Career Opportunities at Mastercard Foundation

THE OPPORTUNITY

Reporting to the Partner, Security and Facilities, the Office Coordinator will be responsible for greeting internal and external stakeholders to the office. He/she will oversee day to day office activities as well as support internal travel. This individual will be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and possesses the ability to be proactive in managing competing priorities. The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal skills and a high level of integrity and professionalism.

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Build and maintain relationships with employees including other administrators and external contacts.
• Provide receptionist duties and act as first point of contact to visitors by welcoming and directing guests appropriately.
• Assist in ensuring the safety and security of all employees and visitors in the case of an emergency.
• Handle all emergency calls related to premises and coordinate resolution accordingly, on- call 24/7.
• Coordinate all cleaning, maintenance and repairs of premises through the building management office and/or external providers.
• Manage the logistics calendar (Foundation drivers/third party driving service) including adding journey requests and engaging additional support as needed. Sort and distribute all incoming mail. Prepare packages for courier.
• Ensure kitchen area, meeting rooms and supply areas are clean, tidy and fully stocked with all necessary supplies.
• Build and maintain positive vendor relationships by notifying them of issues, assisting in requesting quotes, placing orders, etc.
• Purchase office supplies and equipment, ensuring supply needs are met.
• Set-up and tear down of meeting rooms, as required.
• Manage catering and act as back-up point-of-contact for social events.
• Assist in the onboarding process by preparing offices and/or workstations for new hires and ensure equipment requirements are met.
• Assist in coordinating office moves.
• Ensure the local office is health and safety compliant and participate as a member in the Joint Health, Safety and Wellness Committee.
• Inform travelers of necessary preparations prior to trip (i.e. vaccinations, visas etc.).
• Build and maintain relationships with the medical & travel security assistance company and the Foundation’s travel service provider.
• Coordinate and/or support administrative assistants with global travel arrangements including flights hotel bookings, ground/air transportation, travel itineraries and meeting briefs in advance of all trips.
• Ensure Customer Traveler Profiles and details are accurate. Track costs and manage budgets, expenses and invoices.
• Responsible for reconciling and coding all travel fees against appropriate department or project code in SAP Concur.
• Provide administrative support to the local Operations team as required.
• Provide backup support to the Team Assistant as required.
• Other duties as assigned.

WHO YOU ARE

• Completion of a College diploma or University degree.
• Minimum 3-5 years of experience in an administrative, travel coordination, office services role or equivalent.
• Corporate travel experience, preferably global experience, would be an asset.
• Service oriented with a willingness to take on a variety of tasks and activities.
• Excellent planning, prioritization and time management skills.
• An ability to work well under pressure and remain calm during high volume periods.
• Must be a team player, who can also work independently with little direction or supervision and possess ability to coordinate and manage multiple projects.
• Excellent initiative and possess a “take charge” attitude and sense of ownership.
• Flexible and adaptable to changing priorities.
• Professional demeanor, sensitivity with different cultures and impeccable integrity.
• High level of proficiency with current technology including; Microsoft Office, with an emphasis on Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• Experience using SAP Concur for invoice and expenses tracking, an asset.
• Bilingual English and Kiswahili language oral and written language skills preferred. Ability to speak French is an asset.
• You are flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• You possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• You possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.

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DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN AFRICA

Digital technologies are transforming every aspect of life for billions of people. Digitally-enabled businesses – local and global, small and large – create new work opportunities that require new skills and mechanisms to link appropriately-skilled workers with opportunities. Youth who currently use digital technologies can anticipate a lifelong journey to ensure their skills remain relevant to evolving needs and opportunities. Those who have yet to benefit from digital inclusion need support and encouragement to begin to climb the ladder of basic digital literacy and skills. Lack of meaningful progress towards digital skills leaves millions of young Africans at risk of exclusion from opportunities in an increasingly digital world. It limits the ability for teachers or students to use digital solutions effectively within the educational systems, as well as the competitiveness of workers wishing to join local, regional and global ICT labor markets. Ultimately, this constrains the ability of firms to implement new technology and create new jobs.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Program Lead, Digital Economy will report to the Regional Head of Eastern and Southern Africa. In this role, the Program Lead will also work collaboratively with other Foundation staff, such as Program country team members who are developing country strategies and other program team members in other technical areas (e.g. education finance, agriculture, MSME, etc.).

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Work closely with the Country Team staff to achieve team goals.
• Provide digital technology expertise to support the design and management of programs that leverage technology to scale country-level inclusive education, financial and labor systems in Africa.
• Diagnose and contribute expertise on digital enabling environment and policy to inform country strategy design, partnership development, and monitoring processes.
• Work closely with the program and country teams to leverage synergies across programs and across geographies.
• Support and/or Manage current or future programs as appropriate, distilling learnings for the country and technical teams as well as wider Foundation staff.
• Contribute insights to the Foundation’s thought leadership on digital skills development in Africa by writing blogs, attending and presenting at conferences and identifying other opportunities to share and deepen learning.
• Assist in expanding the Foundation team’s capacity relating to digital skills development and digital policy, by sharing learning, facilitating training and supporting country teams.
• Support the design and delivery of appropriate mechanisms to monitor effectiveness and impact of skills development interventions in close collaboration with the Strategy and Learning team.
• Participate in governance activities related to programs, such as investment committees, advisory committees or other stakeholder fora to provide oversight or elevate and leverage learnings.
• Build and maintain relationships with partner organizations, key stakeholders at country-level, communities of practice and global stakeholders.

WHO YOU ARE

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in education, business, or a technology-related field.
• Ten (10) plus years of experience working with the private and non-profit sectors, particularly in a role relating to digital technology and skills development in Africa.
• Experience in a commercial function in at least one relevant digital technology industry focused on low income customers – e.g. product management, strategy, design.
• Familiarity with relevant technologies and sectors with potential for emerging markets – software solutions, app or platform providers, venture capital, incubators, digital financial services providers, e-government, data analytics, etc.
• Experience successfully procuring and managing consultants and technology vendors and suppliers to achieve goals.
• Excellent project management skills, including multi-stakeholder projects.
• Command of quantitative and qualitative business analytics
• Experience working with the non-profit or public sectors, particularly in a role relating to digital technology.
• Experience with entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship.
• Demonstrated knowledge of African social, economic and political contexts.
• Experience living and/or working in Africa.
• Excellent presentation and listening skills.
• Strong written and spoken communication skills in English required.
• You are flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Proactive, engaged and a self-starter.
• Excellent prioritization and time management skills.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Good organizational skills and demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (PowerPoint, Word and Excel).
• High emotional intelligence and comfort with ambiguity.
• Knowledge of digital inclusion policy is an asset.
• You possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• You possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.

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THE OPPORTUNITY

Reporting to the Lead, Technology, the Technical Support Analyst will play a critical role as a lead technical resource responsible for supporting all technical matters at the Nairobi office. This individual will be responsible for responding to requests from staff, performing regular maintenance on network connected devices and providing guidance and training for end users.

This individual will serve as a business partner to various functional areas of the Foundation and support the goals of departments through exceptional technology support. They will have the opportunity to influence network and infrastructure decisions related to the overall IT roadmap. They will also coordinate projects from planning to implementation phases with minimal supervision.

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

• Provide technical support for staff (network connectivity, Office 365, conference rooms, printers, screens, phones, etc.).
• Monitor and report performance issues related to services provided by third parties.
• Monitor IT services to ensure their consistent, reliable and secure delivery through active monitoring of error logs and user-reported issues.
• Responsible for the overall healthy operation of technology in the offices.
• Perform application updates, security patches and configuration changes on network hardware, services and management tools.
• Work closely with the Manager IT to implement proactive approaches to monitoring and reporting on network services that maximize uptime, reliability and visibility.
•  Support and monitor local vendors of IT systems, including network, laptops, telecom, wireless and supporting applications.
• Manage relationships with internal stakeholders to understand and anticipate issues, influence technology adoption, monitor staff satisfaction levels, and address issues and concerns.
• Remain current with trends, new developments and issues in the IT industry including innovation, current technologies, compliance, cyber risks and software, hardware and licensing costs.

