Head of Program Implementation

Who We Are! 

🌍 Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more young 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: 

1. Introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary and 
2. Delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 500,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 300 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, Livelihood Impact Fund,  Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall, 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.

Good to note: To Our Awesome Applicants! 🚀💫

We know that incredible candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don’t meet every requirement. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply! 

We’re looking for passionate individuals who believe in our mission and can bring unique perspectives to our team—not just those who check every box. We value diversity and strongly encourage women and individuals from all backgrounds to apply.

Position Overview 

The Head of Program Implementation (HOPI) is a strategic leader who reports to the Managing Director and leads high-performing teams to build and execute strategy. Working cross-functionally, the HOPI will lead teams through a strategy process to scope the stage objectives for the Product. The HOPI will then lead the implementation of the Mewaka Sustainability Strategy while fostering team culture, establishing robust systems, and ensuring financial fidelity.

What You’ll Do🌟 

Program Implementation and Strategy - 30%

• Co-lead sustainability Implementation strategy development while co-creating and tracking key objectives and quarterly goals and objectives with top leadership, program managers, and functional leaders to ensure alignment as needed; co-design and co-lead program strategy retreats and develop investment committee reports for the product.
• Inform continuous model improvements through partnerships with the internal product team to implement experiments with implementation strategies that unlock breakthrough ideas for key delivery challenges like local government ownership and support, delivery tools, and partnerships. 
• Manage the program and take full ownership of driving the impact goals, delivery KPIs, and the youth experience while ensuring implementation is aligned to strategy, especially with frontline teams. 
• Create a data-driven culture for program management, ensure all decisions are backed by data, and all the teams have clear data visibility and are empowered to use data in their day-to-day work

Delivery Strategy and Model - 20%

• Understand product model to be able to know constraints and develop the delivery strategy with the Managing Director. 
• Lead the co-creation and validation of scalable delivery model options with other key leaders and frontline teams, particularly Local government co-design initiatives to drive sustainability work. Conduct intentional structure and other model area experiments and pilots to grow towards a scalable and efficient delivery model.
• Oversee development, reviews, and deployment of program delivery ways of work and key management tools and ways of work 
• Develop a high-performance culture providing clear performance expectations, modelling, and coaching middle managers to scale the right culture.

System Development - 20%

• Oversee the development of Program performance and team management standards, systems, and management tools that support the product at scale. 
• Lead building of support systems to operationalise the key activities of the sustainability model for both internal and external stakeholders like champion teachers and  local government partners\.
• Oversight for the co-development and continuous review to have lean Program procedures and handbooks while building effective communication channels across programs and operations teams.
• Establish meeting structures that build a high-performing and culturally aligned team that uses data in a psychologically safe environment.
• Lead collaboration for internal teams to create alignment over process , development and deployment and review of any systems, processes  that power the Implementation with clear documentation.

Financial Oversight - 10%

• Monitor, co-develop and update program/product cost models working with the program manager, field ops manager, recruitment manager, finance analyst, MD and strategist. And policy and partnerships for government products.
• Consistently research the market and share proposals to the Managing director  bring the biggest product cost drivers down 
• Support the Program Manager during monthly budget review managing to the 5% standard, 
• Coach managers on how to review org-wide financial reports and department specific budget vs. actual reports (budget trackers) to ensure proper use of funds. Submit revised budgets to Managing Director and suggest budget 
• Instil a culture of cost-effectiveness and cost-consciousness and always think about scalable costs as teams develop budgets and proposals.

Team Culture and Performance Management - 20%

• Establish, monitor, and reinforce ways of work systems and structures that build positive, engaged, and culturally aligned high-performing teams.
• Model and establish initiatives that promote Educate!’s cultural tenets. Establish a frontline-centred management culture. Cultivate honesty, integrity, and professionalism of teams.
• Manage team/staff performance evaluation and management, ensuring timely feedback, performance decisions are documented, and procedures followed.
• Fosters a positive and collaborative team culture, actively discouraging and addressing gossip, rumours, and other forms of destructive microcultures

Who You Are 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️

• You are a steady, highly organized strategic thinker, operational planner, and implementation superstar with at least four years of experience owning and managing programs while building and optimizing essential systems and processes. You are passionate about driving systemic change.

• You are an experienced leader with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies or a related field, backed by 3 to 5 years of hands-on experience coordinating and leading program implementation.

• Project planning or people management certifications are a strong plus. 

• You bring a proven track record of building and managing critical relationships with central and local government stakeholders within the education sector.

• Fast-learning and highly adaptable, you possess the analytical sharpness to turn raw data into actionable insights that inform, refine, and drive execution strategies forward.

• You are deeply passionate about tackling systemic challenges, with direct experience building efficient processes to ensure high-quality, last-mile delivery.

• Experience navigating the education, youth, or entrepreneurship ecosystems within a start-up or social enterprise environment is preferred.

• Fits our Five Culture Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here 

What We Offer 

• A vibrant, mission-driven environment with a supportive and fun team. 
• Flexibility - Fully remote or hybrid work environment (location dependent) 
• Learning and growth opportunities 
• Compensation will be competitive and based on experience.
• Health insurance will be included. 

Application Process: Rolling basis, interviews happening soon!

Terms 

• Location is Dar es Salaam, Tanzania but can be assigned to support other programmatic regions across the country

Our Culture & Tenets(Values) 🌱

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 of their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey. 

1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We are purpose-driven, focused on impact, and prioritize what truly matters. We listen to youth, design our efforts around their needs, and ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences they value.
2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results—proactively identifying problems and seeking solutions without waiting or stopping at what's requested.
3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded and continuously try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views - We value all individuals, believe diverse ideas and open dialogue drive excellence, foster a supportive and respectful environment where everyone can freely express themselves. We work as one team and prioritize the organization's mission over personal or team interests.
5. We have the Startup Mindset - We innovate relentlessly to grow our impact, we never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.”We constantly challenge the status quo, embrace change, and move quickly toward our vision. Unafraid of failure, we question anything that hinders progress.

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — 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 a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team. 

We’re committed to ensuring all candidates are screened for child and youth safety. As part of the process, candidates must successfully complete our standard background verification and safeguarding review in accordance with local legal standards. Educate! reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment if any screening results indicate potential risks to youth.