Regional Senior HR Business Partner, Africa 

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

People & HR

Abuja, Nigeria

Posted on Jun 22, 2026

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

The People team is a strategic partner in shaping a thriving, inclusive, and high performing organization. We steward the employee experience across the full talent lifecycle—from attracting and developing exceptional talent to strengthening culture, supporting well-being as well as impact, and aligning people strategies with our mission.

Your Role:

The Regional Senior HR Business Partner (SHRBP) is a seasoned HR professional who functions as a trusted strategic advisor to business leaders, translating organizational priorities into impactful people strategies. Operating across 5 Africa offices (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa), the SHRBP plays a pivotal role balancing strategic counsel with operational excellence to deliver a world-class employee experience. This role demands both the credibility to influence senior stakeholders and hands-on capability to drive outcomes across the full spectrum of HR practice. The Regional, SHRBP mentors the Associate HRBP and works in close partnership with the Deputy Director, RHRBP (DD-RHRBP) and senior leadership to ensure that human capital strategies are not only aligned with business objectives but are actively accelerating them.

This position is based in Abuja, Nigeria and reports to the DD, Regional HR Business Partner, Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya.


What You'll Do:

Performance Management & Organizational Capability

Driving a high-performance culture is central to the SHRBP’s mandate. The SHRBP steers mid-year and annual performance review cycles with rigor and intentionality, ensuring that goal-setting, feedback, and evaluation processes are meaningful rather than merely procedural. By designing and delivering performance management training, the SHRBP builds the organizational capability to hold honest, growth-oriented conversations that elevate both individual and team performance.

Talent Management, Mobility & Succession

The SHRBP plays an active support role in building and maintaining the Africa workforce or talent plan. This encompasses oversight of the full spectrum of employee mobility — including interim assignments, internal transfers, and job rotations — which are approached not merely as administrative transactions but as deliberate talent development opportunities that build individual capability and organizational agility. In close partnership with the DDHRBP, the SHRBP contributes to succession planning, helping to accelerate leadership readiness and mitigate the organizational risk of critical role vacancies.

Supporting Transitions & Change Management

Serves as a trusted strategic advisor to senior leaders navigating organizational restructuring, workforce transitions, and large-scale change initiatives. Partners with business leaders to assess org. Leads end-to-end reorg processes — including stakeholder alignment, impact analysis, role mapping, and communication planning — while ensuring consistency with enterprise guidelines and mitigating risk to employee experience. Coaches leaders and managers through change, building their capability to lead their teams with clarity and confidence. Collaborates across HR functions (Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, DEI, HR Operations) to ensure integrated, equitable outcomes throughout transitions. Serves as a key voice in identifying and escalating workforce risks, and partners with PHRBPs and HR leadership to drive continuous improvement in how the organization manages and learns from change.

Regional HR Support: Employee Relations

As one of the people team members on the ground, the SHRBP provides responsive, empathetic, and solutions-focused support to employees and people managers. This role goes far beyond reactive issue resolution — the SHRBP proactively builds relationships that allow HR to anticipate challenges, foster psychological safety, and create an environment where every individual feels heard and valued. Working with people managers, the SHRBP steers the employee relations agenda, navigating complex grievances, workplace conflicts, and sensitive matters with sound judgment, impartiality, and a deep commitment to fairness. People team leadership engagement visits and sessions are also coordinated by the SHRBP to strengthen organizational connectivity and reinforce a culture of trust and open dialogue.

Compensation, Rewards & Offer Management

The SHRBP ensures that every reward decision is grounded in the foundation’s total rewards philosophy. This accountability extends to the end-to-end execution of salary adjustments, and promotion-related pay adjustments, as well as the facilitation of structured Annual Compensation Review calibration sessions. The SHRBP ensures that compensation outcomes across the region reflect both the nuances of local markets and the integrity of the organization’s total rewards framework. The SHRBP ensures that all associated compensation adjustments, including medical and pension amendments, are processed accurately and equitably.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

The SHRBP is a committed and visible champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the region. By actively representing HR in DEI working group forums and driving inclusive workplace initiatives, the SHRBP ensures that equity and belonging are embedded into every people process — from hiring and compensation to development and recognition. This is not a peripheral responsibility, but a thread woven through every aspect of the SHRBP’s work, reflecting a genuine conviction that diverse, inclusive teams are the foundation of high-performing, resilient organizations.

Employee Advocacy & Experience

Acts as a credible and trusted voice for employees, ensuring their perspectives, concerns, and experiences meaningfully inform leadership decisions and organizational direction. Proactively identifies patterns and themes across employee feedback, engagement data, and informal signals to surface systemic issues — not just individual cases — and bring them forward with candor and care.

Vendor Management & HR Operations

The SHRBP manages strategic relationships with outsourced HR service providers, overseeing contract governance and holding vendors accountable to agreed service delivery standards. By cultivating strong, trust-based partnerships, the SHRBP ensures the continuity, quality, and value of outsourced services that are integral to the region’s HR operating model.


Your Experience

  • The ideal candidate holds a Bachelor’s degree as a minimum, with a Master’s degree in HR, Business, or a related field strongly preferred. The role requires a minimum of 10 years of demonstrated HR experience, including 4 years of HR Business Partner responsibilities.

  • Candidate demonstrates strategic HR leadership and the ability to operate as a credible business partner at a senior level. They possess advanced knowledge of talent management and succession planning, paired with strong expertise in compensation and benefits administration.

  • They bring excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, a deep understanding of employment law across multiple jurisdictions, and proven change management and organizational development capabilities.

  • Strong analytical thinking, coaching and mentoring skills, and the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively across diverse cultural contexts are essential to success in this role.

  • Strong working knowledge of HRIS systems — with Workday preferred — and prior experience in matrixed, global organizations will be a significant advantage.

*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.

Application deadline – 30th June 2026

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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

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.