Human Resources Business Partner

Who We Are! 

🌍 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.

So far, we’ve impacted over 250,000 youth across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya—and the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa. Our team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer mentors is passionate about creating meaningful change. Plus, 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over five years! 🎉10+ alumni have started their organizations and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows. 

Global organizations like  Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy,  #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving have backed us and support our mission! 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’re on track to quadruple our reach and impact 400,000 youth annually. Want to join us on this journey?

Position Overview

Educate! is seeking a Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) to support a fast-growing global team, with offices in East Africa, the USA, and Europe (Netherlands, Spain, and the UK). This role reports to the Director of People and will collaborate closely with members of the executive and leadership teams, as well as the Head of People Programs and Engagement to cultivate high performance across the organization. 

This is an exciting and enriching opportunity for an experienced HRBP who easily adapts to changing environments, is a strong coach to guide leadership team members in addressing employee personnel challenges, can bring clarity and confidence to teams in moments of change, and enjoys working on a diverse portfolio of projects. Your expertise will be pivotal in propelling Educate!’s work as our team grows to meet our impact targets while maintaining our commitment to the growth and development of our team members as individuals.

Performance Objectives

Relationship Building

• Provide strategic guidance and tactical support to leadership team members of various departments, working across all of our global offices. This includes face-to-face, which may require travel from time to time, and remotely.
• Build and maintain healthy relationships with key stakeholders within your group and the larger organization.
• Coach and develop leaders and managers to improve their communication practices, hold team members accountable, have courageous (difficult) conversations, and inspire and influence their teams.

Change Management

• Proactive and hands-on project oversight of change management processes, often with a variety of stakeholders, that mitigates risks and anticipates and addresses areas of potential escalation. 
• Coaching leaders throughout the change process, including aspects such as project management of the change process, preparing communication materials, implementation, and collecting and integrating feedback.

Strategic Guidance 

• Work closely with leadership team members to address current and future talent needs, informing organizational design and succession planning.
• As needed, investigate workplace issues and work collaboratively with country-level HR Managers to address employee-related concerns and questions. 
• Understand organizational challenges and design or implement creative solutions with relevant stakeholders. 
• Share knowledge and insights with the wider people team to help shape best practices from a people perspective.
• Synthesize themes and observations to provide insights that contribute to the People Team’s overall understanding of the learning and development needs across the leadership and management levels.

Performance Management

• Work with the Director of People and Head of People Programs and Engagement to implement strategies to drive high performance and employee engagement.
• Promote positive employee relations in partnership with all members of the leadership team.
• Support leaders and managers in cultivating a high-performance culture, cultivating performance management experiences that are effective and empowering.
• Coach leaders and managers to proactively identify underperformance and address it professionally and swiftly.
• Guide leaders and managers to develop and implement staff retention, career growth and professional development, feedback, and succession strategies for their teams.

Qualifications

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a multicultural environment.
• 8 years experience working in an administrative function, with 4 of those being in an HR role, HRBP experience is required.
• Extremely organized and able to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment, juggling multiple competing priorities and responsibilities.
• Skilled at coaching managers to be effective with their team members.
• Ability to help guide organizational design with the leadership team and develop associated communications and change management. 
• Adaptive and able to quickly switch or entirely change activities to meet team needs
• Very high attention to detail.
• Exceptional judgment in maintaining confidentiality of employee and candidate information
• Have a clear and confident communication style to manage stakeholder expectations and to bring stakeholders along in changes across the organization or team.
• Must be curious and seek to learn and improve whilst instilling solutions wherever appropriate
• Comfortable collaborating and building relationships across all levels of the organization, especially with executive stakeholders. 
• Aligned with our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below) and learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here.

Location Details

• We prefer candidates based in East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda). We welcome applicants from other locations, including the USA and Europe (Netherlands, Spain and UK).
• We have a hybrid work philosophy! Teammates work from our offices twice per week and attend monthly team socials and culture-building events. 
• International travel will be required occasionally. 

What We Offer 💼

• A vibrant, mission-driven environment with a supportive and fun team.
• Flexibility— Hybrid work environment with at least 3 days in our awesome Nairobi office (If working from the Nairobi office)!
• Competitive salary based on experience.
• Healthcare coverage for you and your dependents, work laptop, Internet & call stipend
• Learning & growth opportunities
• This is a Fixed term  contract with a possibility of extension based on performance

Application Process: Rolling basis, interviews happening soon!

Our Culture & Tenets(Values) 🌱

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 of their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey. 

1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We are purpose-driven, focused on impact, and prioritize what truly matters. We listen to youth, design our efforts around their needs, and ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences they value.
2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results—proactively identifying problems and seeking solutions without waiting or stopping at what's requested.
3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded and continuously try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views - We value all individuals, believe diverse ideas and open dialogue drive excellence, foster a supportive and respectful environment where everyone can freely express themselves. We work as one team and prioritize the organization's mission over personal or team interests.
5. We have the Startup Mindset - We innovate relentlessly to grow our impact, we never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.”We constantly challenge the status quo, embrace change, and move quickly toward our vision. Unafraid of failure, we question anything that hinders progress.

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 variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team. 

We’re committed to ensuring all candidates are screened for child and youth safety. As part of the process, you’ll need to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct. Educate! reserves the right to withdraw employment offers if any risks to youth are identified.