Principal Officer, Global Lead, Business Development & Licensing for Global Access at Gates Foundation

Your Role

• The Principal Officer, Global Lead for BD&L for Global Access will support the Foundation’s Agriculture Development Program Strategy goals to execute strategic partnerships and licensing opportunities that advance agricultural productivity, sustainability, farmer livelihoods, and food and nutrition sovereignty for smallholder farmers in LMICs.

The role operates across three core areas:

leading complex partnerships with private-sector actors to enable access to and adoption of priority technologies;

shaping market systems by aligning incentives across value chain actors to support scalable solutions; and

building a pipeline of externally developed innovations with strong potential for adaptation and scale.

• Success in this role requires balancing strong partnership execution with strategic ecosystem engagement to translate innovation into sustained impact for smallholder farmers. This role works closely with Program Strategy Teams, the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF focused on equity investments), regional offices, and external partners, requiring effective coordination across many diverse stakeholders.
• This role explicitly spans crops, livestock and farm management systems (Ag and Weather Advisory – AI-driven, Soil Health and Fertilizer, Irrigation Systems, etc.), reflecting the Foundation’s integrated approach to agricultural development. The role prioritizes deep business development and deal-making expertise, with sector experience in agriculture or livestock as a strong advantage but not a strict prerequisite.
• The role will balance advancing internally developed innovations with proactively identifying and enabling high-potential external innovations—developed by private sector, startups, and research institutions—that can be adapted and scaled for LMIC contexts.
• Beyond episodic licensing transactions, this role will emphasize sustained value chain orchestration to enable durable technology adoption. This includes aligning supply-side actors (e.g., seed companies, livestock and input providers), demand-side actors (e.g., processors and food companies), and catalytic mechanisms (e.g., incentives and results-based payments) to create commercially viable and scalable market systems in Africa and other LMICs.
• You will be accountable for coordinating access to end-to-end search, commercial and technical due diligence, and structuring and negotiation of partnerships with both new and existing partners.
• A critical component of this role is developing a strong external “scan and access” capability—identifying transformative technologies and business models already emerging globally and structuring partnerships that accelerate their pathway to market in LMICs.
• You will work closely with program teams and subject matter experts to develop agreement structures that integrate technical, regulatory, commercial, and execution risks across diverse agricultural innovation pathways.
• This role is expected to be based in the Foundation’s Africa Regional Office in Nairobi, Kenya (with flexibility to consider other office locations within the Africa region – Abuja, Nigeria or Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and will work closely with regional and global collaborators. The role reports into the CFO organization (Director of Business Development & Licensing), with a secondary reporting relationship to the Director, Economic Opportunity, Africa, and will serve as the key Business Development & Licensing (BD&L) Global Access representative within the Africa innovation ecosystem.

What You'll Do

Opportunity Sourcing & Market Scanning (Origination)

• Finding, shaping, and prioritizing opportunities—especially external innovation
• Proactively identify, source, and evaluate externally developed innovations and business models—including those outside traditional agricultural R&D pathways—and assess their potential for adaptation and scaling in LMIC contexts.
• Develop and maintain a forward-looking pipeline of transformative opportunities originating outside the Foundation, complementing internally funded R&D portfolios.
• Facilitate high-quality opportunity assessments and diligence reviews.
• Evaluate commercial and scaling prospects in collaboration with program teams, including integrated supply-and-demand pathways for adoption.
• Act as a thought partner to Agriculture Development teams by introducing externally sourced, market-ready or near-market innovations that can accelerate impact within shorter time horizons.

Deal Structuring, Negotiation & Partnership Design (Core BD&L for Global Access Work)

• Designing and negotiating agreements, incentives, and market-shaping mechanisms
• Structure and co-lead complex agreement transactions with PSTs that advance agriculture development innovations, including seeds, crop protection, livestock systems, and other agricultural technologies.
• Negotiate sophisticated agreements with multinational and regional partners, including agribusinesses, input providers, livestock system actors, research organizations, and LMIC-based partners.
• Structure and negotiate demand-side mechanisms, including offtake agreements, premium pricing arrangements, and processor-backed models that generate market pull for improved technologies.
• Design and negotiate results-based and market-shaping incentive structures (e.g., adoption-linked payments, farmer reach incentives, and risk-sharing mechanisms) that enable private-sector investment in challenging LMIC markets.
• Structure partnerships that incentivize private-sector actors to adapt and localize existing innovations for LMIC markets, rather than relying solely on new technology development pathways.
• Develop clear, assumption-based partnership recommendations for program and executive leadership.
• Support private-sector engagement strategies aligned with program goals, including global access, licensing, affordability, sustainability, and long-term adoption.

Transaction Execution, Delivery & Internal Leadership (Execution & Influence)

• Driving deals to completion, managing stakeholders, and ensuring impact
• Lead partnerships focused on enabling distribution and adoption of agricultural technologies (e.g., seeds, inputs, and livestock-related solutions) through private-sector channels in Africa.
• Serve as a transaction lead and point of coordination across portfolios, conducting partner diligence, supporting negotiations, and building internal alignment.
• Establish strong, collaborative relationships with internal partners (e.g., Legal, Finance, Foundation Strategy Office, Product Launch/Scale teams, and Alliance Management).
• Ensure all deal structures and partnership mechanisms are aligned with internal policies and legal/regulatory constraints.
• Manage multiple concurrent transactions across geographies and partners.
• Drive clear, timely decision-making across all stages of agreement development and execution.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of BD&L for Global Access capabilities and best practices.

Your Experience

• 12+ years of business development, licensing, or commercial partnership experience, with demonstrated success in complex deal-making environments; agriculture or livestock sector experience preferred but not required.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• Ability to translate complex partnerships into measurable impact for smallholder farmers, including productivity, income, and food and nutrition sovereignty outcomes. This includes a strong orientation toward aligning commercial incentives with development outcomes in LMIC markets.
• Demonstrated experience structuring or negotiating multi-party agreements and incentive structures that drive measurable adoption in emerging markets.
• Experience across multiple functional areas (e.g., business development, commercialization, market access, finance, legal, or IP).
• Experience supporting commercialization and distribution of agricultural technologies (e.g., seeds, inputs, livestock-related products) in LMIC markets, particularly Africa, strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated track record of leading and negotiating successful transactions.
• Experience negotiating with multinational corporations and LMIC-based partners.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional diligence and agreement teams.
• Prior experience supporting agriculture development, food and nutrition sovereignty, or sustainability initiatives is highly desirable.

Skills and Qualifications

• Strong negotiation skills, including managing complex deal structures and stakeholder interests.
• Solid understanding of legal and intellectual property considerations related to licensing and partnerships.
• Experience designing or evaluating results-based financing, incentive mechanisms, or risk-sharing structures.
• Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills in highly matrixed environments.
• Ability to quickly understand agricultural and technology innovations.
• Strong understanding of agricultural value chains across both crops and livestock systems, including demand generation and private-sector adoption dynamics in Africa.
• Ability to align incentives across diverse stakeholders (e.g., seed and livestock companies, processors, distributors, financial institutions, NGOs, and governments) within complex partnership structures.
• Strong curiosity and market awareness, with the ability to identify emerging, non-traditional innovations with potential for transformative impact.
• Strong analytical capabilities; financial and business modeling experience preferred.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Sound judgment and ability to balance tradeoffs.
• Inclusive, collaborative team player.
• Passion for the Foundation’s mission.
• Willingness to travel up to 40% domestically and internationally, as required.