Jobs at African Leadership Academy

Position Overview

• ALA seeks to hire an administration professional in the University Guidance department to organize, maintain, and operate the office by providing information, materials, and assistance to UG counselling staff, other ALA staffulty, students, parents, college representatives, and external constituents.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate day-to-day operations and schedule activities, programs, and visitations by university representatives.
• Maintain files for each student that consist of former and current transcripts, school leaving certificates (if applicable), IGCSE results, and other materials required for application submissions.
• Create MaiaLearning accounts for each student and upload supporting documents required for college applications.
• Coordinate SAT practice sessions: print and prepare practice tests, arrange schedules with students' academic representatives, assign jobs for marking and invigilating, track completion, etc.
• Schedule, coordinate and publicize university counseling-related events and other opportunities for students to learn about higher education, prepare and distribute emails, flyers, and other materials to publicize programs.
• Provide information concerning college entrance examinations and English language proficiency tests; assist students with scheduling such exams and distribute test results, as appropriate.
• Facilitate payment of fees associated with applying to college, taking college entrance examinations, and securing financial aid.
• Liaise with HALI Access Network to secure Duolingo English Test fee waivers for students.
• Maintain the departmental Year Ahead Calendar and keep the team accountable regarding weekly activities.
• Maintain a current inventory of university guidance equipment and materials; assist in determining purchase priorities.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Counselling duties entail advising a group of students about applying to appropriate universities.

• Explain college admission and financial aid application processes to students and parents from a range of cultural, socio-economic, and educational
• Assist students with developing a target school list that includes a range of universities in Africa and the rest of the world.
• Guide students through the preparation of applications, including review of essays and forms; submit supporting documents to universities using the MaiaLearning platform.
• Prepare students for college admission and scholarship interviews.
• Write compelling recommendations for each student in caseload.
• Network and collaborate with university admission officers.
• Co-facilitate classroom lessons and parent webinars with other members of the UG team.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Key Skills and Competencies:

• Strong writing skills
• Attention to detail and organised
• Academic counselling

Preferred Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree completed
• 3 Years of experience in a similar role or an administrative role

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Position Overview

• The business analyst will play a critical role in supporting the financial strategy, planning and performance of the organization. Reporting directly and working closely with the CFO, the  BA will lead the budgeting and forecasting processes, provide scenario modelling for business cases, and offer financial support to key stakeholders across the organization. The BA must be able to analyze the performance and plans of the business and provide actionable recommendations to improve the financial health and advance the mission of the organization.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Planning and Budgeting

• Lead annual budgeting and forecasting processes ensuring the alignment of proposed plans with organizational strategic goals.
• Ensure financial sustainability and responsible stewardship of resources i.e. treasury management and endowment monitoring
• Work closely with leadership to support long-range plans and develop financial models and forecasts for critical projects

Financial Reporting and Analysis

• Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual financial and management reports for internal and external stakeholders
• Evaluate the financial performance of the organization against plans, highlighting key trends and deviations and providing recommendations
• Develop and maintain financial models and KPIs to monitor performance and support decision-making
• Monitor cash flow and recommend assets and investment optimization opportunities
• Produce timely donor reports internally monthly and externally quarterly (or as per donor requirement)

Compliance and Risk Management

• Support CFO in compliance with local laws and financial regulations
• Develop and implement policies and procedures to mitigate financial risks and maximize opportunities
• Support the CFO and the Controller to develop financial policies and procedures

Grant Management

• Manage restricted and unrestricted funds, ensuring compliance with grant agreements.
• Collaborate with the development team to prepare financial information for grant proposals and reporting to donors.
• Track and report on the financial performance of funded programs.

Strategic Financial Support

• Provide financial analysis and recommendations to support strategic decision-making by the CFO.
• Assess the financial impact of potential initiatives, partnerships, and investments.
• Develop KPIs to monitor business performance and guide decisions, drive insights to recommend process improvement, cost-saving initiatives, operation efficiency etc
• Lead efforts to develop, improve and implement systems, processes dashboards and tools.

Team Leadership and Development

• Support the CFO in managing and mentoring the finance team, fostering a collaborative and high-performance work environment.
• Cultivate a strong finance function that supports operational and programmatic growth.

