Regional Director, East Africa Job at Grameen Foundation

Work Status:  Full-time (24-Month Contract, Renewable)

Travel requirements:  25 This position will need to be flexible to work in local conditions and across different time zones. This position will require frequent travel (25-33%) between Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and periodic travel to other countries. 

JOB SUMMARY & KEY PRIORITIES

Grameen Foundation is seeking a seasoned leader with executive management experience to take on the leadership of its Regional programs in East Africa, including programming in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The Regional Director leads all operations in these countries.  The Regional Director’s key priorities will be:

• Setting the overall strategy for the countries in line with Grameen Foundation’s global efforts to help the world’s poorest people achieve their full potential by providing the information and services they need to transform their lives;
• Leading fundraising, business development, and strategic partnerships in all countries in the region;
• Ensuring excellence in programmatic execution of our current and future work;
• Recruiting, retaining and leading Grameen Foundation's employees in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda;
• Serving as Grameen Foundation’s legal and financial representative in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The position will primarily focus on overseeing, expanding and building synergies between Grameen Foundation’s two main Solution Areas: a) agriculture, b) financial services and c) health financing. The Regional Director will report into the Vice President of Global Programs.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Mission & Business Results

The Regional Director will be accountable for owning and executing on the vision and country-level strategies of the East Africa operations to create alignment with GF’s overall strategy and direction   The Regional Director is accountable for:

• Ensuring a high level of execution of our East Africa programs and partnerships for the successful design, delivery, and evaluation of our projects against targets - with an emphasis on disciplined Project Management, and robust M&E system.
• Developing country and project performance targets including metrics contributing to our global organizational goal of reaching 25 million poor people by 2025 with innovations that measurably improve their lives.
• Identifying innovative solution approaches, aligning these with client, donor and funder needs, and translating them into actionable plans that staff can execute.

Management

• Manage daily operations of Grameen Foundation in East Africa in accordance with policies and procedures for planning, budgeting, financial and human resource management and operations.
• Assume functional line management responsibility for East Africa staff.  Supervise regional satellite office personnel and activities.
• Recruit, train, support and regularly assess performance of staff in accordance with local labor laws and policies and procedures of Grameen Foundation.
• Ensure adherence to all pertinent local laws and regulations related to the operations if Grameen Foundation in East Africa.
• Ensure sound financial planning, management and reporting in compliance with the laws of the countries of operation.
• Provide regular reports to Grameen Foundation on programmatic and financial performance.
• Perform other duties associated with the management of healthy and effective field operations.

Strategic Planning

• Provide strategic leadership and management of the Grameen Foundation offices in East Africa including development of country-level strategic plans, annual plans and annual budgets aligned with the global mission, vision and strategic plan for Grameen Foundation.
• Engage actively with the Institutional Relations team and Solution Leads to identify and realize opportunities for programming in agriculture, financial services and health and nutrition initiatives.

Representation, Business and Partner Development

• Represent Grameen Foundation and its strategies, services and products to build and maintain partnerships and alliances with policy makers, academics, funders, government agencies, financial service providers, the private sector, development and public health organizations and networks, as well as other relevant stakeholders.
• In partnership with the institutional relations team, develop and implement strategies for business development including prospecting, identification and cultivation of funders and new partner relationships, review potential funding requests, actively contribute to the development of proposals, letters of interest and bids.
• In partnership with the institutional relations team, develop and execute an outreach and fundraising strategy which results in a significant increase in the revenue generation of Grameen Foundation in the region.

Stakeholder Results

•    Building strategically valuable and commercially sound new business opportunities that contribute to both impact and operational sustainability.
•     Creating sustainable business models for all product offerings in the country portfolios - thinking that reflects a focus on engaging scaling partners at the onset.
•     Representing Grameen Foundation externally (both in terms of publications and events, such as international conferences, workshops, and symposia) deepening existing relationships and forging new high potential partnerships with target audiences and stakeholders.

• Ensuring client-centered, customer service focus in product and service design to maximize likelihood of utilization that equips and motivates the poor to take action to reduce poverty and hunger, and increase resilience.

Leadership Results

•    Maintain high levels of personal effectiveness in varied cultural contexts; combined with a high level of self awareness, context awareness, curiosity and learning agility that result in productive interactions.
•    Take a high level of ownership for managing talent and employee engagement on their team - proactively removing barriers to execution. Creating a team climate where staff members feel engaged, motivated and productive; and providing clarity, alignment, strong sense of connection, and development/growth opportunities to their direct reports. Owning and leveraging existing Talent Solutions & Processes.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

•    Deep understanding of challenges facing the particularly women and smallholder farmers, and corresponding product/solution needs; combined with deep commitment to eradicating poverty.
•     High level of skill required in Solution/Program Design - helping build, pilot, and scale initiatives; and adapting innovations and best practices across geographies.
•     High level of skill required in Business Development: guiding landscape analysis, testing financial models and efficiency/cost analysis, identifying and building a robust pipeline of prospective partners/donors/customers that align with program strategy and GF Mission.
•     Effective Program Management and Strategic Thinking skills that are reflected in effective prioritization and execution.
•     High level of Communication and Collaboration skills; with an ability to influence others without authority, work in a networked organization, and deliver results with diverse partners.
•     Ability to analyze and leverage data to make informed decisions, and ensure their area has effective data/business processes.

• Demonstrating the ability to navigate complex issues, with multiple perspectives, in a way that facilitates deep collaboration and timely/data-driven decisions.

EDUCATION BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE:

• Requires a Bachelor’s degree in Business, International Development, Economics, Finance, Engineering or related field, and a Master's Degree is strongly preferred.
• Requires 10+ years of management level experience in financial services, agriculture, mobile technology, international development, or a related field. With at least 7 years of experience managing teams and budgets, experience with remote teams preferred; and at least 2 years of experience working in emerging markets, ideally in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Demonstrated success in leading, managing and securing funding and other resources for international programs.
• Requires excellent written and verbal English language skills.
• Experience working in a global/multicultural organization, combined with leading funder/investor relationships, across multiple time zones is a strong plus.

The Regional Director is expected to work a standard workweek of 40 hours plus additional hours as necessary to get the job done.  

BENEFITS & PERKS 

Grameen Foundation offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, paid holidays, and a paid-time off program.

PHYSICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 

This position does not require unusual demands for physical effort.  This position may occasionally require physical effort to lift and transport boxes weighing no more than 50 pounds.

 Work environment involves everyday risks or discomforts that require normal safety precautions typical of places such as offices, meeting or training rooms, residences, or commercial vehicles; e.g., use of safe workplace practices with office equipment, and/or avoidance of trips and falls, and observance of fire regulations and traffic signals.