

• Entrepreneurial mindset: Innovative thinker who is hands-on and willing to go as deep or broad as necessary to achieve outcomes. Experience building a new function or program within a large organization and executing effectively at all levels of the organization, despite high levels of ambiguity is expected. 

• Leadership and Collaboration: Ability to work in a matrixed organization and lead cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact, user-centered solutions, maintaining high standards of personal integrity. 

• Communication Skills: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts to diverse audiences and build consensus. 

• Travel: Ability to travel up to 30% of time, both domestic and international 

The salary range for this role is $233,600 to $362,200 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $254,700 to $394,700 USD 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.