Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning & Management – Legal

Application Deadline: March 14

Hiring/Reports to Manager: General Counsel

At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation we believe that by creating an environment for our employees to thrive personally and professionally, we will have maximum impact toward our mission to achieve our vision.

Leadership and Culture

Our culture shapes our choices about what we do and how we do it. We believe that energized people, working well together, fueled by great leadership in an inclusive environment can do extraordinary things. We expect foundation employees to intentionally and consistently embody our four agreements: show respect, offer trust, be transparent, and create energy.

Division And Team Summary

The Business Operations division strives to enable the foundation’s mission-driven work by maintaining an efficient, well-run global organization where employees can thrive and make their best contributions. Doing this well requires effective collaboration, strong alignment, and thoughtful planning across both operational and programmatic teams – as well as shared accountability for mitigating risk and optimizing the foundation’s operational resources.

“Guidance, Solutions, Integrity” describes the legal team’s approach to providing responsive legal guidance supporting pursuit of the foundation’s mission and implementation of the foundation’s programmatic and operational strategies. The legal team delivers comprehensive legal services by providing efficient and reliable legal guidance, managing legal risk, and supporting the development of solutions.

Responsibilities

Responsible for leading a range of legal team operations functions and strategic planning, including oversight of work allocation process, vendor management, knowledge management, annual and ongoing planning budgeting, and business analysis. As an advisor to the General Counsels and Legal Leadership Team (the “LLT”), the Deputy Director, Strategy Planning and Management (the “DDSPM”) will provide guidance to enhance legal team operations and optimize the quality and efficiency of the delivery of legal services. This will include making strategic operational improvement recommendations, implementing process improvements, coordinating legal team workflow and governance, developing measurement and evaluation metrics, and overseeing communications and engagement with the legal team and other foundation and foundation affiliate partners. The DDSPM is a highly qualified resource available to the LLT and legal team staff on operations, strategy, planning and management.

Responsibilities For The DDSPM Role Include

• Coordinate the legal department’s work allocation processes and resource planning, including collaboration with leadership to document and ensure work is appropriately and efficiently assigned to legal staff and that high impact issues are properly, timely and effectively documented, tracked, and raised to LLT for legal risk decisions.
• Work with the legal team to develop and coordinate business processes, vendor management, and team administration and operations, with the goal of optimal workflow, resource allocation and communication.
• Support the General Counsel on ongoing strategy and goals development as well as annual planning and budgeting.
• Create and maintain the legal department’s best practices, policies, strategic plans, and technology objectives. Lead various initiatives to drive and support legal department continuous improvement, change management and related organizational change activities.
• Understand the legal team’s vision and mission as well as the needs of its partners and clients across the foundation.
• Manage and support projects across the full range of subject matter supported by the legal team, including legal education efforts.
• Draft relevant legal team communications and presentation materials, promote culture and values, help to plan and shape agendas for recurring all-staff and LLT meetings and retreats and cross-organizational initiatives.
• Support the implementation and management of legal department technology systems, including end-to-end workflow management (e.g., intake request and knowledge management).
• Coordinate with IT function and legal staff on systems business requirements and lead efforts to implement or upgrade legal and compliance systems and new technologies in alignment with industry best practices.
• Accountable for ensuring program complies with established enterprise portfolio management governance and processes including intake, quarterly reviews, and annual planning.
• Cultivate insights and input to communicate legal team progress and overall ‘Rhythm of Business’ across team.
• Develop, implement, and track appropriate metrics and benchmarking through data analytics to measure the legal team’s performance and achievement of goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or other advanced degree with at least 10+ years of experience.
• Proven experience working in a legal operations role within a global organization.
• Recognized authority in implementing operational functions of a strong legal team with a demonstrated record of success on highly complex, business critical programs.
• Demonstrated complex program management skills and a successful track record of leading or running multiple projects simultaneously. Includes measuring project results and creating dashboards / scorecards, project definition, planning / scoping the work, establishing governance and partners, organizing work meaningfully, designing appropriate solutions, implementing the solutions, managing change, effective communications, analyzing data, and monitoring for ultimate impact/effectiveness.
• Knowledge of strategy development and implementation, design of performance management system of goals, targets, and monitoring process.
• Experience in developing and maintaining strong partnerships and relationships inside and outside the organization, handling conflicts, and building consensus. Comfortable with interactions that span all levels of seniority and decision makers across an organization.
• Demonstrated business competence and ability to handle multiple responsibilities in a fast-paced and constantly evolving environment and implement flawlessly.
• Experience supporting leaders in navigating and leading change; adept at optimizing and scaling work processes, systems, and other initiatives.
• Proven strength in process improvement, structured problem solving and strategic business planning, with the ability to easily identify and communicate framework to analyze issues.
• Direct knowledge of technology system selection, implementation, training, and maintenance within the legal industry; ability to translate business requirements to automated system tasks and workflows.
• Strong collaboration skills, initiative, sound judgment and service orientation.
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities and business needs, and proactive in identifying areas of need and generating action plans.
• Ability to synthesize information to reach logical conclusions that are globally/regionally minded.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Works with efficiency and diplomacy.

The position can be located in Seattle, Washington or Washington, D.C.

• Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.
• The foundation requires all employees based in the United States to provide proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, subject to applicable laws.

Hiring Requirements

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Depending upon your work location, we may require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and any recommended booster doses. All employees based in the United States are to provide proof of full vaccination upon hire and any recommended boosters, subject to applicable laws.

Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request to [email protected] .

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of 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.

Posted 5 Days Ago Full time B016925

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.