Yet another Seattle resident is moving on to a high-level position in the Obama administration. The White House just announced that President Obama intends to nominate Raj Shah, 36, a rising star at the Gates Foundation, as Under Secretary of Agriculture.

 Assuming the Senate confirms the appointment, Shah [who is a personal friend] will be Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics at USDA under Agriculture Secretary (and former Iowa governor) Tom Vilsack. He will have responsibilities that include oversight over food safety and the greening of the agricultural production process.

Shah is a medical doctor and former health care policy advisor to Al Gore during the 2000 campaign. At Gates, where he has worked since 2001, Shah founded and currently runs the foundation’s international agriculture program, where he oversees billions in grant funding dedicated to bolstering rural economies and alleviating global poverty and huger by helping small farmers in the developing world. Prior to taking over Gates’ agriculture portfolio, Shah oversaw the foundation’s highly praised work on developing new approaches to funding international vaccine development. The World Health Organization estimates that the more than $5 billion Shah raised for the Vaccine Fund will save five million lives over the next decade.

 Those count as some pretty serious accomplishments for anyone, much less someone still on the good side of 40. Shah’s Gates work has taken him around the world, and put him in some very rarefied company. He recruited former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan to chair the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, for instance. And once the appointment goes through, Jim McDermott will not be the only Seattle politico to have hobnobbed with Bono.

 Last December and January, there was a lot of chatter about the fact that it appeared that no locals seemed destined for high ranking positions in the Obama administration. Congressman Jay Inslee had been reported to be on the short list for Secretary of the Interior, but the post went to Colorado Senator Ken Salazar. Rumors that Congressman Adam Smith was leaving for a post in Defense or State turned out to be untrue. The persistent speculation that my former boss, King County Executive Ron Sims, was in the mix for a position, possibly at EPA or as head of the Federal Transit Administration, began to fade as we entered the new year without any news.

 That now seems like a distant memory. Shah is the fourth local to accept a senior level position in the Obama administration, following Sims, who ended up as the pick for Deputy Secretary of HUD (his Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for next week), Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who was tapped as the new drug czar, and former Governor Gary Locke, who is now Secretary of Commerce.

 And while Shah is not as well known as the others, he’s a political up and comer who bears watching. He has said he intends to return to the area once his gig in the Obama administration ends, and, with his smarts (his list of academic degrees borders on the intimidating), record of geting big results, and well-rounded political resume – high level policy expertise, strong local and national connections, and now top level government experience in the rarefied reaches of the Obama administration – Shah has the potential to emerge as a strong candidate for elected office (Congress perhaps?) in the future.

 Shah is also the second Indian-American to get a high level appointment on the Obama team. Another Indian doctor, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, turned down an offer to be the new Surgeon General.