Regional Strategy & Operations Lead, Africa at Teach For All

Position Summary

• Teach For All is looking for a dynamic and experienced leader to work in the office of the Chief Network Officer and Head of Africa Region. The Regional Strategy & Operations Lead will play a key leading role in supporting the Chief Network Officer and Head of Africa Region to fully execute against agreed priorities.  This role involves building strong relationships with others across the organisation as well as working strategically with key stakeholders outside of the Teach For All Network. The Regional Strategy & Operations Lead (also known as Chief of Staff or CoS) provides an exceptional opportunity for an individual with superior leadership, analytical, interpersonal, and strategic written and verbal communication skills to serve as a key contributor to our mission and help shape our work in the region. The right candidate is one who has a proven ability to deliver on strategy, build culture, influence results through others, build strong relationships, and make strategic decisions that drive impact.  

Responsibilities

Regional operations management and contribution to global systems

• Creates the annual partnership planning process based on partner and Portfolio Leads’ needs and ensures partnership planning is effectively carried out and monitored.
• Leads on all regional step back processes ensuring that the right mechanisms for this are in place.
• Reviews existing regional operations and finds areas for development and growth.
• Creates new systems and dashboards, as well as improves and maintains existing regional ones to ensure optimal efficiency and productivity.
• Project manages one-off events as needed or contributes to the organisation and planning of others. 
• Leads on most regional follow-ups from internal meetings as well as ensuring that different workstreams and work needs are moving forward by sharing insights and knowledge where and when needed.

Informing regional strategy

• Sets framework for developing regional annual priorities and creates systems for tracking progress throughout the year.
• Manages and maintains regional budgets, drafts annual budget proposals, sets up budget systems, monitors them throughout the year and advises on reallocations, changes and needs.
• Acts as the first point of contact for others to share regional strategy, provide input and inform others about anything needed.
• Ensures that the regional team’s professional development needs are met and that training and development opportunities are created following closely the org-wide strategies and offerings as well as by working with the People Organisation Culture team.

Regional communications coordination

• Communications management for all events and opportunities in the Africa region, with regular communications with CEOs, portfolio leads, the head of region, event content and logistics leads etc.
• Drafts monthly CEO emails that are sent by Chief Network Officer and Head of Africa Region to the CEOs as well as weekly team emails ensuring that information from other teams is shared on various opportunities and that the various stakeholders stay up to date.
• Sets up and maintains various channels of communication for regional team members and partners.
• Organises all the logistics for virtual team retreats and relevant team calls by ensuring that 
  • An engaging agenda exists.
  • The regional team works collaboratively with other regions or individuals.
  • Each call contributes to the team’s growth and mutual sharing and learning.
• Has regular check-ins with other CoS as well as other team members to ensure good collaboration and exchange of information.

Regional and global knowledge creation and management 

• Creates knowledge products coming from various strategic initiatives to inform our future strategy.
• Co-manages bi-monthly ‘Welcome to the Network’ calls for new partner staff members.

Regional data and information management 

• Creates, maintains and monitors various data and information systems for the regional team and partners (like the Global Data System collection, Partner Survey, Power BI).
• Fields all requests for resources, knowledge, connections and data sharing between the Africa region and the rest of the network due to a thorough understanding of the team's work and  how it relates to other teams' and the  organisation's work.
• Responds to partner requests for information and proactively shares information that will be helpful.
• Analyses data and reports trends and works with partners to collect relevant data.
• Creates annual impact reports with key information about our regional impact which is shared with external stakeholders (information from the report is shared with CEOs, the Africa Advisory Council etc).

Regional culture builder

• Supports analysis of team data on organisational strength.
• Leads all of our efforts in ensuring we are achieving our vision of excellence as a team.
• Plans culture-building activities and celebrations on the team.
• Co-leads on the strategy for team culture change required to adapt to the new TFAll operational model.

Partner support 

• Co-leads on designated partner initiatives. 
• Tracks and ensures all systems regarding Partner Support are up-to-date.

Special projects and other org-wide projects

• Supports Head of Region with work related to reports, partner communications and follow-ups, various projects etc. as needed. 
• Provides input on org-wide projects such as Knowledge Management, Salesforce etc.
• Co-project manages the annual Africa Virtual Summer Institute impacting all regional partners. 

Requirements

• Minimum of 8-10 years professional experience required.
• In depth knowledge of the education sector within international development. 
• Experience having managed a unit/team.
• Demonstrable skills in executing cross functional projects.
• Proven track record in strategic planning and operational execution.
• Proven experience in developing and implementing key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance management systems to track the effectiveness of strategies and priorities.
• Experience of liaising and coordinating with multiple stakeholders.
• Track record in facilitating special operational initiatives that require rapid execution and high attention to detail.
• Experience of managing a budget.
• Committed to Teach For All’s purpose, vision and core values. 

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Strategic focus and operational efficiency.
• Superior organisation and project management skills with attention to detail.
• Self-starter who is proactive, highly independent, and responsible.
• Ability to manage multiple projects in a global, fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Outstanding ability to develop strong relationships with diverse individuals, and to influence and motivate others at high levels in a highly virtual & global setting.
• Ability to navigate ambiguity with good judgement, and work effectively within a matrix-based global organisational structure.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to synthesize complex information into simple formats and tailor communications to diverse audiences.
• Ability to anticipate needs, think critically, and offer solutions or new ideas.