Chief of Staff to the CEO at Educate!

Job Description

Educate! works to transform education in Africa to teach youth to solve poverty for themselves and their communities. Educate! provides youth with skills training in leadership, entrepreneurship and workforce readiness along with mentorship to start real businesses at school.

Performance Objectives

Enhance CEO Effectiveness

Proactively look for ways to improve and elevate CEO effectiveness. Potential areas of work include: Help CEO identify top priorities, strategically align his time with those, and revisit them regularly to assess progress Support CEO in culture builder role with initiatives that drive culture leadership and modeling Improving speed and quality of CEO decision-making. Build tools, frameworks and resources that bring the CEO’s thinking to life within the organization. Ensure CEO has information he needs when brought into different decision-making processes. Ensure CEO initiatives get executed to completion by effectively managing schedules and follow-ups.

Manage Key Initiatives

The Chief of Staff will drive key CEO-led initiatives that contribute to org growth and development. Example initiatives include: Build out resources and tools for Educate! to formalize how it supports an ecosystem of values aligned, African-led organizations, including building our prototype Learning Lab. Advance org adoption of AI practices into daily operations, and partner with Director of Tech on select AI initiatives. Build org climate change strategy and how it affects cross-cutting aspects of our products and strategy.

​​​​​​​ Strategic Org Building with the CEO

Educate!’s CEO loves building systems for effective and culturally aligned scale. The Chief of Staff will partner with him and key functional leaders to accelerate the build of those systems and collaborate with key functions (People, Finance) to support their implementation. Key areas you will engage with are: Culture and People Systems Build: Partner with Director of People, head of Talent Acquisition and other key leaders to help develop and implement innovative systems that maintain and strengthen Educate!’s distinct culture as we scale. Finance Systems Build: Collaborate with the CFO and finance leaders to create scalable finance systems that support Educate!’s growth. Other Initiatives: Work closely with the CEO to identify, prioritize, and implement new initiatives to enhance organizational performance.

​​​​​​​ Support Org Operating Health

Work with the COO, CEO and others to ensure the operating health of the organization and an effective operating cadence. Areas of focus include: Ensure the core aspects of our strategic plan are communicated consistently and reinforced to the organization. Leadership team operating rhythm and cohesion Support the execution and improvement of the current operating cadence, including org and division level OKR setting and periodic review, strategic planning, investment committee meetings (Educate!’s version of quarterly business reviews), and experimenting with new structures to improve org wide management. Help scheduled and organize leadership team gatherings and retreats

​​​​​​​ Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree and at least 3-7 years of professional experience. Please note we are more focused on finding someone with the right skills and excitement for this role, rather than someone with a set number of years or specific experiences. Consequently, we are open to considering candidates with a wide range of backgrounds and seniority to ensure we find the right fit. Some experience in management consulting or high growth startups would be an asset but is not required An orientation towards culture and people-first organizations Strong curiosity, open-mindedness, and a desire to learn about the best practices of the highest performing organizations. Strategic and flexible thinker, data-driven and analytical in approach to solving problems Excels at building authentic relationships and networks; able to build buy-in from multiple stakeholders and influence others to achieve outcomes See this First Round Review article on the Chief of Staff role and different designs of the role. Educate! is looking for the 2nd type – a “mid-career, director-level hire”. Please note our hope is for someone to stay longer than suggested in the article. Fits our Five Culture Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here

​​​​​​​ Terms

The role is based alongside the CEO in Nairobi, Kenya. Remote with travel could be considered for the right candidate. Compensation will be competitive and based on experience. Health insurance will be included. The position reports to the CEO.