Regional Strategy and Operations Lead at Teach For All

Teach For All is a global network of over 40 independent, locally led and governed partner organizations and a global organization that works to accelerate the progress of the network. Each network partner recruits and develops promising future leaders to teach in their nations’ under-resourced schools and communities and, with this foundation, to work with others, inside and outside of education, to ensure all children are able to fulfill their potential. Teach For All’s global organization works to increase the network’s impact by capturing and spreading learning, facilitating connections among partners, accessing global resources, and fostering the leadership development of partner staff, teachers, and alumni.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Regional Strategy and Operations Lead - Africa Region

Ref #: 610
Location: Flexible within the region; Johannesburg, Accra, Lagos, Nairobi or Kampala preferred

Position Summary

• Teach For All is looking for an independent, motivated, proactive, highly organized leader to join the Africa regional team. This role sits at the center of team operations in the Africa region and is largely focused on ensuring regional team systems are set up to strongly support the regional team and partner organizations across Africa
• The right candidate will demonstrate exceptional organization, communication, problem solving and project management skills
• This position reports to and works very closely with the Head of the Africa region in a ‘chief of staff’ type capacity supporting the execution of strategy and coordinating team and partner engagement regionally and globally as needed
• Currently Teach For All’s partners in the Africa region include Teach For Uganda, Teach for Nigeria and Teach for Ghana with multiple partners on the path to joining the network in the coming year.
• The core responsibilities of this position include designing and managing operational systems for regional communications, knowledge and resource sharing, data collection and analysis, and the successful coordination of the regional team and partners
• The role is critical in supporting the Head of the Region and all regional team members to ensure strong, effective collaboration in the name of high impact engagement with our partners. In addition, this role may include responsibilities for supporting and facilitating engagement with our early stage partners.

Outcomes
An excellent Regional Strategy and Operations Lead will:

• Support progress towards Teach For All’s 25 Year vision and 10 Year Intended Outcomes
• Design, implement and manage the operational and communications systems that support the Head of Region as well as the regional team to plan and execute high impact engagements with Teach For All partners across the region
• Support prompt and strategic resource delivery to partners helping to drive increased partner satisfaction results as measured on the network survey
• Support the Head of Region in fostering a positive team culture on the regional team and improving internal staff survey results with a particular emphasis on the extent to which staff feel they have the tool and systems they need to be successful, and they extent to which they feel connected to and supported by their peers
• Ensure accuracy in forecasting and management of the regional team budget that allow for informed budget allocation decisions that are strategic and resourceful given the teams’ goals, priorities and context and avoids significant under/overspend
• Maintain strong relationships with regional staff and global Teach For All staff
• Build key relationships with partner staff across the region to better identify their needs, codify their best practices and continue to deepen their investment in the value of the global network

Responsibilities
The Regional Strategy and Operations Lead acts as:

The “go to person” for the region - 50%:

• Supports the Head of Region in setting regional and cross regional priorities and manages up to ensure the team is on track to making significant progress against objectives and goals
• Designs and maintains systems that will support the effective and smooth operations of the regional teams
• Regularly manages projects including data analysis that strives to improve how the team functions and ultimately drives further impact in our support to partners
• Brings robust understanding of the Africa context, history and culture necessary to consider as we think about collective support
• Maintains big picture view of Africa regional needs, data, short term/long term plan of support and evidence of impact
• Works closely with the central Director, Regional Strategy and Operations and proactively contributes learnings from the Africa region for cross regional learning and collaboration
• Serves as a liaison between internal global teams and partners in the region where additional context and support for effective communication may be necessary
• Supports team wide administrative needs (gathering contact information, CEO birthdays, calendar and scheduling)

A ‘Connector’ for TFAll partners in the region - 30%:

• Identifies new potential high impact connections and collaboration opportunities between partner staff to facilitate peer to peer support opportunities
• Fosters and supports strong connections between local partner staff and Teach For All staff across diverse contexts within and across the region, for the purposes of exchanging knowledge and resources and facilitating high impact support in the region
• Plans and executes on regional communications to enable connectivity within and across the region (e.g. calls, meetings, email communications, virtual engagements)

A culture builder- 10%:

• Supports analysis of regional team data on organizational strength and works closely with the Head of Region and regional team to adjust internal strategy accordingly
• Leads on planning of culture building activities for the team and region
• Ensures strong communication within the regional team and between the regional team and global teams at Teach For All
• Support the Head of Region in planning and execution of virtual and in person regional retreats
• Manages planning and execution of regional team calls and other routine team communications (newsletters, trackers etc.)

A knowledge guru - 10%:

• Builds and maintains systems that support knowledge and resource sharing within the Africa team, with partners and with other teams in the Teach For All organization
• Responds to requests for information and proactively shares information strategically with team members and partners
• Collaborates with partners to collect data for  impact assessment, analyzes regional data, reports trends and collaborates with the Head of Region and regional team to make data driven adjustments to regional strategy
• Supports budget planning and management, monitors and analyzes regional spend and supports the Head of Region in making decisions and recommendations on budget allocations when faced with competing priorities
• The Regional Strategy and Operations Lead reports to the Head of Region, and collaborates closely with members of the Africa regional team and other regions.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree. Master's Degree desirable.
• Minimum 5 years of work experience in operational role
• Proficiency in Microsoft Suite applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and the internet
• International work experience preferred
• Professional fluency in English required

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Proactive, highly independent, and responsible, even when confronted with ambiguity
• Strong team player with ability to work with multiple stakeholders with different working styles, orientations and preferences
• Ability to prioritize, multi-task, and build systems to increase efficiency
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to identify trends, analyze data and problem solve effectively
• Ability to build relationships and communicate in a way that is sensitive to cultural and ideological diversity
• Ability to demonstrate sound judgment, taking into consideration data, relationships, and context
• Ability to be fluid, flexible in thinking and open to change
• Deeply committed to the mission, vision and values of Teach For All:
  • Sense of Possibility: We believe in the extraordinary potential of all children and in our collective potential to realize our aspirations, and so we act with courage, boldness, urgency and perseverance in pursuit of transformational impact.
  • Locally Rooted and Globally Informed: We value the enormous assets in the communities where we work, immerse ourselves in local perspectives, needs and opportunities, and work in deep partnership with students, families, educators, and community members—all while also seeking to build our understanding of what is possible based on insights from outside of our communities and countries.
  • Constant Learning: We commit to continuous education, reflection and improvement as the foundation for the transformational leadership we strive to develop.
  • Diversity & Inclusiveness: We seek to ensure full participation of people from all cultures and backgrounds, and we believe those who have themselves experienced the inequities we’re working to address should guide and lead this work.
  • Interdependence: In recognition of our shared humanity and interconnectedness, we work with generosity and compassion to help each other develop and grow.

Work Authorization

• Candidates for this position must possess local work authorization in order to be considered.

Travel and Hours:

• Some travel expected, roughly 5%, mostly within the region with occasional travel out-of-region to attend Teach For All global conferences
• Given that we work across different time zones, some non-traditional hours for early or later calls are an expectation of this role.

Compensation

• Salary for this position is competitive and depends on prior experience. In addition, a comprehensive benefits package is included.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online