Strategy & Impact Officer

Strategy & Impact Officer. Nairobi. Posting Date: 08/21/2024. Deadline: 09/06/2024

Role Title 

Officer, Strategy & Impact 

Reporting To

Director, Strategy & Impact 

Program/Tool/ Department/Unit Name

Strategy & Impact

About

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and inclusive democracies whose governments are accountable to their people. To achieve this mission, we provide thousands of grants every year to groups and individuals across the globe that work on the issues we focus on—promoting tolerance, transparency, and open debate. We also engage in strategic human rights litigation and impact investing, while incubating new ideas and engaging directly with governments and policymakers through advocacy to advance positive change 

Role Purpose

The Strategy and Impact function is in service of quality & performance withing Open Society’s operating model. It is enabled by a dynamic, cohesive, and results driven approach to strategy and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL). The Strategy and Impact unit is tasked with ensuring a consistent approach to strategy and MEL, and with leading/facilitating relevant change processes to support Open Society’s effectiveness internally and its impact and agility externally.

The unit is responsible for

High quality, effective methodological and technical support for strategy setting and execution : this includes guidance, training, facilitation, bespoke support as well as analyses and assessments based on objective criteria.

Standard setting and overview : setting clear benchmarks and expectations for what is required for strategy development and execution, MEL, data validity, and ensuring governance and oversight of related decisions, processes, and systems.

Learning across programs : to support continuous adaptation towards results and impact, a culture of critical reflection adaptation, and accountability, as well as strategic renewal.

Support for organizational effectiveness and performance : supporting the integration of programs and operations; taking lead of relevant change management processes; and contributing to driving an impact focused culture.

The Strategy and Impact Officer role is high-agency, individual contributor role interfacing across functions in the entire organization, acting as a facilitator, enabler and executor of strategy and impact focused work with programs and operations. The role also serves in the programmatic review secretariat, providing objective analyses and data reports to enable Open Society leadership to make the most informed strategic decisions.

The Officer, Strategy & Impact will help provide: 

Strong Strategy Support for Open Society’s operating model focused on impact Model: they will serve as a focal point for anyone pursuing an Opportunity/Program to provide guidance and support

Standard Setting & Overview: Based on clear benchmarks and expectations developed by the unit, the officer will help translate these requirements into services that can help Open Society staff understand what is required for strategy inputs, MEL, data validity, etc., to conduct oversight where necessary. The officer will help populate and ensure data consistency for dashboards and other analytic products that show the whole of work across the organization 

Rigorous Examination: the officer will maintain knowledge of and relationships with outsourced capacities needed to ensure highest quality of thinking is available to the network in strategy pursuit. They will help provide rigorous feedback to ensure adherence to standards

Key Responsibilities

As Officer of Strategy and Impact, you will:

Support with development, implementation, and monitoring of day-to-day tasks that ensure that Strategy & Impact helps catalyze and maintain the operating model with strong strategies for Opportunities that are based on impact and promising ideas on the frontiers of systems change 

Support the provision of services and guidance to the network that allows OSF to unleash potential and action the new vision to ensure the most competitive ideas succeed 

Provide individual support for Opportunity development; it will also provide support for all other programs, and embedded functions. 

Promote and support adherence to standards, criteria, and guidelines, including on MEL 

Be conversant in dashboards and other analytic products that the Strategy and Impact unit use to show cohesion, saturation, and innovation for the enterprise 

Work as a trusted partner to all parts of the network to ensure fidelity to the model, rigorous assessment of strategies, consistent support to teams that need strategy and impact support, and that OSF is flexible and capable of adapting and shifting—including based on effective learning-derived information 

People Responsibilities (Total Team/DRs)

None

Key internal relationships

Directors, Officers, Program Managers, Operations

Key external relationships

Strategy and impact leaders outside of OSF, including on foresight, MEL, complexity, systems change, consultants, etc., inside and outside of philanthropy

Qualifications

Essential :

Prefer experience in lieu of qualifications

University degree

Desirable:

Post graduate degree in a field related to open societies (human rights, democracy, development, economics etc.)

Experience 

Essential :

Substantial experience leading strategy development and execution, preferably in complex settings; and/ or leading design and execution of monitoring evaluation and learning frameworks preferably in complex settings; and/or experience applying/ integrating strategic foresight methodologies in complex settings.

Experience with data analytics, both qualitative and quantitative

Meeting/workshop and process facilitation

Desirable:

Report writing and data visualization

Change management

Culture change and culture building

Worked with a variety of sectors - public, private and NGO stakeholders

Building and maintaining networks of stakeholders related to varied strategy topics 

Work with consultants, researchers, writers, and other sectors, including for contracting and budgeting purposes

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Demonstrated effective time management, including with multiple stakeholders or other types of complex coordination 

Ability to generate, capture and organize information and knowledge, especially on topics of strategy development, foresight, analysis, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL)

Ability to take decisions and directions and convert tasks into consistent project planning

Skilled in drawing out patterns and communicating why the patterns are important for strategy, analysis, and MEL

Experience in budgeting, strategic analysis, and financial planning

Demonstrated record of success with teamwork and delegating tasks

Clear written communication and ability to edit with clarity and timeliness 

Personal Competencies: 

Advancing Diversity & Inclusion involves encouraging, respecting and seeking out diverse viewpoints and perspectives, ensuring everyone has an equal voice, and building workgroups that are broadly inclusive to support effective decision making and cultural transformation across the organization 

Looks outside OSF to stay relevant and adapts to changes in field(s) of expertise. Uses external networks to achieve positive outcomes for OSF 

Establishes goals, plans for contingencies, readjusts where appropriate, and takes responsibility delivering outcomes that have a positive impact. Balances risk/reward, and intellectual curiosity with pragmatism to get things done 

Encourages and seeks out innovative solutions and brings people on a journey constructively and empathetically 

Makes the best possible judgements based on financial and time availability 

Considers multiple options to achieve long-range goals, appropriately balancing risk and reward, selecting the best strategies for success 

Builds collaborative relationships inside OSF through the understanding and development of other's and own ideas. Uses appropriate means & tone of communication to convey messages, seeks input from others and ensures understanding

Languages:

An excellent knowledge of English.

Knowledge of other languages would be an asset