Policy & Partnerships - Principal Strategist Tanzania

Position Overview

Educate! is a non-profit social enterprise looking for a Principal Strategist to join the team as a senior leader working on system change and innovation projects with government partners, with the ultimate goal of advancing skills-based learning experiences for youth through national education systems. In this role, you will work with Educate!’s Policy and Partnerships (P&P) team in a 'startup' mode, driving a diverse portfolio of high-level projects focused on policy, system change, and innovation. Your work will help create enabling education policies and structures that advance youth skills development through collaboration with government partners.

You will be able to demonstrate a combination of expertise in learning and systems change to provide leadership on product integration into government systems for sustainability. You will also lead the execution and creation of new strategies to continuously innovate on student-facing products that are at scale. You will provide high-quality education expertise across our Education System Solutions and School Solutions work in the region to build repeatable and impactful models. You will work in collaboration with governments to solve the mismatch between secondary education and life after school, as we work towards our organizational vision of measurably impacting 1 million students across Africa each year.

The right person for this role will:

• Have experience in learning and systems change theory: well-versed with adult learning theory, behavioral change and systems change theories to guide the design process
• Have strong strategic communication and collaboration skills
• Have a track record in driving behavior change programs with strong data-driven decision making abilities and a strong focus on driving positive learning outcomes. 
• Have a genuine passion for working within both government education systems and youth to create a broad and sustainable impact on youth.
• Experience in running experiments, product development processes, or human-centered design processes is a plus.

Sound like you or someone you know? Learn more on our careers page or apply for the role at this link.

About Educate! 

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined. 

At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent. 

Educate! prepares youth in Africa to learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by: 

1) introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and 

2) delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 390,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations, and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows. 

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy,  #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth. 

Performance Objectives

Strategy and roadmap development

• Lead the definition of products and initiatives with governments, including scoping concept notes, roadmaps and learning agendas, in line with Solution Line strategies.
• Ensure products and innovations address policymakers’ most significant pain points, whilst optimizing solutions to serve youth challenges and needs.
• Apply an iterative approach to strategy development with government, responding to changing policy contexts and payer requirements, continuously leading alignment across stakeholders through complex change initiatives.
• Define technical standards and frameworks for Educate!’s policy work with governments, drawing on international benchmarks as well as user-generated research. 
• Connect products and initiatives with broader organizational goals, including cross-functional insights from wider product teams.

Effective communication and coordination

• Communicate product vision, strategy and updates clearly to internal and external stakeholders with regular reporting on status, including shared work plans with government stakeholders.
• Lead external workshops and internal pre-meets to drive collaborative decision-making and problem-solving processes, working in collaboration with our Partnerships team to ensure the progression of our advocacy goals.
• Drive product initiatives through to completion by proactively convening stakeholders, seeking input and unblocking barriers to progress.
• Conduct product and project retrospectives with high level government partners and internally to evaluate strategy success and identify improvement areas.

Policy co-design and systems change

• Apply adult learning, behavior and systems change theories in co-designing products and projects for policymakers, ensuring a clear end-user focus for youth.
• Use Educate’s co-design methodology to integrate Educate!’s technical and product standards into government policies, systems and structures.
• Direct the development of government co-design workshop materials, ensuring a high impact government user experience that progresses our advocacy agenda and develops government capacity.
• Provide education technical support at the highest government levels to shape policy decisions, working across Educate!’s policy products and frameworks including project-based learning, curriculum and assessment, and data system strengthening.
• Establish feedback loops with government stakeholders and end-users for continuous product improvement.

Evidence-driven design and research 

• Design and test new Educate! products and initiatives with education system actors (students, teachers, leaders, policymakers), ensuring they are evidence-based and generate data and insights to inform future investment.
• Develop and lead collaborative learning agendas and experiments with government on live cycles of user research and ideas testing, to inform policy formulation and implementation.
• Proactively drive the use of evidence from E!’s products to create actionable insights for E!, government and payer stakeholders, including policy briefs, guidance and frameworks to ensure actionable follow up impacting students in the classroom.

