Lead the Leaders
What is the job?
Strategic Initiatives Lead at the African Leadership Group.
Want this job?
Email nchen@alx.app with your resume and a short overview of your interest in the role. (They’ll be looking out for onejob folks)
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African Leadership Group
Strategic Initiatives Lead
Why this is a great job
Join a strong team working hard on a really meaningful challenge. You’ll get the chance to take on leadership roles, work across lots of different functions, and tackle interesting problems.
The nitty gritty
Recognized as one of FastCompany’s most innovative companies of 2019, the African Leadership Group (ALG) is tackling one of the world’s most pressing social issues: youth unemployment and underemployment in Africa. Through its various education and training institutions, ALG aims to train 3 million young Africans over the next fifteen years, and place them into meaningful and dignified employment.
ALG is now at an inflection point in its growth; having tested and proven our model, we are on a mission to expand to 10 countries and educate 8,000 youth this year. You’ll be joining a team of ex-McKinsey/BCG/Bain consultants on the Strategic Initiatives team (basically the SWAT team).
Company website: www.alx.app
Who you’d be working for: Nina Chen, Director of Growth
You’ll also be working side by side with the executive team:
Fred Swaniker, CEO
Seth Trudeau, VP Product
Victoria Peill, VP Operations
Josh Hendrickson, VP Customer Experience
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
What is African Leadership Group?
The mission of the African Leadership Group is to catalyze the transformation of Africa by empowering its biggest untapped resource — its people. Over the next 50 years, we will build hubs across Africa that will educate 3 million leaders – leaders that will go on to become presidents, CEOs, entrepreneurs, journalists, scientists, artists, engineers and so much more. We’ve done this through world-class learning institutions including ALA, ALU
ALG was named the #1 most innovative company in Africa by Fast Company in 2019. The New York Times has described ALU as one of ‘8 places in the world where history is being made’. Our founder, Fred Swaniker, is a serial entrepreneur who has been recognized as one of TIME’s 100 most influential people.
Related: 5 Reasons why not to work for us
What will the Strategic Initiatives Lead do?
As Strategic Initiatives Lead, you will be responsible for driving critical growth initiatives across the organization. This could include anything from developing a go-to-market strategy for launching in new cities, to setting up scalable systems for admissions and program delivery. Your work will be cross-functional, and you will often lead teams spanning Product, Marketing, Tech, etc. The ideal Strategic Initiatives Lead is equally at home presenting a board deck to investors as he/she is diving into the nitty-gritty operations and working side by side with junior analysts.
You’ll love this job if you get joy out of diving into chaotic and ambiguous situations, and creating solutions and order in them. When confronted with enormous and ambiguous problems, you are not daunted -- rather, you are excited at the possibility, and eager to roll up your sleeves to dive in.
Responsibilities
Problem solve: The most important thing you will do is develop solutions to many ambiguous problems, ranging from strategic to operational
Lead teams and initiatives: You will independently lead multiple workstreams, and be responsible for overseeing the end-to-end success of projects. In each project, you will directly supervise anywhere from 1 to 5 team members
Design & implement systems: To support rapid scaling, you will work closely with the executive team in designing and implementing new systems & processes
Manage stakeholders: You will manage internal stakeholders across various functions and seniority levels
Design & execute analysis: To support the above problem solving, you will need to independently design and execute analyses in Microsoft Excel and/or Tableau
Present to senior audiences: You will frequently present your work to senior audiences such as C-suite and external investors
Support ad-hoc projects: You will often be called on to support critical organizational priorities as they arise
Requirements
3+ years of experience in startup strategy/operations role, consulting, or investing
Experience managing teams of 2-3 people
Experience engaging with, and presenting to, senior stakeholders (experience working with or managing investors a plus)
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Excellent Excel and Powerpoint skills
Willingness to roll your sleeves up, relentlessly resourceful, and bias towards action
Solutions-oriented, persistent, and creative in tackling ambiguous problems
Highly collaborative and humble, with the ability to bring together cross-functional stakeholders and drive towards results
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