Procurement

• Support the procurement department on negotiations and systems optimization
• Ensure that procurement activities comply with organizational policies, industry regulations, and legal requirements.
• Ensure procurement processes including RFPs are seamless, timely, rigorous, thorough and effective

Key Skills and Competencies:

• Strong report-writing skills
• Good knowledge of systems and IT architecture
• Technical skills required IFRS, strong critical thinker, solution-driven.
• Financial tools and systems SAGE preferred, excel, word, PowerPoint, BI or similar
• Analytical skills required
• Soft skills & competencies: Communication, leadership, proficiency in English,

Preferred Experience: 

• Bachelor’s degree in finance or data science
• 5 Years of experience in sector-focused entrepreneurship programs or venture accelerator programs.
• Professional Certifications are preferred

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The Role & Responsibilities

• At ALA, we believe in embedding impact design and measurement into the way that we work across all parts of the organization, and that all employees should own and see the measurement of our progress towards the organization’s mission and vision. These principles have underpinned the growth of a small but highly capable Institutional Learning (IL) team that is deeply embedded in ALA’s program implementing teams, stewarding ALA’s MERL activities. Institutional Learning is integral to clarifying the “why” and “how” of our work, as well as accountability for the results of our efforts. The Director leads a team of impact managers, a database administrator and data capture support.

Embedding Impact:

• The Director of MERL champions our commitment to impact, grounding our decisions in data and aligning them to our strategy and mission. As a member of ALA’s Executive Committee, they are uniquely positioned to understand and provide input across the breadth of the organization's programs. The Director works with peers to ensure coherence across our theories of change and synthesize insights across all our programs.

Strategic Advisor to Managers & Executives:

• The Director of MERL will, either directly or through the management of their Impact Managers, ensure that IL serves as a thought partner and advisor to program managers and executives. By collaborating closely with leadership, they will ensure that ALA's program design, implementation and reporting of results reflect our institutional strategy and intended impact. They will lead impact managers who in turn support program teams to improve their data literacy and behaviors, and analysis of internal data and external evidence to inform and support strategic decision-making. The Director of MERL will also advise and support decisions in relation to ALA’s Data Privacy Policy, including training on the policy and its periodic review.

Manage routine MERL operations: 

• As the Executive ultimately accountable for the veracity of ALA’s impact data, the Director will manage all aspects of IL’s MERL work. This begins with the systemic collection, storage and observation of program data in comprehensive data management systems, databases and dashboards, and extends to external programmatic evaluations. From time to time, the Director will advise program teams on their data systems and architecture.

Support fundraising: 

• The Director of MERL will collaborate with ALA’s Development department and program managers and executives to ensure coherent prospecting, cultivating and stewarding of donors. The Director will be integral to synthesizing evidence of ALA’s impact thereby attracting new mission-aligned supporters, as well as to ensuring that proposals for new funding are aligned with programmatic impact frameworks, and that regular reporting for existing grants is accurate, robust and articulates achieved outcomes of our work.

Share Learning: 

• The Director of MERL will build the department’s proficiency and consistency in sharing evidence-based learning internally to inform and strengthen our program delivery. They will also lead external sharing to advance ALA's contribution towards influencing the beliefs, knowledge, practices and investments of actors in the African education, entrepreneurship and careers ecosystems.

Skills and Profile of Ideal Candidate

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in a relevant field such as monitoring and evaluation, research methods, statistics, econometrics, or international development.
• Deep expertise in data systems and information management.
• Solid knowledge and experience in working with both quantitative and qualitative data; experience with statistical analysis preferred.
• Understands different evaluation designs and measurement tools and can explain these concepts to
• 5+ years of working in monitoring and evaluation; 10+ years of total work experience. Some background in education a plus.
• Proven track record in leading high-performing teams, fostering collaboration, and promoting a culture of innovation, learning, and growth.
• Demonstrated success and affinity for breaking down complex problems into component parts and ability to consider policies from multiple perspectives.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; report writing experience required and external communication experience preferred.
• A passion for Africa, the potential of its youth, and commitment to the vision of