Deputy Director, Global Brand Experience

The Foundation is the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on the premise that people everywhere should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives, we believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve.

About the Team

The Communications Division, led by the Chief Communications Officer, oversees the foundation’s global communications strategy. This role sits within the Global Content & Campaigns team, which leads the foundation's public engagement strategy by integrating brand, campaigns, creative production, storytelling, channels, and audience engagement. Working closely with regional communications teams and partners worldwide, the team ensures communications are audience-centered, creatively ambitious, and evidence-based.

About the Role

The Deputy Director, Global Brand Experience is responsible for how the Gates Foundation brand and stories are expressed to external audiences. Reporting to the Director of Content & Campaigns, this role leads the Foundation's global brand, creative direction, visual identity, storytelling ecosystem, and creative production—ensuring every public interaction builds trust, inspires care, and reinforces the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to live a healthy life and reach their full potential.

The Deputy Director leads a multidisciplinary creative studio, bringing together creative producers, story developers, visual and experiential designers, and audience engagement specialists. The role sets the team's creative vision, grows its capabilities, and ensures cohesive, audience-centered experiences that connect people emotionally to the Foundation's mission. This role is anticipated to travel up to 25% domestically and internationally.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the Communications Division's senior creative leader, establishing a compelling creative vision for the Foundation's brand across every audience touchpoint.
• Provide executive creative direction across campaigns, storytelling, digital experiences, exhibitions, activations, environmental design, and emerging brand experiences.
• Champion exceptional visual craft and design quality, ensuring all work reflects world-class standards of creativity, accessibility, and audience-centered design.
• Steward the Foundation's visual identity and creative expression while encouraging thoughtful innovation to keep the brand culturally relevant.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team of creative producers, story developers, and visual and experiential designers responsible for world-class creative work.
• Ensure creative excellence across the full lifecycle—from ideation and development through design, production, and execution.
• Build long-term internal creative capability by strengthening leadership, design judgment, storytelling, production expertise, and collaboration.
• Foster a culture of creative excellence through rigorous critique, continuous learning, experimentation, and effective operating models.
• Steward the Foundation's brand positioning, creative platform, audience strategy, and brand architecture across all public communications.
• Lead the evolution and implementation of the global brand strategy to build trust, increase care for the mission, and strengthen public understanding.
• Ensure brand expression reflects the Foundation's values of collaboration, optimism, innovation, rigor, and inclusion while remaining locally relevant.
• Serve as the principal advisor to Communications Division leadership on brand strategy, governance, and evolution.
• Lead the ongoing evolution of the Foundation's visual design system across physical, environmental, graphic, motion, digital, and experiential applications.
• Oversee development of scalable design systems, templates, creative resources, and brand governance to enable excellence across the division.
• Guide the evolution of photography, illustration, typography, motion, environmental graphics, exhibitions, and visual storytelling standards.
• Lead the strategy, prioritization, and production of creative content supporting integrated campaigns, owned channels, leadership communications, and brand initiatives.
• Champion human-centered stories capable of supporting multiple campaigns and channels.
• Oversee production of creative content across video, photography, editorial, design, social content, interactive experiences, and emerging media.
• Ensure creative investments maximize long-term value through scalable production, cross-market adaptation, and reusable storytelling assets.
• Lead strategy, creative direction, and production for physical and digital brand experiences, installations, and activations, including the Gates Foundation’s Discovery Center.
• Ensure audience experiences are designed holistically across physical, digital, and social channels.
• Drive innovation in how the Foundation participates in culture, public conversations, and major moments.
• Apply audience insights, behavioral research, and performance data to improve creative strategy and engagement.
• Identify emerging cultural trends, creators, technologies, and platforms to reach broader audiences.
• Champion experimentation with new storytelling formats, creator partnerships, experiential models, and digital products.

Qualifications

• 12+ years leading brand, creative, and design within global nonprofits, media companies, agencies, technology firms, consumer brands, or mission-driven organizations.
• Demonstrated success leading multidisciplinary creative teams spanning brand strategy, visual design, storytelling, creative production, experiential design, and content development.
• Deep expertise in brand visual systems, creative governance, and design leadership across digital, physical, environmental, and experiential applications.
• Exceptional creative judgment with the ability to evaluate, critique, and elevate design work across multiple disciplines.
• Experience establishing creative vision while empowering teams and partners to deliver outstanding work.
• Proven ability to mentor and grow designers, storytellers, producers, and creative leaders.
• Experience commissioning, directing, and managing world-class creative agencies, design consultancies, exhibit designers, filmmakers, photographers, and other specialist partners.
• Experience planning and managing a complex creative budget.
• Strong understanding of audience-centered design, behavioral insights, storytelling, and experience design.
• Demonstrated success leading large, cross-functional initiatives within highly matrixed global organizations.
• Passion for building brands that create emotional connection, strengthen trust, and inspire public engagement around important social issues.
• Unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position 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 and paid family leave.
• Foundation-paid retirement contribution.
• Regional holidays.
• Opportunities to engage in several employee communities.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $212,800 to $329,800 USD. For high-wage markets like Seattle and Washington D.C., the range is $234,000 to $362,800 USD. New hires' salaries typically fall between the range minimum and midpoint, depending on job-related skills, experience, and expertise evaluated during the interview process.