Head of People and Culture at Aga Khan Education Service, Kenya (AKESK)

Role Summary:
The Head of People & Culture will lead AKES, Kenya’s human capital agenda, with emphasis on service, stewardship and organisational excellence across its schools. As steward of the organisation’s people, culture and values, the role will ensure people practices enable schools, leaders and staff to thrive in pursuit of educational excellence.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer and serving on the Senior Leadership Team, the role will shape a high-performing, values-driven organisation aligned to AKES, Kenya’s mission of delivering quality education and developing ethical, globally minded citizens. The position has a system-wide remit across IB and National Curriculum schools in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, contributing to network-wide improvement and strategic development.

Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Human Capital Leadership:

• Develop and execute an HR strategy aligned with organisational priorities.
• Advise the CEO and Senior Leadership Team on workforce planning, organisational design and leadership capability.
• Oversee compensation, benefits and reward frameworks, ensuring equity, competitiveness and sustainability.
• Lead collective bargaining and institutional labour relations.
• Foster an HR business partnering culture, providing proactive, value-adding support to schools and leaders.
• Coach school leaders on people, culture and organisational effectiveness matters.
• Collaborate with regional and global AKES HR partners to strengthen practices and shared learning.
• Contribute to regional HR alignment, knowledge sharing and development of HR practices.
• Lead HR operations across AKES, Kenya, including oversight of the HR team in Mombasa, ensuring consistent HR standards.

Operational Excellence and Governance:

• Oversee end-to-end HR service delivery across the employee lifecycle.
• Drive effective use and continuous improvement of HR systems, technology and analytics.
• Oversee employment-related legal and employee relations matters with Legal Counsel.
• Ensure robust HR governance, compliance and risk management in line with Kenyan labour laws and statutory requirements.
• Provide workforce reporting and analytics to senior leadership and the Board.
• Serve as Secretary to the AKES, Kenya Human Resources Committee (HRC), supporting governance, committee operations and reporting.

Talent and Organisational Development:

• Strengthen performance management systems to drive accountability, growth and continuous improvement.
• Lead talent management, succession planning and leadership development.
• Build organisational capacity through effective learning and development strategies.
• Promote collaboration, professional excellence and continuous learning.
• Establish and oversee leadership development programmes that strengthen management capability and cultivate future leaders.

Employee Relations, Culture and Engagement:

• Provide expert leadership in employee relations, including grievance and disciplinary processes.
• Champion a culture of respect, inclusion, integrity and high performance.
• Develop and oversee culture strategies that strengthen engagement, wellbeing, belonging and organisational effectiveness.
• Monitor employee engagement and culture indicators and ensure timely interventions.
• Serve as executive lead for adult safeguarding across AKES, Kenya, ensuring effective policy implementation, compliance, risk management and a culture of safety, dignity and accountability.

The requirements

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree in Human Resource Management, Organisational Development or a related field, together with a Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business Administration or equivalent.
• Professional HR certification and active membership with IHRM.
• At least 10 years’ progressive HR experience, including 5 years in a senior leadership role, with demonstrated success leading strategic HR functions within multi-site or complex organisations.
• Strong experience in labour relations, legal compliance and collective bargaining, with a proven track record in organisational development, talent management and HR transformation.
• Experience within the education sector, or in similarly complex mission-driven organisations, will be an advantage.

Leadership Profile:
The successful candidate will bring strategic HR leadership complemented by a deeply values-driven and service-oriented approach. They will demonstrate:

• A strategic mindset and the credibility and judgement to align human capital practices with organisational priorities and the educational mission.
• The ability to lead with empathy and emotional intelligence while maintaining high standards of accountability and performance.
• A service-oriented leadership philosophy centred on supporting schools, leaders and staff to achieve educational excellence.
• An ability to build leadership capability and cultivate high-performing teams through coaching, mentoring and influence.
• A commitment to stewardship, ensuring responsible, ethical and sustainable management of people, culture and institutional resources.
• The ability to build trust, foster inclusion and nurture a positive and supportive organisational culture.
• Proven capability to lead change while remaining attentive to people, context and institutional values.
• High levels of integrity, professionalism and personal accountability.