U.S./ Europe Managing Director

Position Overview Educate! is seeking a dynamic manager/operator looking to take the next step on their leadership path to join our industry-leading non-profit social enterprise as U.S./Europe Managing Director. This US/Europe-based role of our East African organization reports to the Global Director of Revenue. The MD will be focused on people and team leadership, managing operations to achieve results, and owning the execution of our fundraising workflow. You'll draw on your experience managing high-performing teams

Fundraising experience is NOT required for this role. Work experience outside the U.S., ideally in Africa, is very helpful but not absolutely required. To excel in this role, you will need exceptional abilities to understand & translate strategy to action swiftly, pragmatically prioritize & organize work to results, and warmly connect and collaborate with coworkers across time zones and cultures - along with a passion for efficiently turning collective effort into social impact. (Please see below for much more detail on the role and qualifications.)

This role would be a great fit for someone who has been working abroad in a management or leadership role at a social enterprise, NGO, or social-impact startup, and is now looking for opportunities in the U.S/Europe. Must love achieving results through a team, including improving how people work together through strong management processes, developing teams and people to do their best work, and overseeing detail-oriented projects. Sound like you? Apply here .

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 learn, earn and thrive in today's economy by:

1) introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and

2) delivering livelihood bootcamps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 250,000 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 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 1) Management of Team, Strategy, and Functions

Despite working mostly remotely from each other, our team is a tight-knit group of kind, collaborative, and motivated team players, and you'll use your ability to perceive and understand people and dynamics to connect with the fantastic, diverse individuals on the team and support them to succeed. You'll use your naturally strategic style to prioritize where to focus and your rock-solid judgment to make the important decisions.

• Excellent Project Management Skills: Ability to effectively plan, execute, and oversee projects to achieve organizational goals.
• Strong People Management Skills: Experience in managing and developing teams, particularly in operational roles such as field teams or logistics.
• Experience Managing through Others: Ability to delegate tasks and responsibilities while maintaining oversight and accountability.
• Leadership Experience: Experience managing directors or heads of departments, demonstrating the ability to lead at a high level.
• Management Systems: Familiarity with implementing and maintaining management systems to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
• Defined Management Philosophy: Ability to articulate and apply a management philosophy that aligns with the ethos of the organization.
• Strategy alignment: You quickly absorb and internalize organizational strategy and communicate strategy to the team. You translate that strategy directly into team priorities and goals, and adapt them as strategy shifts in course inevitably arise. You understand and have articulated the principles, philosophies, and standards that are core to the team's work, and where possible, you build them into systems. You make these foundational ideas explicit in order to empower the team to do more and make more decisions without directly involving you.
• Risk management: You assess & understand key risks to the team and greater org in terms of probability and impact; you flag when high-risk issues arise and watch, address, or escalate appropriately.

2) Strategic Development

The US/Europe Managing Director will establish new organizational functions and enhance existing capabilities. The primary focus initially will be on developing the systems and solutions necessary to secure and manage larger, more intricate funding opportunities with key stakeholders in the sector. The ideal candidate will be able to learn new areas quickly and be willing to build iterative systems that improve to meet the organization's needs as we grow.

• Lead the development of Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to test and validate ideas with minimal resources quickly.
• Utilize agile methodologies to rapidly iterate on MVPs based on user feedback and market insights.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define MVP requirements and ensure timely delivery.
• Can correctly identify and order priorities with the ability to change priorities by introducing new information. Is able to make decisions with either too much information or incomplete information and then test.

3) US & Global Finance & Ops

The US team leads the execution of global finance and revenue for the entire organization, so running US operations smoothly, efficiently, and proactively is fundamental for the organization as a whole. We have a strong Controller who you'll manage on this key work channel, and you'll also work with our excellent Director of People, to ensure that policies are consistent across geographies.

Educate! also has robust finance teams in each country, and their finances are consolidated in the US. As a result, our US finance function owns our consolidated global books, leads our annual global audit, and liaises with the Board on finance. The US finance function is also responsible for finances supporting our fundraising, including external financial reporting and compliance and drafting and managing budgets for grant proposals.

HR systems and processes e.g., contract management, HR policies, and payroll also sit under the US & Global Ops function.

• Finance & operations team work plans, workflow and capacity planning: You ensure the finance & operations function has annual and termly goals and has the resources and support needed to meet them. You manage the team to the core objectives of working efficiently and flexibly with a mission to serve the US and global teams and ultimately Educate!'s work and impact.
• Quality & financial integrity: You manage the US finance and operations systems and people to standards of quality, in addition to outputs. You are ultimately responsible for the integrity of the US financial system, and you keep a sharp eye out for areas that could leave the organization exposed in collaboration. US procurement practices are ethical, fair, efficient, and cost-effective and achieve quality results in a timely manner.
• Finance & Ops Systems: Working with the US Head of Finance & Ops, you oversee the systems and processes to manage key finance, operations, and HR functions, ensuring they exist where needed (and not where they aren't), and that they are efficient and only as complex as necessary.
• Grants Finance Strategy and Quality Assurance: Identify and mitigate financial risks associated with grant funding, implementing controls to safeguard assets and ensure compliance. Establish and maintain quality standards for financial management of grants, ensuring adherence to best practices and regulatory requirements. Provide training and support to staff involved in grants finance, building their capacity to manage grant funds effectively.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of work experience, 7-10 years preferred
• Excellent manager with at least 3 years of experience of managing teams, great "EQ" (emotional intelligence), and ability to manage to results without micromanaging or being too hands-off
• Process-oriented, organized . click apply for full job details