Bridge Liberia

In 2016, Liberia’s President and its Ministry of Education announced Partnership Schools for Liberia (PSL), an innovative public private partnership designed to transform the primary public education system. Eight education providers - with proven track records in delivering high-quality education - were paired with public primary schools across Liberia; while teachers remained on the Government payroll. After a change of national Government, PSL became the Liberian Education Advancement Programme (LEAP).

LEAP is now in its sixth year; supporting 300 schools overall across the country; within that we support 60,800 students. Our schools are based in some of the most remote counties, such as Maryland in the south-east.

Government teachers have been re-trained, supported and equipped to succeed in the classroom. Four Independent Studies and Randomised Control Trials have shown the efficacy of the programme. For us there was a statistically significant improvement in learning outcomes. In a gold standard RCT, students supported in our programme were found to benefit by an equivalent of 2.5 years more of learning in just 3 years.

LEAP was designed to be self-sustaining once the Ministry of Education raises its education budget to $100 a child per year; until that moment it remains reliant on philanthropic support.

Today, we work across the country, in all of Liberia’s 15 counties, to ensure that all children have access to a high quality education and that Sustainable Development Goal 4 focussed on Quality Education becomes a reality for all children in Liberia.

You will join a group of dynamic and passionate Liberians taking concrete action to help address the education crisis in Liberia and ensure a better future for the children of Liberia.

Operations

Our schools have to operate in the most efficient and effective way possible to enable us to provide life changing education that is affordable to families living below the poverty line, and to governments with limited resources. This means there is no room for waste and inefficiencies. The Operations Team is responsible for the design, execution and management of the entire sequence of processes required to service the activities of each school, and for providing that support at scale in the most cost efficient and effective way possible. Operations is the nerve center of the company and is the interface that brings all school-level support functions together. Our mission is to provide a better service for our parents and governments, a better experience for our employees, and a stable platform on which we continue to scale our work.

About the role

The Director, Operations is responsible for setting up the processes, systems and staff to ensure operational performance of the entire network of schools under management. This includes Programme Management, Supply Chain, IT Operations and the Resolution Team.

Programme Management - programme management includes but is not limited to inventory management at both the warehouse and in schools, pupil enrollment and attendance confirmations and analysis to ensure accurate pupil data, and instructional systems oversight to ensure school staff have necessary tools available to them, and are using them.
The Resolution Team - The Resolution Team is the principal team that leads the resolution of all issues that a school leader, teacher, or parent might encounter. The team acts as a support hub, ensuring that multiple channels of communication are available for school staff, support staff, and parents to communicate what they observe at a school, as well as ensuring that critical operational updates get communicated outwards. The team oversees the complete resolution of all issues reported, either through direct resolution at the point of interaction, or by working with other departments if further technical support or expertise is needed. The team also acts as an early warning system to the programmes, through escalating emergency situations, looking for patterns among issues reported and bringing them to the notice of the management. It is the nexus of all problem-solving, and is critical to ensuring that all issues in service delivery are handled effectively and transparently.
IT Operations - ensures last mile delivery of Technology, meaning that all school staff, field staff, and support staff have the functioning Technology that they need to excel at their jobs, including IT asset management and technical support for software and hardware issues. IT Operations also oversees the technical infrastructure that enables and connects our support offices. It is also the only Technology department with a direct presence in each of our programmes, meaning that it is also the key conduit and primary advocate for all aspects of Technology, ensuring the work done by the other Technology departments delivers on its potential and helps coordinate with the Technology shared services teams.
Supply Chain - ensuring procurement of needed materials for school programs, and the shipment of those materials to schools. Depending on program needs and program year, this need may be extensive or very light. The majority of procured materials are print materials, where primary coordination is managed by the Print Production team within Shared Services, with whom Operations collaborates for program needs.

Across all functions within Operations, it is critical that continuous data collection and analysis is used to quality assure and drive process innovation and improvements.

This is a high-impact role for someone who loves standing up systems and processes from the ground up and taking on challenges on a large scale.

What you will do

Research and determine optimal supply chain networks in new territory (logistics, materials warehousing and distribution channels, and then manage this supply chain.
Set up the Resolution Team and Program Management Operations, including hiring and training personnel as needed.
Manage our core programme of work within Operations, including inventory management across all schools, pupil enrollment and attendance data and confirmation, and various systems for ensuring instructional excellence at schools, which is dependent on hardware and software access and support.
Manage a diverse support team.
Work with and leverage team support from the global teams to ensure operations are aligned to global processes and systems.
Be responsible for all operational performance indicators of our academies, including but not limited to:

Improving adherence and compliance to existing systems and processes
Striving for operational excellence in a resource-constrained environment
Continually iterating and improving systems
Building a zero-tolerance environment for fraud and shrinkage
Learn, reinvent, optimize and manage every aspect of the operations of the program and the necessary headquarters support, from supplies management to classroom instruction to cleaning to query resolution
Create highly-structured, insightful processes, systems and recommendations with a data-driven approach; and, alongside senior executives, critique and modify the operational components of the current operating model.
Do or lead every job in the entire academy operations and support to some extent. No job is too big or too small.

What you should have

At least 8+ years of post-undergraduate, full time work experience
Work experience managing a multi-unit retail environment
Work experience in emerging markets
Work experience, preferably in operations, as an employee at any company that has rapidly grown in headcount and number of locations, e.g., large scale retail
Work experience in a fast-paced environment with dynamic priorities and demands
Work experience developing and managing a culture of total focus on customer satisfaction
Work experience drastically improving the productivity and reducing cost of a product or service
Work experience managing and coordinating several teams to deliver on a tight schedule
Record of building data-driven operational systems
Record of engaging in and leading cross-functional teams and initiatives
Record of strong academic performance from a leading undergraduate and, if attended, graduate institution
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Excellent organizational, leadership, analytical problem solving and strategic thinking skills
High integrity with zero tolerance for any unethical business practices

You Are Also

A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, we work in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust

#LI-ONSITE Monrovia, Liberia

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