Head of Strategic Projects at Educate!

In this role, you will lead a portfolio of strategic projects, specializing in high priority initiatives with external government stakeholders and in internal projects which contribute to Educate!’s long term strategies. Educate! is on an exciting journey of growth, and the work you do to create new systems and ways of working will be a critical part of building a game-changing organization, as we work towards our organizational vision of measurably impacting 1 million students across Africa each year.

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 Head of Strategic Projects will work closely with the Chief Education Innovation Officer (CEdIO), Regional Director of Partnerships and our program and advocacy experts in Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda to continue developing ways of working and program models that support long-term changes to education systems and meaningful, sustainable curriculum reforms.

The right person for this role will:

• Be motivated to work with government education systems to create a broad and sustainable impact on youth through those systems.
• Enjoy collaborative working across geographies and teams, and thrive in bringing structure and systems to complex and fast-changing environments
• Enjoy varied and flexible work - from supporting high profile government events, to troubleshooting problems internally - on initiatives that contribute to Educate!’s future success. Experience might come from work in consultancy, government policy and communications, or project management in a social impact setting.
• Be driven to shape the role and their own career path. Educate! is growing rapidly and this role comes with opportunities to develop skills and experience in a range of fields including education policy, communications, fundraising, strategy, and product development. 

Performance Objectives

Government partnerships

• Work with the Regional Director of Partnerships to support government outreach and communications, including conducting stakeholder analyses, preparing advocacy and talking points, and preparing partnership documentation.
• Provide high quality project management to support government reform teams in new markets, owning project plans, meeting agendas and action logs to optimize team resources and progress Educate!’s advocacy outcomes.
• Provide professional event management for government partnership events, such as policy dialogues, learning visits, and workshops, coordinating material production, workshop plans, communications and logistics.

Research, policy and strategy

• Produce high quality resources for government reform, such as benchmarking reports, education system analyses and policy briefs.
• Support senior leaders with Educate!’s market expansion strategy for our Education System Solutions work, including analyzing education policies and trends, and co-ordinating the strategy development process across the team.
• Conduct and co-ordinate market analysis to contribute to Educate!’s product development strategies, identifying policy, competitor and market trends.

Strategic Project Management

• Design, scope and manage strategic projects agreed with the Chief Education Innovation Officer CEdIO, managing communications, resources and external contractors, and making strategic recommendations to contribute to Educate!’s future success.
• Partner with the CEdIO and senior leaders to codify and disseminate Educate! products internally, producing standardized toolkits and resources to support team upskilling and the scaling of Educate! innovations in new markets.
• Develop tools, templates and project management systems to support the design and delivery of projects across the team, including departmental budget, reporting and knowledge management systems.

Qualifications and profile

• 3+ years’ experience in a projects environment in a public sector context, with a professional background in an area such as consultancy, external communications or policy engagement.
• Ability to tailor research and policy insights for different audiences, with experience of producing high quality deliverables such as policy briefs and benchmarking reports to deadlines.
• Experience in building systems and processes for use by different stakeholders.
• Experience of collaboration in a multi-disciplinary and remote working environment, as well as ability to work independently on deliverables.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to manage internal and external stakeholders, including those in more senior positions.
• Demonstrated ability to operate well in complex and fast-changing environments.
• Passion for Educate!’s mission is a must, but past work in education or youth development is not required. We value diverse perspectives and encourage applications from people with a variety of backgrounds.
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets(see What Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate! culture deck here
• This role will preferable be based in East Africa, though we are open to virtual candidates willing to include travel to East Africa