Job Description

About African Leadership Academy(ALA) seeks to transform Africa by identifying, developing, and connecting a new generation of young leaders who will lead the continent towards lasting peace and shared prosperity for all. Since our inception in 2008, we have worked to lay the foundations of this audacious mission by identifying and developing a group of exceptional young leaders who will work together to shape Africa's future.About Africa Career NetworksSince 2012, the program at ALA has enabled students and alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program and African Leadership Academy (ALA) to access transformative early-career opportunities and accelerate their progression to impact. Partnerships with various foundations and supporters have allowed ACN to build 7 growing, pan-African career networks focused on key economic sectors - Education, Health, The Arts, Agribusiness, Infrastructure, Governance and Professional Services. Our network-theory-driven approach has facilitated powerful social impact collaborations among our young leaders and connected them to over 5000 internships and full-time job opportunities. We have also introduced an Affiliates Program to expand our geographic and demographic reach.Position OverviewWe are looking for a dynamic Director of Sector Networks to manage 6 of the career networks (health, governance, the Arts, professional services, Infrastructure and Agribusiness), to provide ongoing support to the program managers and strategic guidance in the delivery of their new programs and targets, as well as create alignment with AL for Education. These sectors must be empowered with the necessary resources to not only recruit 8200 Mastercard Foundation Scholars to ACN over the next 5 years but also facilitate job and internship opportunities for them - providing any necessary training and support.This role has the exciting task of implementing the new Sector success and sector challenge programs on our new platform, developing the necessary relationships and activities with the support of the team and our education consultant, and enabling any new Fellowship programs within the networks. They will be responsible for grant budget management for the sectors, securing additional funding as needed, as well as recruitment of the team, as needed, reporting and any sector marketing requirements.Position Responsibilities

• You will own the Sector programs within the communities of leadership pillar of our new strategy and be responsible for coaching and guiding our exceptional team members into the programs and designing, managing and then reporting on their work, ensuring they deliver upon grant targets for improved career outcomes. You will resource the team as and when needed with exceptional talent.
• You will drive recruitment of new program participants to grow the networks, within the ALA student and alumni community and Mastercard Foundation scholar and alumni community, as well as any other affiliated leadership programs for African youth like YALI etc, using network theory.
• You will foster community and shared learning among the sectors, while providing policy guidance, ensuring placement targets and youth safeguarding, wellbeing, and DEI targets are met with effective impact data collection as per the new strategy and impact model.
• You will collaborate with our communications, institutional learning and technology teams to create creative campaigns and enable the tracking of performance, leveraging AI.
• You will drive the delivery of the new sector success and sector challenge programs on our new platform to meet the required targets within the relevant budgets.
• You will ensure you and your team have direct and growing relationships with the employer engagement and affiliate teams, as well as partner universities and youth network members or parents, to attract people to and drive this work.
• You will participate directly in program design and delivery, providing coaching, program and event facilitation and coordination as necessary for program success and as a means of engaging network members.
• You will lead your team and role model ALA as a great place to grow by assuming accountability for their work, guiding their performance and success within the wider team, division and organisation. You will own the budget and planning responsibilities for your programs, meeting your reporting requirements on time and with excellence.
• As someone engaging important external stakeholders, you will be an ambassador for ALA and ACN, advocating for the time, treasure, and talent required to build our programs to deliver upon our larger mission for Africa's prosperity.

Profile of the ideal candidate

• Partnership builder: you build win-win partnerships and ideally have had grant-making or fundraising experience.
• Project manager: Can define project outcomes clearly across multiple project streams, with increasing degrees of project complexity and task uncertainty. Track record of effective planning, prioritisation, and organisational skills.
• Visionary and flexible thinker and strategist, with experience designing and leading programs; A self-starter who takes initiative and works independently with minimal oversight yet, keeps key stakeholders informed
• Strategic Program oversight: Ability to oversee the design or creation of initiatives, events and programs that will drive the desired social impact or outcomes, within grant guidelines and budgets.
• Existing Network: You have a strong existing African network that you can draw on and are passionate about building and sustaining relationships on the African continent.
• Communication skills: Presentations and report writing skills are essential. Has confidently worked with multiple stakeholders at different levels to advance progress and execute ideas, both internally and externally.
• Team Builder: Experience managing a team to deliver results, with excellence. You are a talented developer.
• Technology use: Experience working with software systems to aid and automate work. You are using AI and thinking about how to leverage it to its full capacity as a productivity tool. Prior experience with Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Customer Relationship Systems (Salesforce CRM) exposure would be beneficial.
• Collaborator: A bias for structured sharing, ensuring best practices and approaches are shared between the sector networks and other programs.
• Facilitation: Ability to convene and manage events and workshops to drive network engagement
• Must be willing and able to travel

Desired Experience

• Post-grad degree in a related discipline.
• 7 to 10 years of working experience, especially in any organisational, talent development or education-related field. Having multi-industry experience would be an advantage.
• Must have a broad understanding and knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing the African continent and be dedicated to shaping the future of Africa.
• A developer of talent. You need to build a team focused on excellence, who are helping our young leaders find and create careers of impact.
• An awareness about the future of work and career opportunities and pathways, through the lens of leadership development. You have thought about the future of work and AI and how to leverage it as an opportunity and productivity tool
• Extensive Partner Management and relationship-building experience to leverage and enhance our programs
• Competency framework and assessment experience is an advantage
• Contract management skills are essential
• Grant budget management skills and reporting skills are essential
• Community network-building skills are an advantage
• Any DEI or safeguarding experience is an advantage
• Multilingual - French, Portugues or Arabic speaking would be an advantage

Reporting: This role reports to the Senior Director of Career ProgramsStart Date: 1 June 2025Location: Based in Johannesburg

African Leadership Academy