Senior Program Officer, Discovery & Drug Development (P/T - 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 Division The Gender Equality Division’s mission is to ensure women and girls in Africa and South Asia can enjoy good health, make their own choices, earn their own money, and be leaders in their societies. When women and girls have an equal chance to thrive and lead, everyone benefits. We know that women and girls are not a monolith. A woman’s experience and the barriers she faces are different depending on factors like where she lives, how old she is, and how much money her family has, alongside other factors including her race, caste, and education level. We seek to address these compounding barriers through deep partnership with our grantees. As a philanthropy, our role is to listen to and learn from these experts. We take risks in new areas, prove concepts, and bring these ideas to governments, partner organizations, and private sector companies to scale. The Gender Equality Division builds off our existing strengths as a foundation in areas like global health and data, partnering closely with all our global divisions. The Team The Maternal Newborn Child Nutrition and Health (MNCNH) team works to eliminate preventable mortality and morbidity among women, newborns, and children in low-resource settings. We do this by funding and accelerating a portfolio of high-impact products targeted at the moments of greatest biological vulnerability across the life-course. Our portfolio addresses pregnancy risk, maternal undernutrition, prematurity, neonatal encephalopathy, child wasting, neurodevelopment, and maternal morbidity through drugs, foods, microbes, devices, risk algorithms, and increasingly through AI and connected device technologies that extend the reach of these interventions where health systems are weakest. The portfolio spans the full development continuum from early discovery through implementation research and country introduction. A multidisciplinary team of physician scientists, epidemiologists, engineers, nutritionists, and commercialization experts works alongside in-country partners to integrate local context into research, development, and scale. Your Role The Senior Program Officer (SPO) will serve as a technical and strategic lead within the MNCNH team’s Discovery & Drug Development portfolio, advancing the discovery, development, and introduction of high-impact products and interventions targeting hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (including preeclampsia) and gestational diabetes. Reporting to Manu Vatish, the SPO will hold grantmaking responsibility for a defined portfolio of investments, shape and execute strategy in their disease area, and contribute scientific and clinical leadership across the maternal health continuum. The SPO will partner closely with grantees, investigators, country partners, and internal teams to move promising candidates through the development pipeline and into pathways for scale in low-resource settings. *This is a part-time (expected at 20 hours per week) role with compensation and benefits, located in London, UK. Remote work in the UK is also possible for this position. * Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. What You'll Do Lead and manage a portfolio of grants and investments focused on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and gestational diabetes, from sourcing and diligence through structuring, execution, monitoring, and reporting. Develop and refine investment strategy in the disease area, identifying gaps, priorities, and high-potential opportunities across discovery, development, and introduction. Provide scientific and clinical leadership on the biology, risk stratification, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of preeclampsia, other hypertensive disorders, and gestational diabetes. Partner with grantees and external investigators to design and oversee research, ensuring scientific rigor, ethical standards, and alignment with foundation and country priorities. Contribute to budgeting, risk management, and sequencing of investments within the portfolio, ensuring effective stewardship of foundation resources. Track and report on portfolio progress, milestones, and outcomes, translating evidence into strategic recommendations for leadership. Foster coordination across discovery, clinical, and implementation partners, linking work to related MNCNH programs and the broader maternal morbidity agenda. Guide the translation of evidence into policy and implementation pathways, working with internal teams and external stakeholders to scale promising interventions. Represent the Foundation externally, including at scientific meetings, technical advisory groups, and with partner governments, consortia, and industry. Your Experience Advanced degree (PhD, DrPH, MD, OB/GYN or equivalent) in a relevant clinical or scientific discipline; specialized expertise in obstetrics, maternal-fetal medicine, endocrinology, or a related field strongly preferred. Deep subject-matter expertise in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (including preeclampsia) and/or gestational diabetes, spanning underlying biology, clinical management, and product or intervention development. Exte