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Program Officer, Digital Learning Research & Development

Job Description

Program Officer, Digital Learning Research & Development

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: that people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. By building a global and cultural workplace that supports greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — together with our employees and partners, we can help all people improve their lives from poverty and health to education. As an organization we offer full healthcare premiums coverage, generous paid time off, contribution to your retirement fund, several employee communities, and a commitment to embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do.

The Team

The foundation’s U.S. Program (USP) works to ensure that everyone in the US has access to life-changing opportunities. That’s why our primary focus in education is ensuring that all students – especially Black, Latino, and low-income students – have an opportunity to earn a degree or certificate that prepares them for a successful career and life. But often, education isn’t enough. Factors outside of schools and the classroom have an enormous impact on a student’s success. That’s why we’re also supporting efforts by public officials and community groups to better understand and advance economic mobility, leading to permanent ladders out of poverty for families and communities, such that race, ethnicity, and income are no longer predictors of outcomes.

Over its history, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested heavily in research and development to provide educators with tools, strategies, and platforms that empower them to better serve Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds. This work has included, but has not been limited to:

1. Developing and evaluating innovative curricular and instructional approaches to student learning needs and advising technologies in K12 and PS
2. Exploring the interplay between social emotional learning and executive functions on student learning
3. Working with early-stage developers to test products in anticipation of scaling efforts, and
4. Exploring and developing research practice partnerships to support field-identified research priorities and better understand how students master academic content and thrive.

Your Role

We are seeking an outstanding candidate for Program Officer, Digital Learning Research & Development (PO) to play a vital role in advancing innovation and efficacy via structured R&D (and early-stage product management) approaches. The Program Officer will bring demonstrated expertise in learning experience design, rapid cycle research for product improvement and product development (preferably in content driven ed tech), and equity-centered user research, user testing. Additionally, they will have experience developing a learning agenda to facilitate evidence generation and ongoing solution design, development, and iteration. They will serve as a collaborative member of a dynamic and innovative Digital Learning sub-team and our Post-Secondary Solutions team, as well as across our entire Solutions portfolio. This individual will collaborate with multiple Program Officers developing and scaling high quality digital learning tools (i.e., affordable digital courseware and digital learning infrastructure) to improve academic success and momentum for students, while helping colleges and universities spread and scale effective digital instruction at the undergraduate level as part of a broader institutional transformation strategy.

What You’ll Do

The work of this Program Officer is carried out in partnership with field partners and colleagues of the Digital Learning sub-team. To further the strategy’s impact, this individual will:

  • Design and implement (potentially with grantees and solution development partners) R&D cycles to advance greater digital learning solution efficacy, scalability, and innovation to accelerate the solution’s quality, scaled adoption, and return on investment.

  • Apply rapid-cycle research methodologies to ensure that digital learning solution(s) improve student outcomes (including A/B testing, equity-centered user design and testing).

  • Prospect, develop, negotiate, launch, and lead high impact and strategic investments (often multi-stakeholder investments including RFPs and RFIs that require deeper measurement, quantitative research, qualitative research, and education evaluation and efficacy research). Provide grant management and cross foundation and external relationship management to further the Digital Learning portfolio and the PS team’s impact.

  • Plan, implement, and/or lead analyses of the market, emerging innovations, barriers to scale, product market fit (i.e., segmentation analysis), user and institutional needs, and opportunities in the digital learning and learning technologies market aligned to the foundation and PS strategy’s mission (essentially bridging from R&D capabilities into product management).

  • Synthesize new and existing research literature into summaries, presentations, and tools to enable Foundation management, leadership, and external partners to understand and/or apply these findings.

  • Provide guidance, consultation, and support to grantees and external stakeholders to achieve desired impact of grants; organize and conduct site visits when appropriate, provide technical guidance, lead, and convene meetings (internal and external) and apply and evaluate milestone-based performance objectives to achieve successful outcomes.

  • Cultivate and optimize lasting and high impact relationships with colleagues, external partners, and grantees.

  • Lead internal processes and portfolio progress while ensuring appropriate documentation, grant budgeting and reporting. Improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.

  • Contribute to both development and coordination of key investments related to this portfolio as well as collaborating with a team of program officers passionate about the digital courseware solution as well as other postsecondary success solutions and portfolio(s).

  • Collaborate with key R&D-focused Program Officers across the education team to strengthen our collective R&D practices and processes.

Your Experience

  • A commitment to equity and equitable practices in how we do our work.

  • Expertise and practical experience applying education and learning-science research, learning experience design, impact research (particularly formative approaches during product development), and user-centered design and testing to the design, development, improvement, and deployment of digital learning solutions.

  • Confirmed ability to lead and run complex, multi-stakeholder R&D programs (including both efficacy and qualitative research focused on product improvement), preferably as it relates to education and learning. Validated project management competence required.

  • Experience with and understanding of higher education instructing and learning delivery, faculty development, learning sciences, evidence-based and/or digital pedagogies, and/or implementation of high impact digital learning at the undergraduate level.

  • Base level understanding of deployment and use of machine learning and artificial intelligence methodologies to improve usability and efficacy of platforms and learning technologies.

  • Excellent quantitative, analytical, writing, and verbal skills essential for communicating progress and stewardship with diverse audiences.

  • Proven ability to collaborate effectively.

  • Strategic problem solver with a bias for action and implementation.

  • Bachelor’s or other relevant degree with 5+ years of higher education or relevant private sector / digital learning and education technology experience.

  • Advanced degreed preferred.

  • Prior strategic philanthropy or social impact investing experience preferred.

  • Knowledge and/or experience in improving and refining digital learning tools and resources (such as digital courseware); understanding of the US digital learning market, learning analytics, and learning (digital courseware) platforms currently available in the market.

  • Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

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.

Candidate Accommodations

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

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.

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