Program Manager

Position Overview

Educate! the largest youth skills service provider in East Africa, is looking for a dynamic, enthusiastic, and high-performing Program Manager to join the Programs department. As a Program Manager, you will play a crucial role in driving the success of our programs. You will be responsible for the strategic planning, implementation, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of our initiatives, ensuring that they align with our mission and deliver exceptional outcomes for our participants.

The successful candidate will have at least 4 years of a strong foundation in program management, including planning, coordinating, and using data to make informed decisions. They will also demonstrate excellent leadership skills to manage and motivate a team, an ability to develop and manage budgets as well as strong communication skills.

About Educate!

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined.

At Educate! we’re obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent.

Educate! prepares youth in Africa to learn, earn, and thrive in today’s economy by:

• introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and
• delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 390,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth-oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows.

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy, #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE’s Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!’s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth.

Performance Objectives

Finance and Budget Management

• Draft and manage the program budget to maximize the impact of every shilling spent, while preparing budget memos as needed to ensure quality program delivery and support for the program team.
• Prepare and review quarterly budgets, and monthly and quarterly program budget variance analyses (BVAs) to clarify all budget line expenses. Review and approve all program-related requisitions and accountabilities, ensuring they align with the budgeted activities.

Program Strategic Implementation

• Ensure strategic alignment with the product team on implementation milestones to track progress each term and conduct weekly reviews of implementation data to monitor program execution and coordinate with M&E as needed.
• Conduct termly field visits to evaluate team performance and school status, hold weekly check-ins with Program Officers to review zone performance and identify challenges, and offer guidance to help resolve implementation issues.
• Propose and build tools and systems to improve team productivity and efficiency during program delivery.

Team Performance Management

• Conduct biweekly 1:1s with Program Officers to review performance and provide support, while tracking their progress on a monthly and termly basis.
• Address performance issues of program officers and youth leaders, provide coaching to support the growth of frontline teams, and escalate any issues hindering team or program progress as needed.
• Lead monthly Programs’ team capacity-building training to upskill them.

Team Culture Management

• Demonstrate the org culture and cultural tenets through professional behavior and leadership
• Create an environment of open communication and trust, address conflicts quickly and constructively, and make improvements based on feedback and observations.
• Create an inclusive and supportive environment where all team members feel valued, involve everyone in decision-making, and promote a healthy work-life balance.

District & Local Government Engagement

• Drive the establishment of strong relationships with government officials and community leaders by attending district meetings as needed to understand their needs and priorities.
• Conduct thorough assessments to identify district-specific challenges and opportunities, use data and feedback to inform strategic planning and decision-making, and monitor implementation status at the district level, making adjustments as necessary.

Qualifications

• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here
• Program Management: Minimum of 4 years of a strong foundation in program implementation management, including planning, coordinating, and using data to make informed decisions.
• Experience in developing and managing budgets.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a related field.

Terms

• The location is in Dar-Es-Salam, Tanzania.
• Compensation will be competitive and based on experience.
• Health insurance will be included.

What Is Educate! About?

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

• We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed – We never forget that Educate! exists to impact youth. We are purpose-driven. We obsess over impact daily and if it doesn’t lead to impact, we want nothing to do with it. We prioritize interacting with and listening to youth. We design and manage the organization to ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences that youth value.
• We Exceed Expectations – We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results. When we know what needs to be done, we do it. We don’t wait to be asked and we don’t stop at what is asked of us. We look for solutions as much as we identify problems.
• We Are Always Learning – We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded. We know there is always another way and we are excited to learn about it. We continuously look for resources of all kinds from multiple disciplines. We try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
• We are One Team, Many Views – We say what we think while treating each other well. We believe that all people have the same inherent value and that diverse ideas and open dialogue fuel excellence. We constantly strive to create an environment where everyone can and does express themselves freely. We support and respect each other as people and colleagues. We act as one team: We prioritize the organization’s mission and goals over team or individual goals.
• We have the Startup Mindset – We will always keep innovating to grow our impact. We aspire to be game-changing. We never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.” We question the status quo in our industry. We move fast and embrace change to move towards our long-term vision. We’re not afraid of failure. We interrogate anything that slows us down.

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the CEO — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

Child Safeguarding: Educate! is committed to child-safe/youth-safe recruitment, selection and screening. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programs. The successful candidate will be required to provide a satisfactory Certificate of Good Conduct as a condition of employment. We reserve the right to decline to offer employment to an individual or terminate an employment contract with an employee that may pose a risk to children and youth.