Field Operations Manager, Uganda

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!, an award-winning non-profit social enterprise, is looking for experienced, highly enterprising, and proactive candidates to fill the Field Operations Manager, E!EXP Position in Uganda. The successful candidates will join our high-performing Educate! Field Operations Team.

Educate! prides itself on creating and spreading this impact to thousands of more youth across the country. The Field Operations Manager will be at the heart of overseeing Educate! Experience (E!EXP) Field Operations Department. This will include, but not be limited to, Field Logistics Oversight, Reporting procedures and flow oversight, Mentor strategy oversight, and Field Operations team Oversight. 

The right candidates for this opportunity should be excited about working with young and ambitious youth, self-driven, passionate about our mission of creating leaders and entrepreneurs in Africa, and committed to being part of a high-performing team!

Performance Objectives

Reporting procedures and flows Oversight (30%) 

•  Ensure reporting procedures are clearly written out and the Field ops team is trained and oriented and clearly understands the success criteria.
•  Quality data is collected according to M&E systems, tech, processes, and procedures
• Check and review data dashboards or Google Sheets every week to make sure all data is reported on time and accurately. 
•  Lead the process of Identifying challenges the team faces during data collection and share with M&E and Program Managers. 
• Coordinate with product teams, performance metrics,s and programs teams to update Field Operations Assistant procedure handbooks with any changes in the reporting structures and systems. 
• Oversee the process of ensuring that Scholar allocation is done timely and accurately in collaboration with tech, performance metrics, and the programs team.
• The scholar list is updated and any errors are resolved before the Term/program starts 
• Coordinate with the program manager, and performance metrics team to discuss insights from the Field Operations Assistant session observations. 
• Make sure the dashboard information reported corresponds with the sessions mentors have taught and the transport disbursed. 
• Lead monthly reporting collaboration meetings with programs and performance metrics teams.

Mentor Strategy Oversight (30%)

• Own and lead the mentor recruitment strategy to serve the different products both at all stages of product development. Liaising with the Implementation manager in aligning on profile needs.
• Have oversight on the mentor onboarding plans in collaboration with the Implementation team 
• Coordinate with product and program managers to identify their needs, and times and recruit mentors ahead of time as needed.
• Fully updated mentor list with both new recruits and drops and reached out to teams to solve any retention issues. 
• Mentor agreements are signed on time to avoid any delays 
• Oversee mentor performance tracking from performance feedback from youth leader observations, performance on E-Lab, how they report data, retention, and team culture, etc to determine which mentors to keep and the ones to drop. 
• Coordinate with different departments to update mentor policy handbooks.
• The mentor list is updated in real-time and the list is shared every week.
• Coordinate with the implementation manager to communicate mentor priorities through the peer circles and the mentor communication channels.
• Oversee mentor helpline operation and make sure issues are solved timely 
•  Develop a mentor Backup database that meets the E! profile which has at least 20% buffer to support during drops.

Field Logistics Oversight (20%)

• Lead the annual transport verification exercise and ensure it is conducted in a timely manner with accurate costs.
• Ensure that mentor transport costs fit within the budget constraints and address any inflations or deviations from the common cost sheet.
• Coordinate with the Finance team and field teams to ensure that Field accountabilities are closed out before the end of the month.
• Oversee the logistics function and make sure products receive all logistics required on time. 
• Timely follow-up with Finance and product leaders to solve any challenges or loopholes in the logistic systems.
• Mentor stipend processed according to the mentor weekly updated list. 
• Coordinate with product leaders to create a schedule of activities to inform the logistics workflow.
• Voice improvement of logistics helpline issues and the node through iterations 
• Review systems that are not working and those that need improvement and proactively suggest solutions to both the product and finance teams
• Proactive creation and testing of Logistics trackers timely updated and required follow-ups are time 
• Youth incentives i.e. prizes, awards, gifts, airtime, etc done on time according to the product cycles.
• Coordinate with the product leaders to understand the programs, and budgets to accurately approve Field coordinator logistic requests. 

Field Operations team Oversight (20%)

• Support the development and maintenance of a positive, healthy team culture that empowers the team to be responsive and agile in adopting mentor recruitment, logistical needs, monitoring strategy, and data collection.
• Supervise the Field operations team to provide time-to-time feedback on performance. 
• Monitor the team’s performance and ensure the team is supported to achieve the departmental goals, objectives, and priorities
• Coach and mentor team to develop their capacity to handle challenges and identify gaps to efficiently serve the product teams. 
• Lead annual team performance appraisal
• Track and provide professional development feedback as per the HR roadmap.
• Identify and develop pipelines for all the leadership roles in the Field operations department.
• Advocate and build systems to manage departments efficiently to serve the stage and scale needs of the programs. 

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in any Business related field. 
• 5 years of professional experience in coordinating projects within social enterprises, start-ups, NGO or Education fields. 
• Computer literacy and experience: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Email, Google Drive, etc. 
• Strong at planning, Budgeting and forecasting, problem-solving, Leadership and team management, Communication, and Coordination.
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here 

Terms

• Salary is commensurate with experience
• Attractive Benefits & perks, including Medical Insurance.
• Location: Candidates should be residents of Kamuli.

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.