Global Lead, Business Development & Licensing (BD&L)

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 Business Development & Licensing team provides transaction and negotiating support to the Program Strategy Teams (PSTs) to execute priority agreements with select private sector partners for access to key assets for charitable purpose (excluding Strategic Investment Fund transactions: debt, equity, and volume guarantees). The team focuses on transaction execution for agreements as well as development and consistent implementation of best practices for engagement and negotiation of private sector agreements.

This role will be based out of Seattle, Wa headquarters.

Your Role
The Global Lead for BD&L will support the foundation’s PST goals to identify and evaluate strategic business partners and licensing opportunities that will help execute and advance our PST strategies, in service to our charitable purpose. You will be accountable for coordinating and negotiating access to key assets and opportunities with both new and existing partners.  You will align and partner closely with the program team and subject matter experts to develop appropriate agreement structure integrating the technical risk inherent in innovation projects. We are looking for a leader to partner with stakeholders focused on digital partnerships with technology companies across the foundation.

What You'll Do

• Help structure and co-lead agreement transactions with PSTs that will take innovative digital solutions from the early concept stage through the cycle to commercialization so that data, technology and products can successfully reach the ultimate beneficiaries in our target geographies of those underserved. 
• Leverage digital experience to develop and lead all aspects of the execution of business development strategies that are aligned with accessing the priorities and interests of PST and/or Functional Strategy (e.g., global access and licensing of products, platform and enabling technologies, services). Continuing to evolve the foundation’s global access terms such as affordability, access, price, volume commitments which are essential in achieving our PST program goals.
• Leverage experience in negotiating multinational technology company agreements with government agencies and developing and implementing programs that support public good data sets that foster collaboration across sectors and disciplines.
• Act as the point of contact to organize and help lead agreement transaction teams that will conduct due diligence of potential partners, negotiate agreement terms, gain internal alignment and support, and present clear assumption-based recommendations to executive leadership.  
• Establish highly effective and collaborative relationships with key internal functions (e.g., Legal, Finance, Strategic Investment Fund, Foundation Strategy Office, Product Launch Team, and Alliance Management) to ensure effective transactional representation to execute the target agreements.
• Facilitate high-quality opportunity assessments and due diligence reviews (including benchmark comparable transactions and agreement structures, funding needs, Target Product Profile (TPP), current market conditions and landscape of potential partners for prioritized areas of interest.
• Lead partner review and collaboration of the development of agreement recommendation documents to the executive team and governance committee for approval (including the President of the division, Chief Financial Officer, and General Counsel).
• Evaluation of key inputs for commercial prospects and strategies with the Product Launch team to facilitate decision-making (e.g., opportunities in both High-Income Countries or solely for Low-and-Middle Income Countries).
• Concurrently manage multiple business opportunities across PSTs, with high complexity requiring consistent prioritization of projects and the building of internal alignment between PST and foundation objectives.
• Drive robust and timely decision-making through all stages of agreements.
• Participate in active development of the foundation’s business development capabilities, processes and the sharing of best practices and lessons learned when engaging with the private sector.
• Support the PSTs as thought partners to develop key relationships with technology companies and other partners to enable establishment of partnerships that advance strategic goals.
• Identify digital synergies and strategic solutions across the different PSTs and divisions.

 

This position reports directly to the Director of BD&L

Your Experience

• Significant leadership experience in business development and licensing experience with 10+ years in relevant and/or related digital technology industry sector.
• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree, plus 10+ years of demonstrated experience. Advanced degree preferred including MBA and/or PhD.
• Preference for experience in more than one functional area in a multi-national technology company (e.g., business development, product development, product management, marketing, commercialization, finance, legal, and/or intellectual property, etc.).
• Preference for experience licensing and implementing public good data sets (e.g. climate and environment, health and other government data sets).
• Significant track record of leading and negotiating successful technology-related transactions required (including business terms such as intellectual property, data ownership, sharing, privacy and liability for multi-national technology companies).
• Experience negotiating with multi-national corporations and companies based in low- and middle-income countries is highly desirable, including multi-partner partnerships.
• Experience leading and partnering with cross-functional business development diligence and agreement teams to completion, including in areas outside of technical expertise and across divisions and geographies.
• Previous work experience related to AI/digital initiatives and aligning partnership incentives across non-profit and for-profit entities (specifically with technology entities).

 

Skills and Qualifications

• Ability to negotiate commitments and timelines. Good knowledge of legal matters related to intellectual property and licensing contracts. 
• Ability to lead a transaction from term sheet to signature, including agreements that don’t have a standard template in place
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills (preferably with experience navigating within highly matrixed environments and influencing stakeholders with and without authority). 
• Must have an aptitude to quickly understand innovation, particularly involving new science and technology. 
• Strong understanding of the basics of the competitive dynamics in the Digital technology industry, including emerging Artificial Intelligence technologies in a breadth of industries including health, consumer finance and education.
• Strong analytical capabilities (financial analysis and product P&L modeling preferred).
• Skilled facilitator, delegator, and project manager.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills including familiarity with legalese, drafting and review; highly capable of articulating our interests to varied audiences including experience presenting to company executive management teams.
• Strong decision-maker, able to appropriately articulate and balance tradeoffs, including in areas of high complexity.
• Demonstrated ability to operate with flexibility and creativity at both strategic and execution levels, implementing activities within tactical plans with a high level of complexity and ambiguity.
• An inclusive individual who thrives in a team-oriented and highly matrixed environment with experience serving many different internal and external constituencies. Active listening skills.
• Results and impact-oriented with a problem-solving mindset.
• Humble and collaborative team player who can lead work effectively.
• Passion for the foundation’s mission.
• Ability to travel; both domestically and internationally (could be greater than 50% during transaction negotiations).

Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. This includes direct company sponsorship and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (eg: H-1B, O-1, L-1,  E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.).

The salary range for this role is $238,400 to $369,400 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $262,200 to $406,400 USD. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hires salaries are typically between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process. 

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Hiring Requirements

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

Candidate Accommodations

We’re committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring experience for all candidates. If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process—such as an ASL interpreter, alternative interview format, or physical accessibility support—we’re happy to help. Please contact HR@gatesfoundation.org with the position number and a brief description of your accommodation needs. Requests will be handled confidentially.

Inclusion Statement

We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We strive for a global and cultural workplace that supports ever greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — and we support this diversity through all 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.