Partnerships Associate at African Management Initiative (AMI)

Job Description

• AMI is looking for an ambitious  Partnerships Associate  to join our Global Partnerships Team, which secures and manages our most critical partner relationships. We aim to hire a high-achieving and passionate individual to participate in transforming the impact of business support services to SMEs in Africa. S/he will report to the Lead: Impact Partnerships, while also working closely to support the central Partnerships team. 
• The successful candidate will play an instrumental role in a dynamic, international team focused on results. This is a chance for candidates with a passion for entrepreneurship and/or workplace learning to play a part in Africa’s transformation. S/he must be able to communicate fluently in both written and spoken English (French a plus).
• The Partnerships Associate must be a driven, organized, tech-savvy professional with great people and project-management skills and strong attention to detail.

Key Responsibilities
Partnership Relationship Building

• Support the team by monitoring partnerships opportunities, scanning the market (e.g. platforms like Devex, SAM.gov, Grants.gov, eTendering) and identifying business opportunities, key relationship-building opportunities and Requests for Proposal windows across the continent. The objective of this is to help AMI build relationships with major pan-African development and intermediary partners, to position AMI as a partner of choice for the delivery of skills and enterprise development programs.

Proposal Development

• Support the overall proposal development process from scoping to formalization
• Coordinate internally to gather all the necessary documents to submit the proposal and meet the eligibility criteria, particularly compliance documents
• Conduct research on specific sectors to identify key data and reports that will strengthen AMI’s proposal
• Conduct proposal administrative tasks e.g. formatting team CVs to meet partner submission requirements
• On occasion, lead on proposals of your own, with scope to develop in this area based on performance

  Internal Project Management

• Once the program is signed with the client, coordinate internally with the other teams to launch the project and hand it over to the other teams (Implementation, Learning, Marketing)
• Work with the Finance team to keep track of the necessary documents for project reporting (invoices, timesheets)

  Overall Partnerships Team support

• Work with the Partnerships Team to prepare presentations to potential funders, find relevant information to share, etc.
• Administrate event co-ordination for partner events
• Work closely with other AMI departments (Client Success, Learner Success, Learning Design, Product, Marketing, Finance) to coordinate projects and events to raise awareness on AMI and how we collaborate with partners
• Take minutes in key meetings as requested and circulated.

Requirements
Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience with strong academic background. 
• At least 3 years of experience in project or partnership management.
• Experience collaborating with diverse teams within an entrepreneurial or high-growth environment.
• Evidence of leadership/ community development experience (e.g. in community or academic environment).

Skills and Attributes

• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communications skills, in English are essential (French a plus).
• Outstanding attention to detail. 
• Excellent proposal writing and report writing skills and ability to work with a team. 
• Creative thinker with a "get things done" mindset, who can quickly adapt to new ideas
• Strong Excel and Power Point skills
• Project Management Skills
• Willing to learn and collaborate with peers and internal stakeholders at AMI
• Thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Absolutely rock-solid integrity