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
Within Business Operations and the CIO organization, the Enterprise Data Solutions (EDS) team leads work across Knowledge Management, AI, Data Engineering, Business Intelligence, Data Infrastructure, and Health Data Platforms. The team’s vision is to empower the Foundation with innovative, data-driven services and solutions that enable timely, informed decision-making.The Gates Foundation is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to design and scale a modern data and AI platform that accelerates impact across global health, development, education, Gender Equality and humanitarian initiatives.
In this role, you will lead the development of a secure, governed, and scalable platform built on Azure, Databricks, and Snowflake, enabling advanced analytics and responsible generative AI solutions using OpenAI and Claude. You will play a critical role in unlocking insights from both structured and unstructured data (e.g., research reports, program documents, surveys, and field data) and making them accessible through API-driven data services and intelligent search using Azure AI Search.
You will also help ensure that data and AI systems are ethical, transparent, and aligned with global data governance standards, leveraging tools such as Collibra.
Lead the architecture and development of a cloud-native Data and AI platform on Azure, Databricks Lakehouse and Snowflake
Design and implement API-first data platform to enable secure, governed data sharing across teams, partners, and global stakeholders
Operationalize GenAI solutions for knowledge discovery and decision support, including:
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures
Integration with OpenAI and Claude APIs
Semantic and hybrid search using Azure AI Search
Create design patterns for document ingestion, parsing, OCR, metadata extraction, and enrichment
Design and implement embedding and vector search strategies for unstructured data
Lead the implementation of data governance and stewardship practices using Collibra, including:
Data cataloging, lineage, and metadata management
Data quality frameworks and stewardship workflows
Alignment with global privacy, security, and compliance standards
Establish secure data access patterns (RBAC/ABAC), ensuring detection (PHI/PII scanning) and protection of sensitive data
Build reusable platform services, APIs, and tools that enable self-service analytics and AI development
Implement observability, monitoring, and evaluation frameworks for data pipelines and AI/LLM systems
Optimize platform performance, scalability, and cost efficiency via FinOps dashboards
Develop lightweight application for search and discovery, cataloging, and onboarding new datasets
Bachelor’s or master’s in computer science or related field or equivalent experience
Experience with analyzing and extracting insights from health and life sciences data (internal and external public repositories) using analytical and reporting tools
12+ years’ experience in platform engineering and/or software engineering, with a focus on advanced analytics, AI/ML Infrastructure, data security and automation
Manage and drive improvements of a lightweight custom application (Data Portal) for self-service data cataloging, search and discovery
Strong programming skills in Python, C#, .Net and SQL
Hands-on experience with:
Azure (Data Lake, Azure ML, Event Hubs, etc.)
IaC automating infrastructure provisioning using Terraform
Databricks (Lakeflow, Spark, Delta Lake, workflows, Unity Catalog)
Snowflake (Iceberg, Horizon catalog, Cortex AI, secure data sharing)
Experience designing and building API-driven data platforms (REST/GraphQL, microservices)
Experience working with unstructured data processing
Familiarity with building data pipelines with Databricks and DBT Cloud and orchestration
Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and distributed systems
Strong understanding of:
RAG architectures, embeddings, and vector databases
Document chunking, indexing, and retrieval strategies
Previous experience with Salesforce would be a plus
Experience with document processing/NLP pipelines (OCR, entity extraction, classification)
Collibra and Data Governance
The salary range for this role is $157,400 to $236,000 USD. We recognize high-wage market differences in Seattle and Washington D.C., where our offices are located. The range for this role in these locations is $173,100 to $259,700 USD. 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.
Must have unrestricted work authorization in the country where this position is located. The Foundation does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. This includes direct company sponsorship and any work authorization requiring a written submission or other immigration support from the company (eg: H-1B, O-1, L-1, E, OPT, STEM-OPT, CPT, TN, J-1, etc.).
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.