Fractional Senior People Advisor

Who We Are! 

🌍 Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more young people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined. 

At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent. 

Educate! prepares youth in Africa to learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by: 

1. Introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary and 
2. Delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 500,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 300 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations, and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows. 

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Livelihood Impact Fund,  Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.

Good to note: To Our Awesome Applicants! 🚀💫

We know that incredible candidates sometimes hesitate to apply if they don’t meet every requirement. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply! 

We’re looking for passionate individuals who believe in our mission and can bring unique perspectives to our team—not just those who check every box. We value diversity and strongly encourage women and individuals from all backgrounds to apply.

Position Overview 

Educate! is looking for a Fractional Senior People Advisor to partner with our CEO and executive team as a senior people advisor.

Educate! is now 300+ staff across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. At this size our most interesting people problems aren't administrative. They're about how we manage growth across countries, how we apply policy and employment law to get the best outcome for the business and the people in it, and most importantly, strong communications in bringing our people along in the decisions we make.

This is a senior, part-time advisory engagement, roughly 10–12 hours per week, fully remote. You will not run the people function; that sits with our Global People & HR Director. You will be the seasoned people business partner our executive team leans on when the stakes are high: someone who reads a situation quickly, can decipher what the policy and the law actually allow, and helps the exec team choose the option that holds up commercially, legally, and with the team.

What You’ll Do🌟 

Partner with the exec team on people decisions

• Act as a senior people business partner to the CEO and exec team
• Bring an independent read on org design, team composition, and succession questions as Educate! scales
• Pressure-test decisions before they are made, and name the risks nobody else is naming

Apply policy and employment law to get the best outcome for the business and our people

• Translate our existing global policy and countries' employment law into practical options the exec team can act on: what we can do, what it costs us, and what it does to trust
• Advise on the live, consequential cases: restructures, exits, performance situations, grievances and investigations across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania
• Judge when a global standard should hold and when local context should shift how we apply it
• Flag where our current policy is getting in the way of a good business or people outcome, so we can fix it

Work on team dynamics and development

• Coach individual team members through the interpersonal and cross-cultural dynamics of a matrixed, multi-country organization
• Design and, where useful, facilitate sessions that get the team moving when it is stuck

Sharpen how people decisions get communicated

• Shape the messaging behind restructures, policy changes, and leadership transitions before they land
• Edit and stress-test internal communications so they read as clear, honest, and consistent with how we talk about ourselves
• Advise on what to say, what to hold, and when to say it

Who You Are 🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️

• 8+ years in senior HR, people, or organizational development roles. This can include time as a startup people leader, an HR business partner to an executive team or as an advisor to a CEO. 
• Strong writing. You can take a difficult people decision and turn it into communication people accept
• Comfortable being the outside voice: direct with the top leaders, discreet with what you hear, and unattached to being the one who executes
• Fits our Five Culture Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here 

Terms 

• Fully remote. 
• Approximately 10–12 hours per week, engaged on a consultancy basis
• Initial engagement with the intention to extend based on fit and need
• Compensation will be competitive and based on experience

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Our Culture & Tenets(Values) 🌱

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey of their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey. 

1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We are purpose-driven, focused on impact, and prioritize what truly matters. We listen to youth, design our efforts around their needs, and ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences they value.
2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results—proactively identifying problems and seeking solutions without waiting or stopping at what's requested.
3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded and continuously try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views - We value all individuals, believe diverse ideas and open dialogue drive excellence, foster a supportive and respectful environment where everyone can freely express themselves. We work as one team and prioritize the organization's mission over personal or team interests.
5. We have the Startup Mindset - We innovate relentlessly to grow our impact, we never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.”We constantly challenge the status quo, embrace change, and move quickly toward our vision. Unafraid of failure, we question anything that hinders progress.

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.  Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team. 

We’re committed to ensuring all candidates are screened for child and youth safety. As part of the process, candidates must successfully complete our standard background verification and safeguarding review in accordance with local legal standards. Educate! reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment if any screening results indicate potential risks to youth.