Group Summary

This position falls within the China Country Office (CCO). The goal of the China strategy is to assist China in becoming a more effective partner in global health and development through strong domestic partnerships and leveraging its rich development experience and innovation capacity.

The Strategy Officer will report to the Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning, and Management (DDSPM) for the China Country Office and will work closely with other members of the leadership team in China. The Strategy, Planning & Management team is responsible for establishing strong and simple strategy, management, and operations systems to increase CCO’s capacity for impact and improve alignment and coordination across Global Programs.

Position Summary, Responsibilities & Requirements

The China Program’s Strategy, Planning & Management (SPM) team is recruiting a Strategy Officer (SO). This is a mid-level position requiring strategic thought leadership, initiative, ability to learn technical sectors quickly, strong ability to structure information and strong relationship building skills. 

The Strategy Officer will be involved in projects with the CCO to: 1) support the development and refinement of critical sector strategies (healthcare R&D, agriculture, development financing and private capital, etc.) in close partnership with teams across the organization; 2) contribute to strengthening the core CCO strategy and our ability to measure results. This role will require engagement with both internal and external stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities Include:

Strategy development and refinement (70%)

• Work with team members to frame problems, opportunities and roles the foundation can play. This includes articulating the connections between goals and activities.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret data, and construct frameworks for evaluating information and making decisions
• Facilitate debate, criticism, and alignment and act as a thought partner for the DDSPM and other Deputy Directors on the China team
• Develop communication for internal and external audiences

Execution management (20%)

• Develop execution plans for new sector strategies and insure they integrate into CCO strategy execution
• Translate strategy into action at the unit of work for a program officer at the Foundation across full strategy – help ensure that the investments we make are shaped to deliver against our plan and collaboratively problem solve with the team

Identify new challenges and opportunities (10%)

• Meet with team members, internal partners, and external partners to listen and learn about challenges to the success of the team’s goals
• Identify opportunities to strengthen our strategy and operating model both to maximize decision-making and communicate with internal stakeholders
• Question accepted wisdom, bring a different perspective, look at the CCO team and its work through fresh eyes

Qualifications

• A minimum of 7 years work experience in strategy consulting
• Strong strategic/critical thinking AND program management/ implementation skills.
• Depth of knowledge in an area of healthcare R&D, development financing or international development preferred
• Experience working in both China and US organizational contexts
• Intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for understanding the complex challenges of working in China and sub-Saharan Africa
• Ability to build collaborative, trusting relationships within and outside the organization
• Strong leadership skills in working internally with a team of diverse background in a matrix team environment.
• Ability to influence without formal authority
• Exceptional results orientation combined with innovative and open-minded approach to all aspects of work; Ability to maintain professional, upbeat attitude and sense of humor under tight deadlines.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, in positions requiring communication with an executive level audience
• Fluent in English and Chinese
• Applicants must hold a Chinese passport.

Reports to: Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning & Management

*This is a two year limited term employment position.

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