Senior Program Officer, Development Policy & Finance (2 Year LTE)

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 Global Policy & Advocacy (GPA) division shapes development financing and public policy debates, builds partnerships, and supports advocacy efforts to advance our mission. Because the foundation's resources alone are not enough to solve the challenges ahead, GPA also supports advocacy efforts to engage diverse stakeholders and promote innovative solutions that advance our program goals. GPA engages at the global and regional level, as well as in specific countries where resources and engagements are tailored to the context.

Within GPA, the Development Policy & Finance (DPAF) team focuses on economic and financial expertise to strengthen policy and advocacy strategies across the foundation’s key priorities, including economic growth, public finance management (PFM), fiscal policy, development financing and capital mobilization. The team ensures GPA’s work – and by extension the foundation’s work – is informed by strong economic and financial analysis and viewpoints, resonant with economic trends, and connected with key decision-makers in countries, and development institutions such as multilateral development banks (MDBs), development finance institutions (DFIs) and think tanks focused on development economics and finance. DPAF is a group of economists, grant makers and development finance experts accountable for using economic analysis and perspectives to strengthen foundation policy and advocacy strategies, and for growing the community of economic policymakers engaged in foundation issues.

Your Role

DPAF is seeking a Senior Program Officer (SPO) to lead our work on the future of development cooperation and financing. This role will shape the foundation’s perspective on how the global development finance architecture must evolve to better meet the needs of low- and lower middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs).

While the team includes experts focused on specific financing flows and instruments, this position is responsible for integrating those perspectives into a coherent view of the broader system. The SPO will bring deep expertise across public, multilateral, and private development finance, domestic and external, and apply it to:

• Develop and articulate foundation views on reforms to the development finance system, from both a global and country perspective.

• Contribute to the global policy debates on the future of development cooperation and finance.

• Translate financing and macroeconomic trends into actionable insights that inform foundation strategy.

• Create awareness of the impacts from major global shifts such as AI and other technologies, geopolitics and trade, populations dynamics, multiple crises, etc, on a future development finance system.

• Advise senior leadership on implications of shifts in aid architecture, multilateral reform, innovative finance solutions and country financing trajectories.

• Design and manage complex grants and analytical work, ranging from financial modeling that underpins strategy and engagement to supporting initiatives advancing the future development cooperation and finance structure at the country, regional and global level.

This is a pivotal moment for development finance. Aid budgets are under pressure, financing flows are shifting, innovative instruments are expanding, and many countries are prioritizing economic growth and domestic resource mobilization. At the same time, global challenges such as rapid technological shifts, climate change and pandemic preparedness are increasing demands on the system.

The SPO will play a leading role in assessing which financing approaches and institutional reforms can most effectively support country-level development priorities while strengthening the overall system.

*This is a two-year limited-term position (salary + benefits) that reports to DPAF’s Deputy Director and is based in Washington, DC. Relocation assi