Senior Program Manager

Our mission is to catalyze innovations that solve global problems and improve the lives of the world’s poorest people. We do this by incubating products, advocating for important causes, engaging with global organizations, and managing venture investments.

Gates Ventures is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

The Health & Life Sciences (HLS) at Gates Ventures team operates three practice areas – a. advisory role and learning agenda b. US Healthcare, and C. Alzheimer’s disease-focused investments. Within the scope of Alzheimer’s disease-focused investments, Gates Ventures focuses on five pillars: 1. Upstream research, 2. Biomarkers/diagnostics, 3. Therapeutics pipeline, 4. Clinical trial bottlenecks and 5. Enabling data sharing and use.

Our Alzheimer’s Data pillar goal is to fundamentally transform Alzheimer’s disease research, accelerating progress toward new treatments and cures for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) by leveraging data and platform interoperability to create a global user community.

Our data pillar’s product suite is designed to remove barriers of siloed, non-interoperable data, establish an environment to enable digital innovation at scale for ADRD research, and deliver on the organization’s program objectives more effectively and collaboratively. Examples include the Alzheimer’s Data Initiative’s AD Workbench (ADWB), our secure cloud-based data platform, and the Federated and Distributed Data Sharing Appliance (FDSA), which enables access to previously unreachable datasets. The latest additions to our product suite include the Global Research and Imaging Platform (GRIP), an open-access, white-label, end-to-end solution for data owners/contributors as well as the users.

Additionally, we established the Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium (GNPC) in 2023, a neurodegenerative disease biomarker discovery effort uniting and expanding the available molecular “fingerprinting” data for thousands of patient samples across dozens of different dementia and population cohorts, including healthy aging, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

Position Overview

Gates Ventures Health & Life Sciences is seeking a mission-driven Senior Program Manager to help us advance our Alzheimer’s Data related programs and products: the Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Data Initiative, the Global Research Imaging Platform (GRIP), and the Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium (GNPC).

In this role, you will be responsible for program management that will enable the expansion and impact of our data initiative platforms, tools, and partnerships. The ideal candidate brings a mix of program and project management expertise, scientific literacy, and stakeholder engagement skills, with a passion for enabling progress in neurodegenerative disease research.

This position will require the ability to manage multiple program and project deadlines, promote collaboration and progress across teams and with our partners to drive our programmatic efforts' impact.

Core Responsibilities

• Program Management: Lead and manage day-to-day cross program activities, ensuring deliverables meet scope, timeline, and quality standards.
• Strategic Alignment: Partner with program leadership to define and track program objectives, KPIs, and success metrics that align with organizational priorities.
• Coordination and facilitation of internal project team meetings
• Collaboration with cross-functional teams to align priorities and resources.
• Communicate and align with grant and finance teams to keep visibility on financial health of program.
• Develop and maintain existing materials related to ROB, project plans, milestone tracking, business risks, and dependencies, meeting agendas/notes.
• Communicate progress and updates effectively to internal team, partners, and leadership.
• Development and maintenance of a comprehensive relationship management tracking system (CRM)
• Conduct targeted research and synthesize findings to inform strategic choices and decision-making.
• Maintain and manage organizational risk register and decision logs.
• AD Data Initiative Governance:
• Program governance: Board meeting agendas and meeting management, tracking decision-making, escalation pathways, stakeholder (Board/Advisory board) engagement, and performance oversight.
• Communication & Reporting: Clear, consistent updates to stakeholders (Including board/advisory board) through dashboards, reports, and presentations.
• Oversee planning & work back schedules for our global Alzheimer’s conference engagements: CTAD, ADPD and AAIC
• Ad hoc Project Management: coordinate, in tandem with team leadership, the support for future limited term projects and initiatives.
• Lead operational change management, identifying opportunities improvements and ensuring the adoption of new processes or technologies.
• Strategic Alignment: Partner with program leadership to define and track program objectives, KPIs, and success metrics that align with organizational priorities.
• Coordination and facilitation of internal project team meetings
• Collaboration with cross-functional teams to align priorities and resources.
• Communicate and align with grant and finance teams to keep visibility on financial health of program.
• Develop and maintain existing materials related to ROB, project plans, milestone tracking, business risks, and dependencies, meeting agendas/notes.
• Communicate progress and updates effectively to internal team, partners, and leadership.
• Development and maintenance of a comprehensive relationship management tracking system (CRM)
• Conduct targeted research and synthesize findings to inform strategic choices and decision-making.
• Maintain and manage organizational risk register and decision logs.
• Program governance: Board meeting agendas and meeting management, tracking decision-making, escalation pathways, stakeholder (Board/Advisory board) engagement, and performance oversight.
• Communication & Reporting: Clear, consistent updates to stakeholders (Including board/advisory board) through dashboards, reports, and presentations.

Required Skills

• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build relationships with stakeholders, including internal leadership, team members and external partners.
• Expert level project management and organizational abilities, with diligence.
• Expert level written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated proactive approaches to problem-solving with strong decision-making capabilities and emotional maturity.
• Highly resourceful team-player, with the ability to also be extremely effective independently.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve goals and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Proven ability to manage confidential information with discretion, be adaptable to various competing demands, and demonstrate high level of customer/client service and response.
• Forward looking thinker, who actively seeks opportunities and proposes solutions.
• Comfortable with highly unstructured and ambiguous situations; ability to proactively identify solutions and create structure for team success.

Qualifications Or Related Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree with 7++ years of professional experience in program management, consulting, or related fields.
• Experience working in mission-driven organizations or with high-profile stakeholders.
• Previous experience working in life sciences, preferably neuroscience or Alzheimer's related work preferred.
• Proficiency with business and project management systems (e.g., SharePoint, Smartsheet, MS Project, Asana, Confluence)
• Proficiency with data visualization or analysis tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Excel advanced functions).
• Certification in project management (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2, Agile/Scrum) is a plus.
• Previous experience with non-profit boards/governance is a plus.
• Previous experience working in life sciences, preferably neuroscience or Alzheimer's related work preferred.

Compensation & Benefits

The salary range for this position is $145,000 to $165,000 per year. Starting salary offers will vary depending on several factors, including education, experience, and qualifications. This role also qualifies for a discretionary annual bonus. Gates Ventures offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance and a 401(k) program with employer match. Our benefits also include generous paid time off for vacation, sick leave, holidays, and parental leave.