Head of Strategic Projects job at Educate

Position Overview

Educate! is seeking a Head of Strategic Projects to support two fast-growing teams that work across our global offices in East Africa, the USA and Europe (Netherlands, Spain and the UK). This role will support the strategic projects for the Research, Measurement and Evaluation and People functions to build new systems and improve upon existing processes and workflows in preparation for our anticipated organizational growth and scale, including new country expansion efforts.

This is an exciting and enriching opportunity for an experienced operator who easily adapts in changing environments, can bring clarity to emergent systems, engages stakeholders to embrace new processes, and enjoys working on a diverse portfolio of projects. Responsibilities include building and iterating on systems that support the foundational operations of the Research, Measurement and Evaluation and People functions.

Performance Objectives

Operationalization of Functional Vision

Take the vision set by the functional leader and take it to the next stage to create a process for refining strategy, defining details for how it might go from idea on paper to an operational system, and ensuring execution/uptake. The content of the builds will be driven by existing functional leadership, this role will be project managing the end-to-end process. 

• Resources and tools – Oversee tool and resource creation process including tool design, analytical processes, engagement of internal and external experts, and construction of high-quality outputs including guides, checklists, briefs, and many possible other materials.
• Process improvement: Facilitate process to identify and prioritize improvement initiatives (e.g.identify inefficiencies, streamline processes) with function leaders. Manage the execution of those initiatives.

• Work collaboratively within and across functions/teams at Educate! – Typical collaborators include the Head of People Operations, Head of Talent Acquisition, Director of Impact Evaluation, Head of Performance Metrics, and the Director of Product Operations, to name a few.

Process Documentation & Document Management

• Documentation of strategic processes – To date, teams have developed ways of working that work for them, resulting in some disparate processes. This role will identify opportunities for shared processes and create clear, user-friendly SOPs, guides and tools for the teams to use. Improving them from time-to-time.
• Document management infrastructure – Build and manage document and resource infrastructure through the development of a document management system (we use G-drive).
• Maintain knowledge management and access – Keep the intranet up to date and ensure resources are thoughtfully organized and easy to access across the infrastructure.

Strategic Project Management (outside of builds)

• Internal strategic project planning: Support internal strategic project project planning, developing deliverables, and coordinating with contributors and users.
• Project management: Lead project management including day-to-day cross-functional team coordination and alignment with strategy.
• Operationalization and handovers: Plan and execute handovers of strategic projects to position the receiving team for success after they are operationalized.
• External relationship management: Manager end-to-end relationships with external research projects, consultants, vendors, etc
• Other strategic projects as required but functional leadership

Qualifications

We’re looking for an entrepreneurial, “get stuff done” teammate with 6-8 years of relevant experience.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a multicultural environment.
• At least 6 years of experience working in an administrative function, with 4 of those being in a research and/or operational role.
• Extremely organized and able to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment, juggling multiple competing priorities and responsibilities.
• Adaptive and able to quickly switch or entirely change activities to meet team needs.
• Very high attention to detail.
• Strong project management, able to assess and negotiate trade-offs with respect to juggling multiple tasks and workstreams.
• Self-motivated with strong personal organizational skills. Able to get things done with little direction or supervision coupled with discretion in elevating key updates, questions and recommendations.
• Have a clear and confident communication style to manage stakeholder expectations and to bring stakeholders along in changes to processes and adapt to new systems.
• Must be curious and seek to learn and improve while also simultaneously proactive and solutions oriented.
• Experience building or improving systems and processes.
• A solid understanding of research processes, experience working on M&E, data collection, data analysis, and/or research is a plus.
• A solid understanding of people processes, experience working on HR systems is a plus.

• Aligned with our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below) and learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here.

JOB APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Interested and qualified, Click here to apply.

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