Policy and Innovation Principal Strategist, Tanzania

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 a non-profit social enterprise looking for an inspiring and strategic leader to join us as the Policy and Innovation Principal Strategist in Tanzania. This is a rare opportunity to drive innovation and collaboration at the highest levels, working with government partners to transform skills-based learning for youth through national education systems. The vision of the Policy and Innovation Principal Strategist is to act as a central coordination point for government stakeholders and partners, aligning efforts to support Tanzania’s competency-based curriculum (CBC) reforms while driving technical and government collaboration across stakeholders. This role is pivotal in fostering partnerships, facilitating evidence-based policy formulation, and ensuring aligned government engagement for the success of the Secondary Education reform rollout.

 In this role, you’ll:

• Enhance technical and government coordination across a major new initiative, aligning technical expertise, government, and partners' efforts to achieve shared goals.
• Facilitate collaborative learning and innovation, facilitating evidence-based policies and practices that advance youth skills development.
• Create and enable platforms to cross-share knowledge, and innovations for impact, sharing best practices, insights, and breakthroughs across the secondary ecosystem and beyond.

As a key member of our Education System Solutions team, you will bring a powerful blend of expertise in learning, policy & systems change, and strategic leadership to drive lasting impact within Tanzania’s education system. Your role will also focus on integrating innovative, student-facing products into government systems to ensure sustainability while leading the creation and execution of new strategies to continuously advance these solutions at scale. Collaborating closely with governments, you’ll play a pivotal role in advancing Educate!’s vision of reaching 1 million students across Africa each year with measurable impact.

What Makes You the Right Fit:

• Strategic Communication and Collaboration: You excel at building strong partnerships, aligning stakeholders, and driving collective action toward shared goals.
• Expertise in Learning and Systems Change: You are well-versed in change leadership, behavioral change, and systems change theories to guide innovative product design and implementation in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Data-Driven Leadership: You have a proven track record in leading behavior change programs, making data-informed decisions, and delivering positive learning outcomes.
• Passion for Youth Impact: You are deeply committed to strengthening working with government education systems to advance measurable and sustainable impact for youth.
• Experience with Innovation: You bring hands-on experience in driving social impact and innovations at scale

Performance Objectives

Strategy and Roadmap Development for the Policy and Innovation  Hub

• Lead the strategy development for Policy & Innovation Hub with governments and partners, including scoping concept notes, roadmaps, and learning agendas, in line with Education Systems Solution Line strategies.
• Ensure the Policy and Innovation Hub addresses policymakers’ and program partners' most significant priorities and pain points, whilst optimizing to serve youth challenges and needs.
• Apply an iterative approach to strategy development with government, responding to changing policy contexts and payer requirements, and 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 the Policy & Innovation Hub and initiatives with broader organizational goals, including cross-functional insights from wider product teams.

Enhance Technical and Government Cand Convening

• Communicate the Policy & Innovation Hub’s vision, strategy, and updates clearly to internal and external stakeholders including government and partners with regular reporting on status, including shared work plans.
• Establish and manage relevant technical Task Forces, ensuring their contributions feed effectively into the Hub.
• Co-chair the Policy & Innovation Hub with government partners to progress an enabling environment for data-driven Secondary Reform. 
• Convene regular check-ins and accountability meetings between government stakeholders and partners.
• Lead external workshops and internal pre-meets to drive collaborative decision-making and problem-solving processes, working in collaboration with our internal partnerships team to ensure the progression of our advocacy goals.
• Conduct the Policy & Innovation Hub retrospectives with high-level government partners and internally to evaluate strategy success and identify improvement areas.
• Lead high-stakes or high-profile government and funder partnership initiatives (such as study tours, policy dialogues, co-design workshops, and launch events) in collaboration with Educate!’s advocacy experts, External Relations team, and senior leaders, ensuring strong leadership and strategic shaping to meet multiple stakeholder priorities.

Policy Co-design and Systems Change (Technical Assistance)

• Work with internal and external experts to provide technical and policy support at the highest government levels, to progress Educate!’s product strategies and advocacy agendas, including support project-based learning, curriculum and assessment, and data system strengthening.
• In collaboration with Educate!’s advocacy team, use the Educate!s co-design methodology to integrate the organization's technical and product standards into government policies, systems, and structures.
• Establish feedback loops with government stakeholders, and end-users for continuous product improvement.
• Direct the development of relevant government co-design workshop materials, ensuring a high-impact government user experience that progresses our advocacy agenda and develops government capacity.

Learning, Evidence Generation

• Develop and lead collaborative learning agendas and action learning with partners and government on live cycles of user research and ideas testing, to inform policy formulation and implementation.
• Proactively drive the use of evidence to create actionable insights for Educate!, government, and partners, including policy briefs, guidance, and frameworks to ensure responsive support that drives improvement in the classroom.
• Oversee further research initiatives to delve deeper into priority areas or to connect insights on overarching issues, such as gender or interrelated projects.

Dissemination, Strategic Communication and Thought Leadership

• Create platforms for cross-sharing of innovations, best practices, and collective evidence among partners and stakeholders.
• Create high-quality knowledge policy artifacts such as policy briefs, concept notes, tools, frameworks, and thought leadership, enhancing the value created by senior P&P leaders for government and funders.
• Collaborate with Policy and Innovation partners to develop a structured and impactful government advocacy strategy. 
• Drive the regional vision for the Policy and Innovation Hub, expanding its influence and benefits beyond Tanzania.
• Act as a key spokesperson for Educate!’s initiatives and the Policy and Innovation Hub’s objectives.

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 toward 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 and Profile

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
• Senior leadership experience in a relevant field such as social impact, innovation, change management, user-centered design, or policy reform is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to drive innovation, challenge the status quo,o and solve problems in a collaborative, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills, with proven experience in managing multi-stakeholder initiatives to align across common goals.
• Experience in evidence translation and application to inform policy and innovation design is a plus.
• High-level design experience in one of the following: education/health policy, innovation with government, system change, or solution design for complex user-focused programs.
• Experience working in a portfolio setting, overseeing multiple initiatives e.g. internal or external consultancy or product/ projects environment.
• Strong understanding of Tanzania’s education landscape and CBC reform goals, with strong networks in Tanzania across the education and social impact sector.
• 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.

 

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.