employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Gates Foundation

Is this your company?

Strong mission, hard culture - Program Officer Gates Foundation Employee Review

2.0
13 Oct 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart colleagues, mission, pay, benefits, physical space, impact on the world. Some marginal improvements in the culture. CEO ethical and has good ideas. Bill and Melinda are inspiring and the work is really important.

Cons

I’ve been at the foundation for 10 years and the lack of collaboration at exec level remains a challenge. Lot of good talk about culture but everyone knows that senior execs throw each other under the bus and go to Bill to get funding. Loss of top operations leaders (COO earlier, CFO leaving soon), who modeled the right collaborative behavior and culture attributes, has been disheartening. Commute to/from east side getting worse and worse.

avatar
Gates Foundation Response
8y
Thank you so much for your frank feedback. Based upon your tenure, I have to believe you are committed to the mission of the foundation. I thought you might begin seeing the improvements at both the ELT and director level so I'm a bit surprised by your review. Would you be willing to share your experiences with me or one of my colleagues directly? Thanks pam.yanchik@gatesfoundation.org

Explore other reviews about Gates Foundation

5.0
24 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Everyone is aligned to the mission. Fantastic benefits.

Cons

These could be pros for some but travel and ambiguity are things to deal with

3.0
8 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Mission-based work Diverse, passionate employee base Healthcare benefit Parental leave and support Unlimited PTO

Cons

Poor work-life balance Perfectionist culture Unreasonable expectations with working hours High levels of burnout Retaliation for setting boundaries with working hours Culture resistant to prioritization of work

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All