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

Join The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle as a Global Lead for Business Development & Licensing (BD&L). You will play a central role in building private sector partnerships and licensing opportunities that help digital solutions reach underserved geographies. The role offers comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, paid time off, paid family leave, and a foundation-paid retirement contribution.

This position works closely with Program Strategy Teams (PSTs) to identify, evaluate, and negotiate strategic transactions, coordinating opportunity assessments, due diligence, and execution of agreements. Based at the Seattle headquarters, you will help shape global access terms such as affordability, access, price, and volume commitments that support program goals.

Responsibilities

• Co-lead BD&L agreement transactions with PSTs, moving innovative digital solutions from early concept through commercialization so data, technology, and products can reach ultimate beneficiaries in target underserved geographies.
• Develop and lead execution of business development strategies aligned with PST and/or Functional Strategy priorities, including global access and licensing of products, platform and enabling technologies, and services; continue evolving the foundation’s global access terms (affordability, access, price, volume commitments).
• Negotiate multinational technology company agreements with government agencies and help develop and implement programs that support public good data sets to enable collaboration across sectors and disciplines.
• Serve as a point of contact to organize and help lead transaction teams conducting due diligence, negotiating agreement terms, achieving internal alignment, and presenting assumption-based recommendations to executive leadership.
• Build collaborative relationships with key internal functions including Legal, Finance, Strategic Investment Fund, Foundation Strategy Office, Product Launch Team, and Alliance Management to ensure transactional representation for target agreements.
• Lead opportunity assessments and due diligence reviews, using comparable transactions and agreement structures, funding needs, Target Product Profile (TPP), and current market conditions and partner landscape for prioritized areas.
• Coordinate development of agreement recommendation documents for the executive team and governance committee approval, including the President of the division, Chief Financial Officer, and General Counsel.
• Evaluate commercial prospects and strategies with the Product Launch Team, including opportunities for High-Income Countries and opportunities solely for Low-and-Middle Income Countries.
• Manage multiple business opportunities across PSTs with high complexity, prioritizing projects and supporting internal alignment between PST and foundation objectives.
• Drive robust, timely decision-making across all stages of agreements and contribute to the foundation’s business development capabilities through process and best-practice sharing.
• Support PSTs as thought partners to develop relationships with technology companies and other partners, identify digital synergies across PSTs and divisions, and advance strategic goals.

Requirements

• Significant leadership experience in business development and licensing, with 10+ years in a relevant and/or related digital technology industry sector.
• Minimum bachelor’s degree, plus 10+ years of demonstrated experience.
• Advanced degree preferred (MBA and/or PhD).
• Preference for experience across multiple functional areas in a multinational technology company (examples include business development, product development, product management, marketing, commercialization, finance, legal, and/or intellectual property).
• Preference for licensing and implementing public good data sets (for example, climate and environment, health, and other government data sets).
• Track record leading and negotiating successful technology-related transactions, including terms covering intellectual property, data ownership, sharing, privacy, and liability for multinational technology companies.
• Experience negotiating with multinational 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 through completion, including work beyond technical expertise across divisions and geographies.
• Experience related to AI/digital initiatives and aligning partnership incentives across non-profit and for-profit entities specifically with technology entities.
• Ability to negotiate commitments and timelines; strong knowledge of legal matters related to intellectual property and licensing contracts.
• Ability to lead a transaction from term sheet to signature, including agreements without standard templates.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills, with experience navigating highly matrixed environments and influencing stakeholders with and without authority.
• Aptitude to quickly understand innovation, including new science and technology; strong understanding of competitive dynamics in digital technology with exposure to emerging artificial intelligence across industries such as health, consumer finance, and education.
• Strong analytical capabilities, including financial analysis and product P&L modeling preferred.
• Skilled facilitation, delegation, and project management.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including familiarity with legalese, drafting and review, and presenting to executive management teams.
• Inclusive, collaborative, and able to operate effectively with many internal and external constituencies; strong listening skills.
• Strong decision-making and ability to balance tradeoffs in complex situations; flexibility and creativity at strategic and execution levels.
• Results- and impact-oriented problem-solving mindset; humility and collaborative leadership.
• Passion for the foundation’s mission.
• Travel ability (domestic and international); could be greater than 50% during transaction negotiations.
• Unrestricted work authorization required where the role is located; the Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums
• Generous paid time off
• Paid family leave
• Foundation-paid retirement contribution
• Regional holidays
• Opportunities to engage in several employee communities

Additional Information

Reports to: the Director of BD&L.

Location: Seattle, WA (onsite), based out of Seattle headquarters.

Travel: Domestic and international travel; could be greater than 50% during transaction negotiations.

Compensation: Salary range varies by location. The stated salary range is $238,400 to $369,400 USD, and for Seattle and Washington D.C. offices the range is $262,200 to $406,400 USD. New hires are typically set between the minimum and the midpoint; final placement depends on job-related skills, experience, and expertise as evaluated in the interview process.

Background checks: Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check.

Candidate accommodations: If you have a disability or medical condition and need an accommodation at any stage of the application or interview process, contact [email protected] with the position number and a brief description. Requests are handled confidentially.