Operations Manager

Position Overview 

Educate!, a fast-growing and award-winning social enterprise, is seeking the Operations Manager to drive our operations work in Rwanda as we work towards our organizational vision of measurably impacting millions of students across Africa each year. In this role, you’ll report to the Managing Director and be responsible for building and overseeing the systems that enable our operations to run efficiently and effectively. This includes setting up and running operations that support our scale program, E! Exchange, and improving the existing systems, and working with the performance metrics functions on reporting procedures and workflows. You will ensure we are building and experimenting with diverse systems to optimize our operations processes and maximize efficiency and effectiveness as we scale.  In addition, you will lead, coach, inspire, and build a passionate and results-oriented team that will drive the realization of our ambition over the next years.

The right person for this role is someone who thrives in a high-growth environment and is able to build stable and scalable systems and continuously improve them. Able to oversee a team and see through to results while also managing, guiding, coaching, and supporting them. Should be comfortable using data to improve operations. You should be open to learning from other industries, adopting new ways of working, and changing processes based on feedback. A driven, creative systems builder & problem-solver who is motivated by removing obstacles to help operations teams design and scale high-impact operations systems.

Sound like you or someone you know? Read below, visit our careers page to learn more about Educate!,

About Educate!

What if there was a way to measurably change the trajectory of the lives of youth across Africa? Since its launch in 2009, Educate! has worked to do just this, delivering outsized impacts at scale and at disproportionately low cost, through a product-led approach to youth development. As a disruptive, not-for-profit, social enterprise, our team leverages an obsession with evidence and entrepreneurial drive to tackle one of our planet’s greatest challenges – unlocking the potential of its youngest continent.

Educate!’s core model combines training in key skills with access to practical experience starting a business and mentorship, a formula that has been validated by several independent evaluations. This model is distributed through products targeting two lead channels. First, Educate! works with governments to help reform education systems at scale through policy change, teacher behaviour change and tech-enabled products targeting systems-level sustainability, while also working directly with select schools.

Second, Educate! builds employment-focused bootcamps and business support services targeting out-of-school youth left out of the education system. To date, more than 200,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted by this model across Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 160 largely African staff. We have been backed by top foundations and product leaders such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy, Echoing Green, the 1st Google Employee’s foundation, the head of Google Search and Rippleworks Foundation. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by Bill Gates, in the World Bank’s S4YE’s Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, and The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies in their global scaling education learning initiative. Educate! was also selected by the UN’s Generation Unlimited as 1 of 20 innovative youth solutions and by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator.

Educate!’s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.

Performance Objectives

Operations oversight  30%

• Map out end-to-end field logistics workflows and ensure systems build that enables distribution of program materials. Create order fulfillment systems for all field materials needs
• Coordinate with the MD, Program managers and Finance Manager to identify gaps, challenges and solutions within operations with the goal of creating a cost-effective operating strategies to address such challenges
• Oversee and optimize the implementation of the systems and workflows of the field operations.
• Lead the  development of the field operations workflows and tools to help teams operate effectively.
• Constantly train teams on new tools, guide them and track operationalization of such tools.
• Work closely with the Managing Director, finance and program managers to create budgets for all field operation activities.
• Ensure full compliance to finance processes relating to field operations. This could include but not limited to payments, reporting, Mobile Money use, systems audits, requisitions, accountabilities, approvals, and Common Cost sheet
• Solve field logistical program operations-related challenges based on deep research from reputable sources including peer organizations
• Lead the process of scouting for field training locations
• Collaborate with program managers in facilitating efficient and cost effective field travels for staff, teachers and other external stakeholders as need may dictate.
• Lead the process of systems and processes standardization to ensure level ground in application of our policies, procedures and systems across all areas of operations.
• Ensure that the Common Cost Sheet is updated always and is 100% accurate
• Lead the budgeting and budget management processes for the operations department
• Lead the budget review for the operations department through the monthly and quarterly Budget versus Actual (BvA) process.
• Participate in the development of Quarterly field operations goals

