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 vision of the foundation’s U.S. Program (USP) is to ensure that everyone in the US has access to life-changing opportunities so that race, ethnicity, and income are no longer predictors of educational and economic outcomes. The vision of the Assessment Initiative, which sits in the Early Learning & Assessments team, is that educators, school, and district leaders can effectively collect and utilize the right data on student progress and broader conditions to drive student success. As such, the Initiative explores innovative, efficient, and engaging assessments, promotes system alignment around meaningful measures, and supports the development of tools and capabilities that enable timely, data-informed action by educators and leaders.

Posting Close Date: Sunday, October 19th

Your Role

The Deputy Director, Assessment Initiative is responsible for designing, planning, implementing, evaluating, and monitoring innovative research and development activities for the Assessment Initiative within US Program. You provide leadership and direct management for the team of program officers responsible for developing core “public goods” and intervention support for dissemination, uptake, and adoption broadly across a wide range of partners and actors. This leader will guide team members in the management of portfolios of foundation investments (grants and contracts), and work with external partners to drive progress. As part of this responsibility, this role will manage relationships with grantees, contractors, and key partners to achieve the foundation’s desired impact, provide project briefings and updates to foundation leadership, and represent the foundation in meetings with external partners, as well as at conferences and workshops. You work in partnership with colleagues from other teams within US Program to ensure that the assessment related public goods being created support actors across the system to understand what students know and are able to do, and that these public goods enable learners to move efficiently and easily across institutions and sectors.

What You’ll Do

• Lead a team of program officers in executing on the defined Assessment Initiative strategy in partnership with our grantees, with a goal of delivering impact against defined milestones
• Lead or contribute to the design of, collaborations, and implementation plans to ensure long-term sustainability and impact in collaboration with other investment portfolios, i.e., solutions availability and dissemination, delivery, as well as other foundations and funders. 
• Engage and influence leaders within and outside the foundation regarding programmatic strategy and priorities.
• Accountable for the identification and assessment of key portfolio risks, and the development and management of mitigation/contingency plans at the portfolio level. 
• Track market trends in education products and solutions to identify key levers in both supply and demand that can influence uptake of high-quality instructional materials and supports. 
• Advise, mentor, and support colleagues within the foundation and their grantees in the design, enhancement, and execution of projects, initiatives, and engagements. 
• Manage partnerships and grantee relationships to achieve impact, for example, by conducting site visits, convening meetings of key partners, monitoring, and evaluating components of grants. 
• In partnership with Strategy, Planning and Management (SPM) team, facilitate development of annual investment plans and budgets, develop, modify, and implement strategy under division leadership.  
• Serve as a foundation spokesperson on partner engagement priorities and related issues internally to foundation co-chairs and leadership and externally to stakeholders.  
• Responsible for hiring and managing the talent needed to achieve the foundation’s goals. 
• Foster enabling conditions for talent to thrive and be accountable for inclusive team culture.  
• Model and coach equitable decision-making, inclusive behaviors, and actions; address escalated issues in a timely fashion. 

Your Experience

A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field or equivalent demonstrated experience is required. Advanced degree preferred. 

Assessment product and market expertise 

• Strong understanding of academic research and product development in the field of assessment
• Working understanding of the digital learning markets (both from a supply and demand perspective), and positioning of assessment as both a stand-alone product and as a feature embedded in other solutions within those markets.
• General management experience from an ed-tech organization (ideally with P&L responsibility) spanning Strategy development, innovation lifecycle, product management, scaling and the related funding strategies across each of these areas.
• Experience enacting an R&D strategy with partners that meets the foundation’s strategic goal of investing in, evaluating, and codifying tools and strategies capable of scaling across the broader ecosystem. Demonstrates superior skills in strategic planning and implementation, demonstrating a systems-thinking approach.
• Fluency with AI applications to assessments and broader digitally enabled teaching and learning approaches.
• Experience in K12 and postsecondary markets preferred.

Demonstrated commitment to inclusive practices 

• In product design and development, with a focus on engaging with students, teachers and administrators using/impacted by assessments 
• In engagement with organizations and leaders proximate to the work. 
• In internal teamwork; including cross-team collaboration, staff hiring, and management.
  

Managerial Acuity 

• Bring together and inspire team members with a diverse set of backgrounds, approaches, and beliefs to pursue a coherent long-term direction, and collaborate with the team on how to achieve it. 
• Thoughtfully plan, organize, and prioritize work of self and others in a fast-paced environment with multiple and competing demands, which requires ability to see the critical path, measure and mitigate risk, and make trade-offs. 
• Hold people accountable for their commitments, providing clarity and assisting when barriers arise; maintains the team’s focus on results, integrity, and impact. 
• Establish practices to reinforce independent and open communication among team members and other groups within the Assessment team and across US Program that contribute to the team’s work. 
• Experience engaging successfully with senior collaborators (Board of Directors, partner organization executives, etc.). 
• Thoughtfully communicates complex information and data in written and oral formats; synthesizes large volumes of information into clear recommendations and decisions; and advocates and communicates effectively with a broad and diverse audience. 

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

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. 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.

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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.