The Senior Assistant must communicate effectively, maintain discretion, and support foundation leadership delegations and field visits, ensuring seamless execution of logistics and processing expenses. With strong judgment, discretion, and a collaborative approach, the Senior Assistant is a central connector who helps ensure the smooth, efficient functioning of both individual leaders and the broader team.
This position reports to the Associate Manager, Administration Services and Engagement, and is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
What You’ll Do
Core Administrative Support
Provide high-level administrative support by anticipating and managing competing priorities
Manage complex, high-level emails, track priorities and actions on behalf of the director, and assist with administrative tasks and special projects as needed
Foster strong relationships with internal and external partners, coordinate daily workflows and business rhythms, and handle administrative tasks and special projects such as bulk printing, note-taking, and preparing meeting materials.
Leverage technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation and digital tools to streamline support, ensuring efficiency and accuracy.
Manage expense processing and reimbursements for principals
Manage correspondence with government officials for meetings
Manage key contact list of partners and government members
Calendar Management
Provide comprehensive support to multiple principals, including a director level
Independently manage director-level calendars, aligning schedules with priorities and division goals. Coordinate complex, high-level meetings across time zones while building strong partnerships. Support principals in time and priority management, escalate decisions as needed, and occasionally represent them in routine matters.
Anticipate and resolve calendar conflicts, and potentially oversee the team calendar to support division-level decision-making
Division/Team Support and Coordination
Organize meetings and activities to support team goals, provide expertise on business operations and processes, and foster coordination by sharing cross-team context and serving as a connector to enhance team engagement and dynamics
Stay engaged with the SPA community to share relevant updates, and organize the team assistant community by leading meetings, mentoring, sharing information, and supporting onboarding and training
Support new employee onboarding and team culture initiatives, mentor new assistants, and provide strategic input on the assistant coverage model to ensure balanced workloads
Organize team assistant community; this may include hosting and leading assistant meetings, providing mentorship, information dissemination from division Senior Assistant meetings, onboarding and training support
Assist with the onboarding process for new employees, which may include onboarding meeting coordination
Support initiatives to create and sustain team culture in collaboration with principals
Division/Team Events and Logistics Management
Lead or support the planning and manage logistics for events and convenings, including internal/external meetings, retreats, team building events, field visits, presentations, and domestic or international conferences. Preparation may include acting as project manager, coordinating arrangements and reimbursements for participants, handling venue and travel logistics, room set-up, and preparing and disseminating materials without the support of internal events and logistics team.
Provide thought partnership and coordination for activity and retreat objectives, outcomes, and agendas, in support of building team culture. This may include preparing and disseminating materials and post-event follow-up.
Help with media engagement prep and planning as required
Travel, Visa and Passport Support
Manage all aspects of principal travel, including booking flights, lodging, visas, transportation, and security
Ensure principals are fully prepared with itineraries and materials, coordinate with internal and external partners, support leadership-level trips, and handle on-the-ground logistics
Manage all aspects of visa applications and passport needs, including documentation, submission, tracking and record-keeping, coordinating with CIBT and embassies to ensure timely processing
Liaise with trip coordinators for leadership-level trips, including joining planning calls and responding to requests in a timely manner
Track travel-related resources (time, people, cost, etc.)
Coordinate on-the-ground meetings, meeting venues, travel times between meetings with internal and external partners to support convenings
Communication
Demonstrate sound judgment and professionalism by communicating clearly and proactively with principals and stakeholders to support informed decision-making, managing sensitive information with discretion, and ensuring timely escalation and knowledge-sharing across the team and foundation.
Ensure clear communication with principals to support informed calendar decisions and manage conflicts
Proactively provide clear, timely, and audience-appropriate communications for all inquiries and requests of principals, while maintaining consistent communication with internal and external partners.
Manage correspondence and draft responses for Directors and DDs as requested/required.
Your Experience
A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated experience
Broad knowledge of the mission, values, resources, culture, systems, and business strategies
Ability to prioritize effectively, utilize time precisely, communicate decisions and process to execution in a clear effective manner
Knowledge of how to best make decisions on behalf of leaders, speaking in the voice of and to the key messages/vision/goals agreed upon by the leadership team
Understanding of how to identify team needs and opportunities and how to champion and resolve them
Intermediate experience in an administrative job supporting senior management or executives
Intermediate experience supporting high-level/C-suite delegation trips
Experience leading and building relationships to gain the respect and trust of others
Experience adopting approach, goals, and methods to achieve solutions and results in dynamic situations, helping others deal with the ongoing demands of change
Experience working with MS Office suite, especially Outlook, Teams and including CoPilot, Chat GPT and other AI tools is strongly preferred
Other Attribute
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.
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.