Team leadership & Performance Management 20%

• Manage the operations team to achieve set goals and objectives and maintain overall oversight of work allocation
• Develop capacity building initiatives for all the field operations teams and build a culture of continuous learning within the team
• Establish and maintain a strong, positive and engaged team culture. Promote Educate!’s cultural tenets within the team.
• Ensure a healthy pipelining of field operations staff
• Develop field operations manuals and handbooks and train staff on their use
• Work closely with the HR on hiring of new team members and participate in the hiring process.
• Lead interdepartmental collaborative meetings to understand changes in the programs and inform updates in the field operations priorities
• Represent field operations in inter-departmental and strategic meetings
• Lead the annual performance reviews, provide feedback to the teams and lead training that equips the team to perform at their best

Data Reporting Systems and Quality Assurance Oversight 20%

• Establish systems for data integrity check
• Lead data quality assessment conversations with the performance metrics and program management teams and surface any data quality flaws that need to be addressed.
• Collaborate with the data collection and management team, set expectations and participate in weekly and monthly team meetings.
• Identify areas that require new or improved systems and workflows and collaborate with the tech and performance metrics team to solve them.
• Provide timely feedback to the performance metrics team on data systems performance and communicate any system issues that needs to be resolved
• Review periodic monitoring reports and provide insights that enables quality and sound program and field operations decision making

Procurement and procurement policies compliance  30%

• Develop and execute procurement plans and ensure that all programs procurement support and delivery is a top priority
• Implement the procurement policy and strategy and promote purchasing best practices to drive a culture of prudence in resource utilization and management.
• Ensure procurement processes are complete, accurate, documented and in  compliance with relevant laws and Educate! Policies
• Ensure that vendor files and documentation is complete with all relevant information
• Anticipate procurement needs to pre-select competitive vendors, and create systems to track and strategically guard against common procurement challenges
• Liaise with user departments to prepare monthly and quarterly procurement plans to ensure timely closure of procurement needs.
• Coordinate the awards to the best bidder and draft a contract for the selected vendor.
• Ensure that standard operating procedures for the procurement function are understood and applied by staff.
• Lead the process of prequalification of service providers in anticipation of procurement needs
• Build and maintain a strong E! relationship with vendors that is mutually beneficial and drives Educate!’s goals of getting the best value in the market
• Promote the Educate! Ethics Guide principles and ensure that staff understand the dictates of these principles.
• Ensure vendor contracts have complete specifications and invoices paid promptly.
• Lead the negotiation of contract terms on a range of central contracts and to monitor performance against these contracts.
• Seek and act on feedback from end users on the quality of products delivered and general service levels to ensure value for money.
• Formally and proactively communicate and advise budget holders and administration managers on possible areas of cost reduction.

Qualifications

• Experience working in a company or organization that has experienced growth – adopting new systems and structures as part of the growth.
• Experience managing medium to large-sized operational teams at scale and balancing multiple priorities
• Comfortable working with data, numbers, and reports with basic budget management experience
• Strong orientation to team culture and cross-functional work.
• Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree with at least 6 years of operations leadership experience
• A good fit with our Five Cultural Tenets (see “What is Educate! About?” Below; learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here.

Terms

• Compensation will be competitive for the social enterprise sector and commensurate with experience.
• Benefits include a generous vacation policy and medical insurance.
• This position will be based in Kigali, Rwanda with periodic field travels.

Why You Will Brag About Working At Educate!

• We’ve got the impact.
• Educate! is designed for scale. We quadrupled operations in 2014, going from 54 to more than 200 schools served. We carefully measure our outcomes, and — here’s the best part — we are maintaining quality at four times the size.
• We believe in local leadership — 96% of our staff is African.
• Our model has gone nationwide in Uganda — Educate!’s model is now incorporated into the national curriculum and exams, impacting many thousands more students than we can reach directly.
• Educate is a well-oiled learning machine. We built our model by methodically testing hundreds of assumptions and we are constantly experimenting, evaluating, and improving.
• We’re honored that luminaries and leaders like Oliver Wonekha, the Ugandan Ambassador to the US, and Ann Veneman, a former Secretary of Agriculture and head of Unicef, believe in us enough to have joined our advisory board.

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