Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation : Senior Assistant, Legal – Seattle

  • Location:
  • Salary:
    negotiable / YEAR
  • Job type:
    FULL_TIME
  • Posted:
    1 month ago
  • Category:
    Legal Affairs
  • Deadline:
    22/11/2025

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, 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. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

“Guidance, Solutions, Integrity” describes the Legal division’s approach to providing responsive legal guidance supporting pursuit of the foundation’s mission and implementation of the foundation’s programmatic and operational strategies. The Legal division delivers comprehensive legal services by providing efficient and reliable legal guidance, managing legal risk, and supporting the development of solutions to achieve the mission of the foundation and its affiliated entities.

The Legal division partners with our colleagues across the foundation to enable mission-driven work by maintaining an efficient, well-run global organization where employees can thrive and make their best contributions. Doing this well requires effective collaboration, strong alignment, and thoughtful planning across both operational and programmatic teams – as well as shared accountability for mitigating risk and optimizing the foundation’s operational resources.

Your Role

The Senior Assistant is a key member of the Legal team. This role provides direct administrative and organizational support for multiple attorneys and the Legal team. Efficiency, attention to detail, flexibility, good judgment, and a high level of integrity and discretion are critical to ensure smooth operation of the team and effective delivery of legal services. The ideal candidate can handle high workloads and competing demands with poise and flexibility, while meeting deadlines.

What You’ll Do

  • Manages complex, constantly changing, calendar scheduling, including meetings with participants in multiple time zones both internal and external to the foundation.
  • Proactively anticipate needs – including agenda development for upcoming weeks/months, supporting principals with planning, recognizing potential bottlenecks/conflicts, and optimizing short- and long-term schedule preparation.
  • Manage domestic and international travel arrangements, including visa applications.
  • Provide operational support, including, but not limited to preparation of expense reports, knowledge management, maintaining an organized virtual filling system, capturing notes and action items from key meetings.
  • Assist with planning and lead execution of logistics and preparation for events, meetings, conferences, retreats, and presentations.
  • Support records and data management, including but not limited to management of the team SharePoint sites, Teams sites, Ampersand page, and resource libraries.
  • Serve as a liaison with parties internal and external to the foundation (clients, partners, grantees, outside counsel, consultants, etc.).
  • Coordinate with other legal team Legal Assistants to support consistency, collaboration, use of best practices and professional development.
  • Maintain an organized system of tracking, monitoring, and prioritizing tasks and projects.
  • Establish and manage relationships with internal peers, partners, and other key stakeholders.
  • Other duties as assigned.

Your Experience

  • Bachelor’s Degree with a minimum of 5-7 years’ work experience in an administrative role for a complex and fast-paced organization.
  • Experience establishing organizational systems to improve efficiency and successfully working in a changing environment.
  • Experience with complex calendaring, travel arrangements, and event/meeting planning coordination.
  • Experience working in a legal setting or with a legal team is a plus.
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills.
  • Adaptability: ability to adjust to a variety of working and communications styles.
  • Proficient with MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel, Teams); SharePoint proficiency and comfort with learning new technologies is a plus.
  • Adept at setting priorities, meeting deadlines, and balancing the needs of a team and
  • multiple individuals.
  • High standards of ethics and integrity with good judgment, maturity, discretion and tact.
  • Positive, collaborative approach to work, strong service orientation and a sense of humor.
  • Excellent organizational skills.
  • Experience working on teams with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds is a plus.
  • Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

The salary range for this role is $35.01 – $49.00. As a mission-driven organization, we strive to balance competitive pay with our mission. New hires salaries are typically between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint. Actual placement in the range will depend on a candidate’s job-related skills, experience, and expertise, as evaluated during the interview process.

This position is a limited-term position for 12 months. Relocation will not be provided.

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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

If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.

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.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements