Senior Associate, Strategy and Build – GDI Americas

Company Description

GDI is an incubator for transformational development ventures, working to build and scale the next generation of social impact solutions. From climate to agriculture, health to economic inclusion, we build across sectors to drive game-changing impact at scale. Whether the concepts originate from sector experts, or are developed and tested ourselves, we create new approaches to address persistent global issues. 

Over 12–36 months, we deploy our functional teams to help early-stage initiatives design their business strategy and model, develop their brand identity, hire and retain talent, and construct their financial and operational infrastructure. 

Since our founding in 2013, GDI has built a significant track record in our field, having now shaped over 100 social impact ventures. 

Job Description

If you enjoy the innovation and flexibility of startups and want to work on some of society’s most pressing challenges, then you may be the right fit for our team. We have a pipeline of opportunities to achieve large-scale impact, and we have the resources to get them going. We are looking for entrepreneurial strategists who want to help address some of the largest social issues facing our world.

This role is a unique opportunity to be on the founding teams of startups and partnerships focused on social impact. You will work closely with social leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are addressing some of the world’s biggest problems. Reporting to a Director, you will work across the Strategy & Build team to research, scope, shape, and prioritize the ideas and partners GDI takes on, and to develop initial blueprints into full-blown ventures. You will have the opportunity to landscape, analyze, and develop hypotheses across a wide range of sectors.

As a member of small entrepreneurial initiative teams, your attitude is that no task-is-too-small and your ethos is to dive into work that is both at the 30,000 foot strategic level and the 'in the weeds' tactical level when called for.

You will often be the person holding the work together: running workstreams end to end, managing relationships across funders, partners, and founding teams, and facilitating the conversations where strategy gets made. You will participate in (and at times lead) senior-level meetings with experts and partners. You will own workplans, budgets, and delivery. Although you will work closely with Strategy & Build Directors as managers, you are expected to exercise a high degree of autonomy and initiative and to take on significant responsibility.

A couple of notes on how we work: 

• This role will involve significant external consultations with global stakeholders and will require a work schedule that can periodically accommodate calls slightly earlier or later than usual work hours. At the same time, our teams respect personal boundaries and maintaining healthy work / life balance is an important part of our culture.
• AI tools are increasingly part of the modern workplace, and that’s true at GDI. We’re looking for people who use them skilfully and thoughtfully: leaning on them to raise the quality and pace of their work, while keeping clear judgment about where they fall short.

Responsibilities

Strategy Development

• Proactively identify the need for and execute complex impact, financial, market, and policy analyses.
• Lead research, quantitative and qualitative analysis, stakeholder mapping, and market landscaping, owning the responsibility for their accuracy and reliability.
• Converting analyses into actionable key takeaways that can be clearly communicated to internal teams and external stakeholders.
• Support Directors in sourcing, evaluating, and shaping opportunities and concepts for incubation.
• Make recommendations on the fit of an initiative to GDI’s objectives and services, and support early “blueprint” development for new initiatives.
• Design and facilitate stakeholder convenings, workshops, and working sessions, and represent GDI in external meetings.
• Support Directors and our partners to develop strategies for systems change.

Research + Communication

• Develop materials that convey the strategy to align stakeholders and mobilize resources for implementation.
• Support the development and delivery of structured external-facing communications, especially reports and presentations.
• Lead interviews with senior professionals, experts, community members, and other stakeholders.

Project Management + Implementation

• Own the translation of strategy blueprints into actionable plans: build and manage workplans and budgets, and drive delivery.
• Support founding teams to deliver key components of “Design” and “Build” plans, ranging from early program design and piloting to developing organizational infrastructure.
• Manage day-to-day relationships with founding teams, consultants, and partners; help early-stage initiatives stand up their operating rhythms.
• Coordinate consultants and/or service providers, including assisting supervisors in preparation, processing, and administration of consultant and technical services contracts/agreements.
• Track risks, issues, stakeholders, and potential funders.
• Coordinate support from other GDI teams.
• Travel as needed to support implementation.

Donor Engagement

• Draft concept notes and fundraising materials, and support Directors in managing funder relationships.
• Review and analyze financial expenditure reports against budgets and donor agreements.
• Collect, organize, and prepare program and financial information for donor progress and internal grant management reports, as well as routine queries.

Support to GDI

• Regularly brief leadership on progress, risks, and issues.
• Contribute to the refinement of incubation methodologies based on your hands-on experiences.
• Support broader knowledge management and dissemination.
   

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience, including running projects or initiatives end to end: managing workplans, budgets, stakeholders, and delivery.
• Demonstrated facilitation skill: you can design and run a dynamic working session with people who don’t agree, read the room, and leave with a decision. Emotional intelligence, cultural responsiveness and sound political instincts.
• Comfortable operating across funders, governments, nonprofits, and private companies, and able to represent GDI credibly in senior external settings.
• Sound judgement in using AI tools for real work: Comfort using AI tools for research, analysis, drafting, workflow, while importantly knowing when it is reliable and when it isn’t, and adapt as capabilities change.
• Strong analytical judgment: able to structure a problem, direct and quality-check analysis (whether your own, a colleague’s, or a model’s) and surface what leadership actually needs to know.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills; self-directed and resourceful, with high standards for quality output. A curious and creative intellect, and a style that includes flexibility, levelness, and a sense of humor and humility.
• Grounding in US political economy, democracy, institutions, economic inclusion, and the wealth gap is a plus, not a screen, as GDI deepens its domestic work.

Qualities of GDI Employees

• A relentless drive to get things done.
• Curious and entrepreneurial mindset.
• Passion for driving social impact and tackling the world’s biggest challenges in new ways.
• Humility and collaborative, agile approach - you are committed to solving a problem, not to one particular solution. 
   

Additional Information

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $75,000–$95,000 GDI offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes employer contributions to health, dental, and vision insurance plans for employees and dependents and 401(k) matching contributions.

Application Process

If you are interested in this position and meet the qualifications above, please submit:

• A PDF document containing your CV/resume
• A cover letter with: 
  • A one paragraph introduction to yourself and anything you want us to know about you
  • And a brief answer to the application question below: GDI moves into unfamiliar sectors fast and often requires us to work with a lot of ambiguity. Tell us about a time you had to get up to speed on something you knew nothing about and produce something useful quickly. How did you approach it?

GDI is only able to consider candidates based in and authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship. Global Development Incubator is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace.