Jobs at Acumen

About the Role

• The Senior Associate, Foundry plays a central role in designing, delivering, and operationalising the East Africa Foundry strategy to support the ongoing leadership and organisational development of Acumen Academy alumni. The role spans community building, enterprise support, partnerships, visibility, ecosystem collaboration and delivery of the Green RISE Africa Connect Community of Practice.
• This is a highly relational and execution-focused role. The Senior Associate will work closely with Foundry members, Acumen's global teams, regional partners and funders to ensure the Foundry remains responsive, relevant and valuable to the evolving needs of social entrepreneurs in East Africa. The role sits within a pan-African Foundry function, so the postholder will work closely with their West Africa counterpart to deliver a consistent member experience and shared programming across both regions.
• The ideal candidate is a strong systems thinker and operator who is comfortable managing multiple workstreams, holding complex relationships, and translating strategy into well-run programmes, platforms and partnerships.

Key Responsibilities

 Community Building and Engagement

• Build and steward a values-aligned Foundry community in East Africa grounded in trust, peer learning, accountability, and shared leadership
• Design and manage engagement across digital and in-person platforms, including Circle, online convenings, and regional gatherings
• Design and facilitate structured peer learning and problem-solving spaces that enable shared learning across sectors, cohorts, organisation stages, and countries
• Maintain a strong pulse on member needs, challenges, and opportunities through structured needs assessments, regular check-ins, and ongoing touchpoints to inform both lightweight and longer-term programming
• Build, manage, and engage the Regional Foundry Advisory Committee to strengthen shared ownership and community accountability

Green RISE Africa Connect Community of Practice

• Deliver the Connect Community of Practice in East Africa, including peer group facilitation, masterclass delivery and ongoing Circle engagement
• Onboard incoming members entering the Foundry through the Accelerate and BUILD pillars, working with the pillar teams and the Foundry Manager to integrate them into the wider membership
• Support cross-regional programming and convening with the West Africa Foundry
• Ensure the member touchpoints the programme has committed to are delivered on schedule and to a consistent standard

Enterprise Development and Founder Support

• Design and deliver enterprise-focused offerings that support Foundry organisations to build resilient and sustainable businesses
• Coordinate access to tools, experts, capital readiness support, and learning opportunities aligned with founders' stages and archetypes
• Support the delivery of global Acumen opportunities, including early-stage grants, pro bono consulting, and partnerships, by working closely with global teams and partners to localise offerings for regional relevance and impact
• Conduct site visits and on-the-ground engagements with Foundry organisations to inform tailored enterprise support, learning design, and partnership opportunities
• Track enterprise needs and progress to inform targeted support and programming, and identify members with the potential to be referred into the Scale Ready Ventures programme

Partnerships, Ecosystem and Visibility

• Build and manage strategic partnerships with funders, ESOs, companies, media, and service providers that expand Foundry members' access to expertise, tools, capital, and platforms
• Design and deliver ecosystem-facing convenings and collaborations that create shared learning, strengthen funding readiness, and support regional innovation
• Translate ecosystem engagement into regional visibility and thought leadership that strengthens Acumen Academy's presence and influence in East Africa
• Lead the identification and support of nominations and external opportunities that elevate Foundry members across awards, fellowships, speaking platforms, and global networks
• Curate and amplify Foundry stories and insights through newsletters, social media, and partner channels to increase reach, engagement, and visibility

Member Insight, Data Quality and Reporting

• Surface member needs, emerging collaborations and regional insight back into programme design and the shared Foundry strategy
• Maintain accurate and current records for East Africa members within the shared Africa member system, working to the data standards agreed across the function
• Contribute regional data, insights and stories to grant reports, internal learning documents and funder communications

Qualifications and Skills

• 5 to 6 years of experience across programme delivery, community building, enterprise or ecosystem support, with exposure to venture building, investment readiness, or working closely with early- and growth-stage social enterprises
• Strong relationship builder, able to engage founders, partners, and cross-functional teams
• Proven ability to design, run, and improve multi-stakeholder programmes or communities end-to-end, from needs assessment through to delivery and iteration
• Strong online and in-person facilitation skills and comfort convening leaders across cohorts, countries, and sectors
• Clear, compelling communicator with strong writing and storytelling skills, including newsletters, profiles, nominations and reports
• Strong data and systems orientation, with experience using CRMs and tools such as Salesforce or Airtable to track engagement, needs, and outcomes
• Comfortable in fast-moving, ambiguous environments, able to prioritise well and execute with attention to detail
• Deep familiarity with the East Africa social innovation ecosystem and the realities of building in low-resource contexts
• Interest in or exposure to the green economy, climate-focused enterprise or dignified job creation is an advantage
• Self-reflective, values-driven, and aligned with Acumen's moral leadership ethos
• Strong alignment with Acumen's mission and values
• Ownership mindset and comfort with accountability
• Learning-oriented, reflective, and adaptive
• Collaborative, pragmatic, and outcomes-driven
• Must be permanently authorized to work in Kenya

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About the Role

• As the Senior Associate: Reporting, Data and Analytics, you will support the Impact Manager in strengthening how Green Rise Africa collects, manages, analyses, visualises, and reports programme data across all pillars.
• The role will serve as a link between the Impact/MEL team, programme teams, partners, and systems and technology functions. It will be central to ensuring that Green Rise Africa can track progress toward its ambitious 2030 targets, including reaching 443,200 young people, in dignified and fulfilling green work.
• The Senior Associate will play a hands-on role in maintaining MEL data systems, supporting partner reporting, producing routine reports and dashboards, strengthening data quality assurance processes, and generating insights to inform programme decision-making.
• The ideal candidate will have at least five years of experience in data analysis and MEL data systems within an international development context. They will bring strong technical skills across data management and visualisation platforms, practical MEL experience, the ability to translate programme data into insights for different audiences, and a growing interest in AI-powered solutions.

Responsibilities

MEL Reporting and Dash boarding

• Support the development and implementation of quarterly, biannual, and annual reporting processes across Green Rise Africa pillars.
• Produce routine reports against programme indicators, KPIs, targets, and disaggregations, including actuals versus targets.
• Build and maintain dashboards in Salesforce, Power BI, or equivalent platforms to provide up-to-date performance views for programme and leadership teams.
• Develop clear infographics and data visualisations to communicate programme results to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Respond to ad hoc data requests from internal teams, partners, and external stakeholders, including the Mastercard Foundation.
• Work closely with Finance to support the integration and quality assurance of financial and impact data, including for Impact Linked Finance reporting.

Data Collection, Consolidation and Indicator Tracking

• Oversee programme indicator data flows, ensuring data submissions are complete, accurate, and received on time across reporting periods.
• Manage partner data submissions through mobile and online collection tools such as KoBoToolbox, Airtable, Salesforce, or equivalent platforms.
• Consolidate data from multiple partners, countries, and programme pillars into master datasets and reporting tools on a routine basis.
• Maintain and update indicator tracking sheets and reporting templates in line with programme targets.

Data Analysis and Insight Generation

• Conduct quantitative analysis of programme datasets to identify trends, gaps, risks, performance issues, and areas of strong progress.
• Run descriptive and diagnostic analyses disaggregated by gender, age, geography, country, sector, pillar, and partner.
• Support the Impact Manager to translate data into insights that inform programme learning, adaptation, and decision-making.
• Prepare clean, well-documented datasets for internal reviews, external evaluations, and donor reporting.
• Contribute to Value for Money, benefit-cost, SROI, or Impact Linked Finance analyses as required.

MEL Data Systems and Technology

• Support the implementation, configuration, and maintenance of MEL data systems, including Salesforce, Power BI, Airtable, KoBoToolbox, or equivalent tools.
• Ensure data collection, management, analysis, and reporting systems are aligned with the programme MEL framework and indicator requirements.
• Support the development and maintenance of technology-enabled tools that improve data collection, reporting, analysis, and learning.
• Advise on technology and AI-enabled solutions that can improve MEL workflows, reporting efficiency, data quality, and learning.

Data Quality Assurance and Compliance

• Develop and apply standardised data validation rules, quality checklists, and data cleaning protocols.
• Review incoming datasets to identify duplicates, outliers, missing values, logical inconsistencies, and other data quality concerns.
• Maintain clear documentation and audit trails for data cleaning, validation, and changes to source data.
• Liaise with partners and programme teams to resolve data gaps, discrepancies, and quality issues, including coordinating resubmission of corrected records where needed.
• Conduct quarterly data quality reviews across partner organisations.
• Work with Compliance and Legal teams to ensure data is collected, stored, used, retained, and protected in line with programme standards and relevant data protection requirements.

Partner and Team Capacity Building

• Support partners to use programme reporting systems and submit high-quality data on time.
• Develop simple guidance materials, templates, and training resources for partner data collection and reporting.
• Build the capacity of internal team members to use MEL technology platforms, dashboards, and reporting tools.
• Support lower-capacity partner organisations to strengthen their internal data management and reporting systems.
• Conduct site visits to review partner data systems, data quality processes, and reporting readiness.
• Contribute to quarterly reporting on partner data quality and system strengthening needs.

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Support the set-up and maintenance of internal knowledge management systems for Green Rise Africa.
• Work with the Programme Insights team to ensure qualitative data, lessons, and learning products are organised and accessible.
• Support the documentation of learning from programme implementation, partner performance, and data trends.
• Ensure data and evidence are available in a timely manner for learning reviews, evaluations, and programme adaptation discussions.

Requirements

Essential Criteria

Candidates must demonstrate at least five years of relevant experience, including:

• Practical, hands-on experience in monitoring, evaluation, learning, data management, and reporting in an international development context.
• Experience managing programme data flows across multiple partners, countries, or programme workstreams, including partner submissions, data cleaning, consolidation, validation, and reporting.
• Experience producing routine MEL reports, including reporting against indicators, KPIs, targets, and actuals versus targets.
• Strong skills in data cleaning, data quality assurance, validation, documentation, and audit trail management.
• Experience analysing programme data and producing insights for decision-making.
• Strong proficiency in data analysis and visualisation tools such as Excel, Power BI, SPSS, Stata, R, Python, or equivalent.
• Experience working with MEL databases and digital data collection systems such as Salesforce, Airtable, KoBoToolbox, CommCare, SurveyCTO, or equivalent.
• Experience building or maintaining dashboards, reporting tools, databases, or other technology products that support MEL.
• Experience advising teams or partner organisations on data management, reporting, and data quality best practices.
• Working knowledge of data consent, use, retention, protection, and security requirements.
• Proven attention to detail and a systematic approach to managing complex datasets.
• Ability to communicate data clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to work across teams in a matrix-managed, multi-country programme environment.

Desirable Criteria

• Formal training in monitoring and evaluation, data analysis, statistics, information systems, project evaluation, or a related field.
• Experience working on youth employment, gender inclusion, climate, green growth, enterprise development, or private sector development programmes.
• Experience with Impact Linked Finance, Value for Money, SROI, cost-benefit analysis, or similar approaches.
• Familiarity with AI tools, agents, or automation solutions that can support MEL, reporting, data cleaning, analysis, or knowledge management.
• Experience supporting programme evaluations and preparing datasets for external evaluators.
• Project management qualification or experience coordinating multi-stakeholder reporting processes.
• Experience working in East and/or West Africa.

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About the Role

• As the Data and Technology Manager you will be responsible for designing, building, maintaining, and continuously improving the systems and technology platforms that support the programmatic MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning) framework under Green RISE Africa. This is a systems and technology role: you will NOT be responsible for designing or carrying out MEL itself. Your focus is building and running the technology that enables the MEL team to collect, manage, quality-assure, and report on data.
• You will report to the Associate Director of Impact, Green Rise Africa. 

The technology stack and solutions Acumen is leveraging include, but are not limited to:

• Salesforce as the central record for grant management, impact capture and reporting
• FormAssembly
• Google Suite
• AI-powered tools and enterprise solutions

Over the grant’s implementation we expect the role to focus on continual identification of system, data, and data management, and reporting improvements.Candidates must be well-versed in Salesforce applications,  have highly technical proficiency with data and software solutions, and a growing skills base in the use of AI.  This role will work closely with the Impact Manager: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. The Impact Manager: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning will focus on MEL framework design and implementation and adaptive learning. Additionally, you will work closely with other Impact & Insight staff based in the UK and in East and West Africa. 

The post holder is expected to travel occasionally within the region. 

Accountabilities include: 

Systems to support  Green RISE Africa’s MEL framework

• Lead in managing, developing and improving the Green Rise Africa technology stack to support programme implementation
• Translate the MEL team’s requirements (MEL plan, data collection plan, data management plan, quality assurance protocols, and results framework) into the systems that operationalise them.
• Configure and maintain data collection, management, and reporting tools used to report to the MasterCard Foundation.
• Lead in the continued development of the technology platform to support partner reporting 
• Work collaboratively with the Impact Manager: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning to build quarterly reporting processes, automated reports, infographics, and data visualisations on key metrics and KPIs (including financial KPIs for companies), for sharing with a range of stakeholders 
• Collaborate closely with the Finance team to quality assure and integrate finance data with impact data 

Programme data management 

• Ensure that data is collected, managed, maintained, and up-to-date across our grants management system 
• Liaise with the Compliance and Legal team to ensure we are following best practices on data consent, use, management, retention, reporting, protection and security approaches. 
• Integrate data from a range of  sources ensuring alignment to MEL reporting systems  
• Be the point person for data extraction, system access, and reporting infrastructure requests

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Set up and co-develop internal Knowledge Management system for the programme
• Work closely with the Programme Insights team to to build and maintain the systems and workflows through which lessons are captured and knowledge management processes are followed.
• Work closely with the Programme Insights team to ensure qualitative data is managed in line with best practices. 
• Actively support any programmatic evaluations that are required by donors by ensuring all data needs are met

Capacity building - team and partners

• Build capacity of team members on how to use technology solutions for MEL implementation, including training and learning sessions
• Build capacity of partner organisations on how to report with the programme’s technology solutions 
• Develop training materials and training sessions to upskill staff and partners with a range of skills in this space
• Support lower capacity organisations to develop their own internal reporting systems in line with programmatic needs 
• Site visits to monitor partner data management and reporting systems
• Quarterly reporting on data quality from partners

Skills and qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software or Data Engineering, or a related field; an advanced degree or equivalent hands-on systems experience is an advantage
• Salesforce certification required or strongly preferred (e.g., Salesforce Administrator); Advanced Administrator, Platform App Builder, or Data Cloud Consultant certification an advantage
• At least  8 years of professional experience in a similar role - developing and maintaining a technology stack, including at least 3 years of experience in developing and managing data systems, MEL databases, and reporting tools
• Working knowledge of how MEL, grant management, and reporting data are structured and used to translate MEL and donor requirements into system design.
• Hands-on Salesforce configuration experience (i.e. capable of building custom objects and fields, flows and automations, validation rules, permission sets, and reports and dashboards)
• Experience integrating systems and data sources (i.e., APIs, forms tools, etc.)
• Track record of maintaining, documenting, and improving a live system over time, including change management, troubleshooting, data quality controls, and managing external build partners or vendors
• Experience working in multi-country, matrix-managed environments
• Experience in gender and youth programmes or working with private sector partners
• Familiarity with Power BI, Airtable, Claude or similar tools
• Permanently authorised to work in Kenya or Nigeria