Advancing Education System Solutions strategy

• Partner with the CEdIo to set clear design parameters for product scalability and sustainability within government systems.
• Partner with the CEdIO and senior leadership to improve the use of structured product and innovation approaches across our government work.
• Create high quality knowledge products such as Policy Briefs, concept notes, tools, frameworks and thought leadership, enhancing the value created by senior P&P leaders for government and funders.
• Lead high stakes or high profile government and funder partnership initiatives (such as study tours, policy dialogues, co-design workshops, launch events) in collaboration with Educate!’s advocacy experts, External Relations team and senior leaders, ensuring strong project leadership and strategic shaping to meet multiple stakeholder priorities.

Examples of potential projects include:

• Developing the strategy for supporting a government partner with their Learning Management System for teachers, ensuring a data-led approach and continuous improvement from user testing.
• Designing and testing a new District Taskforce platform where local leaders analyze the implementation of skills-based reforms into schools;
• Writing Policy Briefs for government on actionable evidence in a live priority area;
• Partnering with government to design a Roadmap for sustainable government policies and structures to support Volunteer Teachers;
• Setting up a Working Group across multiple agencies, to deliver a short term initiative (such as a Policy Dialogue event or study tour) or a long term innovation and change (e.g. improved teacher skills in project-based assessment);
• Technical oversight of a stakeholder and landscape mapping report on data systems;;
• Acting as a thought partner to the CEdIO on a thought leadership campaign.

Characteristics and traits

• Strategic Thinking: Ability to envision the big picture, plan long-term strategies, and anticipate future challenges and opportunities.
• Leadership Skills: Strong leadership qualities are crucial, including the ability to inspire, motivate, and guide cross-functional teams towards a common vision.
• Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills are necessary for articulating the product vision, strategy, and goals clearly to stakeholders at all levels.
• Problem-Solving Ability: Adept at identifying problems, analyzing complex situations, and devising effective solutions, particularly in addressing user needs and aligning product goals with organizational objectives.
• Collaborative Nature: Must excel in working collaboratively with diverse teams, fostering an environment of cooperation and mutual respect, and effectively managing stakeholder relationships.
• Adaptability and Resilience: Capable of adapting to changing circumstances, resilient in the face of setbacks, and flexible in approach to meet evolving project demands and market conditions.

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., education).
• Senior leadership experience in a relevant field such as social impact, innovation, change management or policy reform.
• Experience working in a portfolio setting, overseeing multiple initiatives e.g. internal or external consultancy or product/ projects environment.
• High level design experience in education policy, education innovation with government, education system change, or solution design for complex user-focused education programs.
• Experience in technology and innovation in the social impact and/or public sector would be an advantage.
• Strong networks in Tanzania across the education and social impact sector.
• Proven experience in product leadership, strategy development, and user-centered design preferred
• Strong understanding of organizational goals and the ability to connect them to product strategies.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to facilitate dialogue and ensure alignment across teams.
• Knowledge of user research methodologies and the ability to apply them effectively.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Passion for Educate!’s mission is a must. We value diverse perspectives and encourage applications from people with a variety of backgrounds.
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here

Terms 

•  Compensation will be competitive and commensurate with experience 
•  Benefits include medical insurance 
• This position will be based in Tanzania

What Is Educate! About?

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.

1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We never forget that Educate! exists to impact youth. We are purpose-driven. We obsess over impact daily and if it doesn’t lead to impact, we want nothing to do with it. We prioritize interacting with and listening to youth. We design and manage the organization to ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences that youth value. 
2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results. When we know what needs to be done, we do it. We don’t wait to be asked and we don’t stop at what is asked of us. We look for solutions as much as we identify problems.
3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded. We know there is always another way and we are excited to learn about it. We continuously look for resources of all kinds from multiple disciplines. We try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views - We say what we think while treating each other well. We believe that all people have the same inherent value and that diverse ideas and open dialogue fuel excellence. We constantly strive to create an environment where everyone can and does express themselves freely. We support and respect each other as people and colleagues. We act as one team: We prioritize the organization's mission and goals over team or individual goals.
5. We have the Startup Mindset - We will always keep innovating to grow our impact. We aspire to be game-changing. We never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.” We question the status quo in our industry. We move fast and embrace change to move towards our long-term vision. We’re not afraid of failure. We interrogate anything that slows us down. 

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do. 

Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community.  In creating this environment, we encourage people from a 

Child Safeguarding: Educate! is committed to child-safe/youth-safe recruitment, selection and screening. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programs. The successful candidate will be required to provide a satisfactory Certificate of Good Conduct as a condition of employment. We reserve the right to decline to offer employment to an individual or terminate an employment contract with an employee that may pose a risk to children and youth.