Science Program Officer, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Science

Job Description

Founded by Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg in 2015, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is a new kind of philanthropy that’s leveraging technology to help solve some of society’s toughest challenges – from eradicating disease, to improving education. Across our core initiatives of Science and Education, we’re pairing engineering with grantmaking, impact investing, policy work, and advocacy, to progress in our mission of building an inclusive, just and healthy future for everyone.

Our Values

We believe we can help build a future for everyone.

• We aim to be daring, but humble: We look for bold ideas — regardless of structure and stage — and help them scale by pairing engineers with subject matter experts to build tools that accelerate the pace of social progress.
• We want to learn fast, but build for the long-term: We want to iterate fast and help bring new solutions to the table, but we also realize that important breakthroughs often take decades, or even centuries.
• Stay close to the real problems: We engage directly in the communities we serve because no one understands our society’s challenges like those who live them every day.

Our success is dependent on building teams that include people from different backgrounds and experiences who can challenge each other's assumptions with fresh perspectives. To that end, we look for a diverse pool of applicants including those from historically marginalized groups — women, people with disabilities, people of color, formerly incarcerated people, people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or gender nonconforming, first and second generation immigrants, veterans, and people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

CZI also supports multiple work options. Learn more about our philosophy and approach here .

The Opportunity

Our mission in the Science Initiative is to support science and technology that will help make it possible to cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of the century. Through our grantmaking, we support interdisciplinary teams of physicians, biologists, computational scientists, engineers, and patient advocates to expand our understanding of the human body and illness — the science behind medicine. Our grantmaking program partners with our internal Science Technology team, which builds tools for and with scientists. We value people, technology, collaboration, and open science.

In order to meet these goals, we seek to address the inequities and lack of diversity across biomedical science in general, including groups performing the research and groups benefiting from the research. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Science (DEI in Science) is one of our major areas of emphasis both within the Science program and in CZI as a whole. Systemic disparities, inequities, and injustices in science and biomedicine are especially experienced by Black, Latinx, Indigenous communities and other communities of color. People living with disabilities, women, people who are transgender or gender nonconforming, people who are LGBTQIA+, immigrants, and people from families experiencing financial hardship also experience systemic barriers in the sciences. We bring this lens to grantmaking, technology development, scientific events, and community building. To cure, prevent, or manage all diseases in all people, we must support a diverse community of scientists. We strive to bring together diverse scientific teams that incorporate a range of lived experiences and perspectives; ensure that scientific resources that we create are inclusive and explicitly representative of communities of color; take an equitable and participatory approach to how we define and evaluate the success of our grants; and make tools, methods, and datasets accessible to a broad set of researchers and communities. Finally, we support science that is ethical and inclusive of the perspectives, interests, and needs of research participants and community partners.

We seek a Science Program Officer to lead our work for DEI in Science. In this role, you will lead grantmaking in impactful basic biomedical science, with the specific goal of reducing disparities in academic science and in biomedicine. You will collaborate with external scientists and CZI staff to plan and execute these programs, with the goal of building a dynamic community of outstanding scientists whose work and example helps to change the culture of science. The ideal candidate will provide a diversity and inclusion perspective based on extensive lived experience in the scientific enterprise and a deep understanding of scientific research settings and science funding, and scientific leadership administration. You will collaborate with other CZI programs, and across CZ Science organizations, including patient-partnered rare disease research, neurodegeneration, single-cell biology, open science, and biological imaging in their diversity-focused work. Please note that CZI is not engaged in clinical trials, drug development, health care delivery, or health disparities research, but instead is focused on basic science.

CZI’s perspectives and goals in diversity and equity in science are outlined here.

You will

• Develop a strategy and further implement a program of DEI in Science by clearly understanding the current state of support for diversity in science and assessing emerging needs and opportunities.
• Partner closely with other Science Program Officers to ensure that all DEI programs are pointed toward tangible scientific progress, and conversely that all programs in Science are viewed through the lens of DEI and ensure underrepresented and underserved groups are both participating in and benefiting from our work.
• Represent our program to the outside community; interact with grantees, design and manage the review process, manage the communication channels, and co-design grantee convenings and program workshops. Interact with scientists from underrepresented groups, professional societies for underrepresented scientists, minority-serving colleges and universities, and other funding agencies.
• Partner with the CZI-wide effort in DEI to ensure alignment of Science work with organizational goals.
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Team to develop systems, processes and metrics to establish both short-term and longer-term impact of our DEI grantmaking programs.
• Serve as a thought leader by engaging intellectually with the scientific community and other relevant stakeholders, and identify new opportunities for collaboration or grantmaking, by attending conferences, and establishing working relationships with leading external scientists.
• Identify growth opportunities for team members and establish a collaborative, inclusive, and intellectually rigorous team culture.

You have

• At least five years of post-degree, independent teaching and/or research experience in bioengineering, biomedical, life sciences or a related field including leadership and supervisory experience in a research laboratory or in another area of scientific practice
• Advanced degree in a life sciences or engineering discipline, Ph.D.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in the development of programs and/or funding in DEI in scientific research as well as an understanding of the systemic issues facing Black, Latinx, Indigenous communities, and other communities of color in academic and scientific research settings, preferably with lived experience in the area.
• At least five years of experience in program or project management, ideally in initiatives to support participation or inclusion from underrepresented and underserved communities, cross-functional teams and collaborative, multi-disciplinary projects.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage to a budget and proven ability to navigate complex organizations and processes to deliver results.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to communicate and work with stakeholders from different backgrounds and at different career stages.

#LI-Remote

CZI is committed to creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace. We welcome interest from individuals of all backgrounds and levels of experience who share our mission. If you’re interested in this role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role! CZI believes that vaccines are one of the most powerful tools to fight COVID-19 and save lives. It aligns to our mission and work to cure, manage, and prevent disease. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination will be required for all employees (with the exception of reasonable accommodations due to medical or religious beliefs). All visitors coming onsite to a CZI facility are required to show proof of COVID vaccination or take an onsite COVID test.