Header

Operations Director

Educate! is seeking an ambitious, energetic professional to join Educate!’s Uganda leadership team and serve as its Operations Director. The Operations Director will play a key role in continuing Educate!’s fast growth from zero staff in early 2008 to 32 today, as it prepares to incorporate its social entrepreneurship and leadership program into the national curriculum of Uganda, reaching as many as 100,000 students per year.

Reporting to the Uganda Country Director, the Operations Director will be a thought partner in addressing strategic challenges the organization will face as it transitions into a growth mode: How does Educate! maintain the distinctive results achieved to date while pursuing growth? What’s the best way to build our leadership team and talent pipeline? What are the best income generating activities for Educate! to invest in over the next year? Which operating systems need to be updated if we doubled our number of students? What is a successful local fundraising strategy in a developing country such as Uganda?
Overview of Educate!

Educate! unlocks the potential of African youth to solve the greatest challenges facing their communities.  Our model is exponential empowerment – investing long-term in youth so they can positively impact many others. Â

Educate! provides a proven mix of a social entrepreneurship and leadership course, long term mentoring, and an alumni program that helps high school students start enterprises. Today, Educate! is working with 1,300 diverse youth across Uganda and developing a model that can be replicated across Africa.

Educate! has been backed by Echoing Green, the leading venture philanthropy fund, won the Ashoka Changemakers Quality Education in Africa award, received first place in the Pan African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education, and was recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of 100 Brilliant Companies of 2009.

Cultural Fit

In order to thrive at Educate!, a candidate must:

Excel in an entrepreneurial, rapidly changing, uncertain and emotionally demanding environment with little direction

Exhibit commitment to the professional development of him/herself, and the mentoring and empowerment of those around him/her, believing in everyone’s ability to lead

Eagerly jump on opportunities to go beyond expectations and solve new challenges by developing necessary skills

Fit into Educate!’s “family of friends” culture where strong personal relationships are a must and the average age is 25

Performance Objectives

Manage monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system: Working with the M&E manager, use Salesforce as a database to streamline data collection, design questions and evaluation tools with program staff, and participate in interviews and focus groups with current students and alumni.

Operational Support: Working with the office manager, execute Educate!’s financial management and accountability process, with an emphasis on continuing to improve Educate!’s money management process. Support operations team with various day-to-day activities such as taxes, procurement, and reimbursements, and do this effectively while juggling a variety of different tasks.

Professional development: Working with leadership team, develop and implement internal management training program for all staff, and spend time with staff individually and in small groups developing time management, computer, communication skills, etc….

Create and implement earned income strategy: Determine potential of existing earned income activities, network and research to explore new opportunities, and create a business plan for worthwhile ventures. In 2011, double earned income revenue to $10,000.

Develop and implement fundraising strategy: Manage four person fundraising team, develop fundraising strategy in Uganda, and make recommendations for opportunities to pursue. Develop contacts and build partnerships with relevant foundations, corporations, embassies, and multilateral institutions operating in Uganda, with goal of raising $17,500 in 2011.

Support strategic planning: Based on both internal evaluation of Educate! and review of successful external orgs, make recommendations to leadership team on key strategic issues related to scaling impact: recruiting and developing talent, scaling financial management and operations systems, maintaining programmatic quality with scale, and retaining core internal culture with growth.

Terms and Compensation

The position will begin ASAP and will last for a year with the possibility of renewal for a second year’s contract.

The Operations Director position receives a living stipend. Educate! will also reimburse for visas, local or travel health insurance, and all Educate! related expenses such as travel, hotels, and office supplies.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter addressed to Barbara Atukunda at http://www.experienceeducate.org/apply. Please email questions to jobs@experienceeducate.org.