Associate Director - Africa Regional Office

Job Title: Associate Director, Africa Regional Office         

 

Company  Name: Rockefeller Foundation                                                        

 

Location:  Nairobi, Kenya. 

 

The Rockefeller Foundation is searching for an entrepreneurial and ambitious results- focused individual to support the development and management of Foundation Initiatives. The position serves as the lead Generalist in Africa, reporting directly to the Managing Director for the Africa Regional Office. As an Associate Director you will have opportunity to work together with partners and grantees, to catalyze and scale transformative innovations creating unlikely partnerships to span sectors and geographies. Initially, this position will provide management and leadership support for the Digital Jobs Africa (DJA) team as it moves into an exciting expansion period, as well as Smart Power Africa. This role is based in Nairobi, Kenya and is a fixed term three year contract.

 

You may be the ideal candidate for this role if you thrive working within a team structure, sharing information and insights, and engaging in ongoing intellectual exchange. You must be comfortable building bridges between academia, non-profit, government and corporate sectors. You should have experience in conducting and analyzing research, and in planning and implementing international programs and projects.

 

Duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Under the direction of the Managing Director, help link and at times coordinate activities between different areas of the Foundation's work. Identify connections, interdependencies, and potential disconnects
• Designing and implementing the supporting frameworks, processes, and tools for strategic and results-based management of program initiatives (e.g., lifecycle and portfolio management)
• Conducting analyses that inform decision-making regarding initiative inflection points within and between Search, Development, and Execution stages

1. Deal effectively with unexpected complex challenges that arise inevitably in any initiative
2. Effectively “tee up” strategic decisions for senior leaders (e.g., choices under uncertainty, risk management issues, etc.)
3. Manage timely execution of select internal team processes (e.g., team reviews, budget cycles, strategy soaks and review processes)
4. Set agendas for meetings, identify pre-reads and keep track of follow-up

• Prepare written updates for the Board of Trustees

External

• Representing the Foundation in diverse communities, including speaking engagements, attending conferences and participating in other key internal and external meetings
• Network building and connecting grantees, partners, and other stakeholders
• Build the influence and leverage of RF work to achieve greater impact. This includes facilitating and managing partnerships/relationships with other donors and other actors to advance the strategy
• Establish advisory relationships with external mid-level managers; respected by external senior leaders

Partnership Development

• Build, prioritize and manage a pipeline of prospective partners
• Actively source new partners for the Foundation and manage a portfolio of existing relationships
• Help shape the broader strategy for engaging partners at scale as effort matures
• Design and supervise implementation of team processes and tools that support external engagement (e.g., CRM)
• Ensure broader effort is achieving its objectives and on track to achieve impact; drive decision-making and course corrections when needed

Strategic Planning

• Ensuring initiatives in execution have a solid Project Management Plan in place
• Ensuring initiatives in execution embed the common elements of RF initiatives in their plan
• Assisting MD and teams to set up their monitoring plan, and a work that ties back to its Results Based Management (RBM) framework, to the team's and the Foundation's strategy
• Supporting and facilitating the team and creating capacity for the VP, MD and the team
• Standardizing best practices and performance across initiatives and allow for easier learning across and from previous projects
• Helping MD and deliver initiatives on time and on budget

Job Requirements

 

Education, Training and Experience

• Master's degree with a minimum of 8 years professional experience, with significant experience in private sector engagement for social impact, ideally in a relevant field /institution, with experience of employing market-based solutions to address complex social and development challenges
• Leadership and management experience in leading the delivery of complex operations and program strategy with a multi-disciplinary team, working with multiple external stakeholders, across locations and time zones
• Strong understanding of market based solutions, ideally with experience engaging with investors/donor communities in Africa
• Deep understanding of political, economic and social trends in Africa, with an ability to work across different sectors in the continent
• Strong project management skills, deadline management, sense of responsibility and accountability and the ability to effectively multi-task.
• Powerful conceptual and analytical skills, with a track record in using data and analytics to inform dynamic strategy implementation, priority setting, and decision-making
• Experience in communicating externally, either in large groups, or in smaller engagements for representational and influencing purposes
• Ability to travel frequently, particularly within Africa

Compensation

 

The Rockefeller Foundation offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience. The Foundation provides a very generous package of benefits.

 

About the Rockefeller Foundation

 

For more than 100 years, The Rockefeller Foundation's mission has been to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Today, The Rockefeller Foundation pursues this mission through dual goals: advancing inclusive economies that expand opportunities for more broadly shared prosperity, and building resilience by helping people, communities and institutions prepare for, withstand, and emerge stronger from acute shocks and chronic stresses. To achieve these goals, The Rockefeller Foundation works at the intersection of four focus areas – advance health, revalue ecosystems, secure livelihoods, and transform cities – to address the root causes of emerging challenges and create systemic change. Together with partners and grantees, The Rockefeller Foundation strives to catalyze and scale transformative innovations that create unlikely partnerships that span sectors.

 

The Foundation currently maintains offices in New York, a study and conference center in Bellagio, Italy, and regional offices in Bangkok and Nairobi.

 

Programmatic Work

 

Since 2009, the Foundation has structured its programmatic work through a portfolio of interconnected Initiatives. Initiatives are intended to unfold through four phases. The Foundation scans the landscape in its four issue areas to identify pressing problems in the field. The Search phase is usually a short-term (four month) exploration, largely through research and convenings, of a problem the Foundation might pursue. It typically involves an assessment of the system impacting the problem and the development of a hypothesis about potential solutions. The Development phase (which unfolds over one to two years) tests potential interventions through demonstration projects and further research. The Execution phase, which requires Foundation Board approval, runs for eight to ten years with a defined strategic plan and budget.

 

The Rockefeller Foundation is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity and to compliance with all federal, state, and local laws concerning employment discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. To this end, the Foundation ensures equal opportunity to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, marital status, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, lawful alien status, physical, mental, and medical disability, veteran status or liability for service in the United States Armed Forces.

 

The Rockefeller Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer

 

Contact Us: chowley@rockfound.org