Africa Regional Operations Lead at IDinsight

About the Role:

The Africa Regional Operations Lead will lead all aspects of their operations as they grow, and ensure that their African offices are run like world-class organizations. He/she will report to the Regional Leads, support the office leads, and collaborate closely with IDinsight’s Global Operations team. They seek a self-starter who will be able to independently manage a wide range of autonomous work streams, and who is looking for a role that emphasizes execution, inspiring leadership, and people management. He/she will manage a team of multiple full-time administrative and operations staff in their respective offices (potentially hiring more people to the team as needs arise), as well as IDinsight client-facing staff who will dedicate a portion of their time to organization building. 

Locations: Dakar, Lusaka, Nairobi, or Rabat

Key Responsibilities:

• Ensure IDinsight Africa has best-in-class systems and policies in place, building on Global Operations’ platforms - As they grow, they want to stay lean and nimble while also ensuring that information is shared across the offices and staff have the tools they need to do their jobs. He/she will collect feedback from staff on where their current systems and policies are falling short, adapt their systems or design new ones, coordinate the roll-out of these new systems and policies, and ensure adherence. These systems may be in support of IDinsight’s client-facing social impact work, including project management, knowledge management, client development, or internal goal-tracking systems. They may also be people-related, including performance management, staffing, benefits, safety and security, and various policies.
• Recruit and train excellent employees - The Africa Regional Operations Lead will oversee Africa-specific recruiting events and candidate screening, work with Africa leadership to set hiring goals, and conceive and write JDs for new roles. Some elements of they recruiting process, such as interviewing, are managed centrally and this person will coordinate with the Global Operations team on high-level talent strategies. The Africa Regional Operations Lead will oversee other Operations staff in running a comprehensive onboarding for new employees. 
• Ensure IDinsight’s Africa offices are great places to work - IDinsight prides itself on being a great place to work and as they grow, we want to keep the values and culture that have allowed us to provide this positive, efficient work environment. The Africa Regional Operations Lead will directly check-in with staff, coordinate team-building and professional development events, design and coordinate changes to the physical office environments, monitor and develop our ideal culture, and take other steps in conjunction with the Africa leadership team to make IDinsight’s Africa offices fantastic places to work. 
• Oversee project staffing across IDinsight’s Africa - The Africa Regional Operations Lead will act as a bridge between the operations team and the client-facing teams. He/she will be responsible for managing project staffing across our Africa offices, ensuring that project teams have the right personnel to maximise the social impact of our projects, and that teammates enjoy the work they do at IDinsight.
• Problem solve as issues come up - As IDinsight is growing rapidly, various logistical or people-related issues may come up. The Africa Regional Operations Lead will be the go-to person for the region for problem solving. He/she is expected to understand the issue holistically, exercise judgment and tact, and develop and execute a clear action-plan. When required, he/she will escalate issues to other senior leadership members for consultation, and provide recommendations on a course of action.
• Exemplify IDinsight’s mission and values - Ensuring a strong alignment between incoming Directors and IDinsight’s values is an important priority for us. Directors are the face of IDinsight both externally and internally and will be expected to always and unambiguously exemplify their mission and values.

Does this sound like you?

• 8+ years of work experience and proven track record of results and commitment to excellent output.
• Proven ability to lead and motivate teams in a dynamic, multicultural environment.
• Willingness to travel to all Africa offices at least twice per year (we will not expect immediate travel given the Covid-19 pandemic).
• Passion for improving lives through evidence-informed policy.
• Ability to conceive, execute, and lead strategic initiatives, but also high attention to detail and willingness to get his/her hands dirty on the nuts and bolts of running an organization.
• Experience in a well-run global organization. Familiarity with latest research (in behavioral economics, organizational management, and other fields) on how to develop a best-in-class organization a plus.
• Strong communication skills (ability to be clear, yet tactful).
• Ability to navigate people and policy decisions with nuance and discretion.
• Familiarity with MS Office, Google Docs, and ideally other relevant systems such as BambooHR, Asana, Slack, and SalesForce.
• Fluency in English (French a plus).
• At least an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 for humor.