Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Program Officer Reviews

Pros

Opportunity to work with amazing people on some complex and important global and domestic challenges. Increasingly intentional focus on inclusive culture and equitable partnerships.

Cons

Hectic and political work environment, and priorities are still set from the top so a lot of time spent managing up.

Pros

- Got to define my own role - One of the best supervisors in my whole career - Excellent benefits (15% 403b contribution regardless of employee's contribution, generous medical, dental and vision insurances) - Caring teammates

Cons

- Teams and orgs are always evolving, needing lots of readjustment times - Essentially a family Foundation - Not enough visa sponsorship support

Pros

Amazing working on great mission. Extremely fulfilling.

Cons

Demanding job, but not really a con for someone who is driven.

Pros

Lots of smart talented people who are trying to move the needle in the best way they know and can.

Cons

Upper management skews towards private sector backgrounds - management consulting, big pharma and may not have the technical expertise or insights to lead global health or development work.

Pros

Benefits, working with smart people

Cons

Confusing org structure and a lot of ambiguity

Pros

Access to resources to invest in important areas

Cons

Constant layoffs and turnover due to consultant-driven strategy changes every couple of years. Institution does not care about employees, no effort to grow or retain, sees no value in institutional knowledge or mature relationships with partners and grantees. No logic, no values to layoffs. Behind the times in many areas because listening to consultants with no content expertise rather than technical experts on staff. Despite the rhetoric, extremely risk averse in grant-making. Delegation of authority (everything above 5 M needs approval at the Presidential level) leads to huge bottlenecks and very slow process--approx. 1 year to make a grant... whether it's for 5 million or 30 million--despite the fact that they obsess about strategy, have yearly portfolio reviews, etc.

Pros

Pay and benefits are fantastic. These include six months of paid parental leave (although it used to be a full year) and a contribution to one's retirement fund of 15% your salary. In effect, this means that compensation is 15% higher that the salaries you see quoted. Also, if you work and live in Washington state, there's no state income tax. They have some very talented and experienced people at the foundation, and the mission, of course, is a very fulfilling and meaningful one. The foundation also has a very good reputation in most places, so it's a good line on one's resume, and contacting people with a foundation email address helps a lot in getting responses.

Cons

Ultimately it's Bill and Melinda who make the decisions. They are very involved in the work of the foundation, and _a lot_ of effort goes into preparing for presenting work to them, and it can be quite a political place. There's also an annual strategy review for most teams, so a lot of energy goes into preparing for that every year. The culture is very different from team to team. Some are amazing and collegial; others are absolutely poisonous, so ask around and have 1:1 conversations with people there before joining a team.

Pros

- brilliant and dedicated colleagues - amazing benefits, including healthcare for my family and hefty retirement account contributions - fulfilling work -- with an inspiring mission

Cons

- high expectations, sometimes feels impossible - deadline driven and can be a high stress environment - frustrating bureaucracy that can slow down productivity - top heavy org structure, often lacking support roles

Pros

Competitive pay, strong expertise among colleagues, impactful work, office perks like snacks and catered meals and swanky events

Cons

Norms of white dominance culture, sense of urgency, de-prioritization of equity across leadership

Pros

Great institution doing amazing work. Smart and dedicated staff. Generous benefits.

Cons

There is nearly constant re-organizing that means the job you signed up to do may change drastically or disappear. Higher level staff seem blind to the costs of this churn.