Senior Program Manager – ACN Affiliates Program at African Leadership Academy

Position Responsibilities:

• You will own the ACN Affiliates program and be responsible for recruiting exceptional organisations into the program and then designing, managing and reporting on our support to them, ensuring they deliver upon our shared targets for improved career outcomes.
• You will foster community and shared learning among representatives of the Affiliate organisations while providing policy guidance and impact monitoring tools to ensure youth safeguarding and effective impact data collection.
• You will own the ACN Ambassadors Program, recruiting and then equipping 50 ambassadors annually to drive program enrolment and brand reach for ACN's 7 sector networks as well as your Affiliates. You will collaborate with our communications, institutional learning and technology teams to create creative campaigns and enable the tracking of performance.
• You will own the ACN Peer Coach program, coordinating volunteer capacity within our sector communities to support those around them to access their next career step. You will ensure you and your team have direct and growing relationships with partner universities and youth network members to attract people to and drive this work.
• You will participate directly in program design and delivery, providing coaching, program and event facilitation and coordination as necessary for program success and as a means of engaging network members.
• You will lead your team and role model ALA as a great place to grow by assuming accountability for their work, guiding their performance and success within the wider team, division and organisation. You will own the budget and planning responsibilities for your three programs, meeting your reporting requirements on time and with excellence.
• As someone engaging important external stakeholders, you will be an ambassador for ALA and ACN, advocating for the time, treasure, and talent required to build our programs to deliver upon our larger mission for Africa’s prosperity.

Profile of the ideal candidate:

• Partnership builder: you build win-win partnerships and ideally have had grant-making or fundraising experience.
• Project manager: Can define project outcomes clearly across multiple project streams, with increasing degrees of project complexity and task uncertainty. Track record of effective planning, prioritisation, and organisational skills.
• Program Management: Ability to design or create initiatives, events and programs that will drive the desired social impact or outcomes.
• Existing Network: You have a strong existing African network that you can draw on and are passionate about building and sustaining relationships on the African continent.
• Communication skills: Presentations and report writing skills are essential. Has confidently worked with multiple stakeholders at different levels to advance progress and execute ideas, both internally and externally.
• Team management: Experience managing a small team to deliver results.
• Technology use: Experience working with software systems to aid and automate work. Prior experience with Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Customer Relationship Systems (Salesforce CRM) exposure would be beneficial.
• Collaborator: A bias for structured sharing, ensuring best practices and approaches are shared between the Affiliates and the other sector networks.
• Facilitation: Ability to convene and manage events and workshops to drive network engagement
• Must be willing and able to travel

Desired Experience:

• Post-grad degree in training and development or a related discipline.
• 7 to 10 years of working experience, especially in any organisational and talent development or in an education-related field.
• Partner Management experience and supervisory skills are essential.
• Must have a broad understanding and knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing the African continent and be dedicated to shaping the future of Africa.
• An awareness of career opportunities and pathways through the lens of leadership development and being passionate and eager to engage in continuous learning and networking in the field.
• Competency framework and assessment experience is an advantage
• Contract management skills are essential
• Grant and budget management skills and reporting are essential
• Community network-building skills are an advantage
• Any DEI or safeguarding experience is an advantage
• Multilingual - French, Portugues or Arabic speaking would be an advantage