Government Partnerships Program Director at Educate!

Position Overview

Educate!, a fast-growing and award-winning social enterprise, is seeking a Program Director to lead Educate!'s partnerships with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and Ministry of Education, driving forward our education system solutions work in Kenya. The right person for this role will have experience in relationship-building and advocacy with government partners in Kenya and passion for Educate!'s purpose of preparing youth with the skills to succeed in today's economy. Prior experience in the education or youth employment sectors are an asset but are not required.

We have already partnered with governments in Rwanda and Kenya to support skills-based curriculum reforms through our education system solutions, and results from a rigorous impact evaluation have shown that our cost-effective solutions create a real impact on youth through national education systems. The Program Director will work with our regional and Kenya teams to support government entities in Kenya to create sustainable change in the secondary education systems. You'll also join a dynamic, innovative, motivated, and growth-oriented team with the long-term vision of impacting millions of youth across Africa each year.

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.

Performance Objectives

Government Partnership Strategy

• Draft formal partnership agreements such as memorandums of understanding with key government agencies
• Set strategy to ensure major decision-makers and influencers in government agencies recognize Educate!'s value
• Set "decision intelligence" strategy for all discussions with decision-makers towards ensuring integration of key program components into national system
• Stakeholder mapping and policy review
   

Stakeholder Management and Advocacy

• Bring together, plan, and run high-level meetings to resolve blocks
• Identify opportunities, risks and constraints in curriculum reform and roll-out through representation in working groups, conferences, space
• Liaise with funders, forge high-level relationships, as needed to move forward curriculum reform and roll-out
   

Program Model Strategy

• Bring together program model and policy opportunities to set program strategy
• Manage design and policy teams to achieve impact through national system
• Set strategy for workshops (reform facilitation)
• Creates alignment with program team on risks and opportunities
   

Curriculum & Innovation Oversight

• Oversee design and innovation work towards alignment to strategic anchors
• Ensure policy teams coordinate design and co-develop with government partners
• Ensure teams plan around government approval processes and internal procurement deadlines
• Test design ideas thought innovation approaches
   

Qualifications And Profile

• Demonstrated experience building relationships with and getting things done with government partners
• Passion for Educate!'s mission and for working through government systems to achieve it
• Creative and strategic thinker
• At least 7-10 years work experience
• Comfortable working in ambiguous environments and self-driven
• Education system experience is a plus but is not required
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!'s culture deck here
• Only Kenyan nationals will be considered for this role
   

What Is Educate! About?

We're ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We're inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

• We Put Youth First - The youth we serve come first. Always. In everything. That means we wake up thinking of ways we can serve youth even better and get the highest impact out of every dollar that we spend. It means Educate! doesn't own a single vehicle, because we'd rather take the bus if it means one more student can participate. It means making every decision like the future depends on it — because if we get our way, it does.
• We Are Always Learning - When you work at Educate!, educating yourself is part of your job too. We encourage every employee to find the best book on management; share the latest article on graphic design; bring in your favorite college mentor; or meet the researcher pushing the edge of the field. We are always thirsty for knowledge and love to share.
• We Only Solve a Problem Once - We are allergic to band-aids so we love the person who brings the new system to solve the problem for good, even problems we haven't recognized yet.
• We Are Flexible - We thrive on change — we're driving it. We are growing every day, so we have to adapt quickly to meet new challenges, and our team keeps up.
• We Exceed Expectations - We assume we can achieve the impossible because we already have, year after year. We want our staff to create your own challenges, ask the toughest questions, and dream scary big!
   

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team