Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Looking for Operations Chief Financial Officer at Seattle, WA Full Time

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 Finance & Resource Planning (F&RP) Division is led by the foundation CFO and partners with our colleagues to invest resources wisely and boldly in service of people who need it most. We do this through improving the impact of our investments and people, protecting the foundation’s assets and brand, and enabling leadership to allocate resources wisely. F&RP leads enterprise planning and the associated governance processes to enable integrated planning across all strategies, functions, geographies, and operations.

The Finance, Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team provides business and financial support to program strategy teams (PSTs) and operating divisions across the foundation, with this role directly supporting the operating divisions and overseeing the strategic planning of all foundation operating expenses. Key responsibilities include partnering with the divisions on budgeting and financial planning, resource allocation, and foundation-wide projects.

The Operations Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) is responsible for planning and monitoring all financial aspects of the foundation and serves as the key interface between operating division leadership and other finance functions. The OCFO also collaborates with the Foundation CFO on foundation-wide financial initiatives and functions. The OCFO is the manager of Financial Planning and Analysis staff deployed to this function. Supporting the foundation’s growth and vision, this role will strengthen Financial Planning and Analysis capabilities on Operations and provide an enhanced level of service and accountability to operating units and foundation leadership while ensuring good stewardship of foundation resources. The Operations CFO will act as a leader for all financial management work in Operations and create a deeper alignment between finance functions and Operations, and business support staff. The role will guide foundation wide Operations in annual planning, resource allocation, and develop a framework of metrics to assess operating efficiency and effectiveness. Additionally, the Operations CFO will oversee the planning for capital related investments.

What You’ll Do

• Financial Management & Leadership: Owns operating process to align with foundation planning cycle; uses analytics to inform financial decisions for division leaders; Oversees complex projects that require financial expertise; facilitates resource allocation process for Operations.
• FP&A Service Delivery Lead: Serves as bridge and primary source of Operations input to Finance COEs; co-creates policies and processes that impact Operations.
• Impact First: Articulate and adept at ensuring a strong value proposition of the Financial Planning & Analysis function to deliver impact in support of operating divisions.
• Assurance: Coordinates with the Assurance and Risk Management team on relevant audits and finance-facing internal audit and advisory engagements. Contributes to the foundation risk register.
• Relationship Management: Builds and maintains strong relationships with division head and other leadership as thought partner and to make sure financial needs are supported. Also responsible for high quality interactions and clear, consistent communications with partners and vendors.
• Foundation Leadership: Active leader in the finance leadership team and with other PCFOs in developing strategy and goals aligned with an Operations framework. Coordinates with CFO and other PCFOs to share best practice, develop policy and provide input on overarching issues.
• Team Management: Leads and manages a team of diverse financial managers and associates that provide global financial support across the foundation. Prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion and acts on these priorities by fostering diverse, equitable and inclusive practices to create a work environment where everyone can do their best work in contributing towards our impact. Hires the talent needed to achieve our goals, ensuring successful employee onboarding, communicating performance expectations, creating goal alignment, resiliency, integrating project and change management, giving, and seeking feedback, providing coaching, measuring progress, and holding people accountable, supporting employee development, and recognizing achievement and lessons learned.
• Decision-Making: The most important decisions this position makes are who to hire and how to build a strong and resilient team that can help maximize impact with stewardship. Provides input and is a strong thought partner but may not be the final decision-maker on many decisions. Needs to be humble with little ego and comfortable using a more influential leadership style rather than having broad formal authority.

Your Experience

You are a creative, thoughtful, and curious leader who has an excellent record of achievement in roles of increasing responsibility. You should be prepared to work across a diverse set of disciplines, bridging a wide range of expertise, with a demonstrated ability to work with agility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a dynamic environment. The ideal candidate has a blend of the following skills and experiences:

• Masters/MBA preferred with 15+ years of experience or equivalent.
• Strong financial and analytical background with focus on skills that facilitate decision making (e.g., NPV Analysis, cash flow forecasting, etc.)
• Experience in designing efficient processes to deliver budget and key financial analyses.
• Expertise in the following areas:
• Operating investments and efficiency.
• General understanding of and willingness to learn:
• Financial systems and reporting
• Ability to influence without authority, establish trust and rapport, and develop consensus amongst diverse perspectives to reach creative solutions across a multitude of different internal roles.
• Demonstrates ability to communicate complex financial concepts to partners with diverse backgrounds, including leadership, operating and program staff, grantees, and other foundation operational resources.
• Strong relationship management and communication skills; ability to understand risks and bring strong negotiating skills to the role.
• Adept in navigating complex, matrixed environments; Able to take initiative, utilize organizational skills and work autonomously, while remaining flexible to changing tasks, priorities, and roles and responsibilities.
• Ability to effectively inspire and direct staff (including cross-functional teams) in the areas of professional development, recruitment, performance, time management and portfolio management.
• Models professional courage– engages in trust-based debate, asks hard or unpopular questions, and is willing to say no.
• Resilient in the face of change, and open-minded in developing solutions that strive for impact first.
• Intellectually curious about solution orientation and the ability to identify new ways of working.
• Some content expertise in operating business models and operational effectiveness and efficiency.
• Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

The typical salary range for this role is $262,200 – $487,700 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.

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.