WHO YOU ARE

• Bachelor’s degree or diploma and/or certificate in IT related fields.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience supporting end users, applications and hardware.
• Possesses an intermediate level of network and infrastructure expertise coupled with a high ability to quickly learn new technologies.
• Demonstrates strong communication, presentation and negotiation skills in complex environments with an aptitude for diplomacy.
• Practical hands-on experience on workstations, printers, cellphones and audio-visual equipment.
• Exceptional analytic and troubleshooting skills for solving problems.
• Understands how emerging technologies and service providers can be utilized to improve existing systems and/or increase operational efficiency.
• A good understanding of the following Technologies: Windows 10 and Office 365, SharePoint.
• Fluent in English and Kiswahili would be an asset.
• Results driven and motivated by a sense of performance excellence and a sense of urgency; possesses a proactive and ‘self-starter’ mentality.
• Ability to travel internationally up to 10% of the time.
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• Professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.

The Mastercard Foundation values the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Foundation and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone.

Completion of satisfactory business references, background checks (criminal and credit), and proof of education are essential conditions of employment.

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THE OPPORTUNITY

The Program Lead, TVET, will report to the Regional Head Eastern and Southern Africa. The Lead will work collaboratively with other Foundation staff such as country team members; Impact and Finance team members as well as other team members. 

The Lead will provide thematic and programmatic expertise to support the design of TVET related priorities as part of Foundation strategies. In addition, the Lead will assist in the design and implementation of a portfolio of TVET focused partnerships and draw insights on key questions in the Foundation’s learning agenda. The successful applicant will also support the Foundation in developing perspectives regarding effective TVET policies and approaches in Africa that can contribute to thought leadership. 

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE  

• Provide expertise in the Education and Skills Technical Expertise Group, with a particular focus on TVET, to support Foundation colleagues’ design and management of programs in priority countries  
• Identify issues and trends that affect the quality of TVET, as part of the Foundation’s country strategy and program development processes. 
• Lead oversight of consultancies focusing on scoping research, learning and program design. 
• Lead the adaptation of the Foundation’s programming and learning related to TVET to specific country contexts, leveraging country diagnostics and learning from our portfolio of partners. 
• Identify and engage with potential implementing partners for country-based TVET programming and support the development of program proposals.
• Support and/or manage current or future programs as appropriate, which may include facilitating implementing partner coordination, reviewing narrative and financial reporting, undertaking regular partner/site visits and distilling learnings for the country and TEG teams as well as wider Foundation staff. 
• Assist in expanding the Foundation team’s capacity relating to TVET and training and development, by sharing learning and supporting country teams. 
• Support the design and delivery of appropriate mechanisms to monitor effectiveness and impact of TVET interventions in close collaboration with the Impact team. 
• Participate in TVET partner coordination working groups, task forces and other meetings where relevant.  
• Build and maintain relationships with partner organizations, government representatives and other key stakeholders at the country-level, communities of practice and global education stakeholders. 

WHO YOU ARE

• Graduate degree in education, or a youth development-related field.    
• Minimum 10+ years of relevant experience leading program interventions with partner organizations/grantees; education sector experience is desirable.  
• Minimum 5 years of leadership and management experience including managing staff and coaching, mentoring and providing feedback. 
• Strong understanding of key issues, challenges and trends in TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Experience working in an education-focused program or policy context in the non-profit or public sectors with a focus on TVET and workforce development training.  
• Knowledge of, and experience designing and implementing, best practices in TVET.   
• Solid familiarity with the key organizations, development partners, donors, international organizations and other actors relevant to TVET in Africa. 
• Knowledge of education policy and reform across multiple African contexts. 
• Demonstrated ability to lead diagnostic and analytic work as well as project design, partner identification and implementation.  
• Excellent project management skills, including multi-stakeholder projects with senior levels of government and the private sector. 
• Experience living and/or working in a developing country, particularly on the African continent.  
• Demonstrated written, presentation and spoken communication skills in English required 
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to be flexible and adaptable and comfortable with ambiguity.  
• Proactive, engaged and a self-starter. 
• Excellent prioritization and time management skills. 
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team. 
• Good organizational skills and demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite (Word, PowerPoint and Excel). 
• Fluency in French and/or another African language is an added advantage. 
• Is willing to travel up to 20 - 30%. 
• You are flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• You possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
• You possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.

The Mastercard Foundation values the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the organization and we are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone.