Company Profile

Lively Minds is an organisation with a mission to get quality early childhood development to millions of rural preschoolers in Ghana and Uganda by activating the power of parents.  We couple our evidence-based ECD programming with innovative rigorous implementation systems to scale quickly, cheaply and sustainably." 

Job Description

• Location: Ideally Ghana or Uganda. This post can be available on a remote basis for a candidate based on GMT

Summary
You will lead the directorate responsible for scale solutions, programme design, content, evaluation, optimisation and adaption. You will manage team leaders including Head of M&E, Content Manager, Expansion Manager and Special Projects Manager. Your team will lead and contribute to multiple projects to deliver on our strategic goals, and you will provide direction and oversight for these. 

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Programme Optimisation & Learning

• Oversee projects that test ways to strengthen impact, reach, opportunities and sustainability through learning cycles and right-size lean pilots.
• Explore ways to simplify and streamline content, processes and systems to maximise replication and sustainability. 
• Collaborate with our Delivery Directorate to take the best solutions in to business as usual and create effective tracking and feedback loops. 
• Oversee, simplify and strengthen our real-time M&E system to ensure that everyone has access to the data and analysis they need at the right time to understand risks, opportunities and trends and to drive actions and decisions.
• Ensure Lively Minds is an evidence-driven and learning organisation. Collaborate closely with our Internal Operations directorate to ensure lessons learnt and findings  are shared and incorporated.
• Work with external researchers on rigorous evaluations and dissemination of findings
• Stay abreast of emerging research from across the sector and seek ways to incorporate best practice in to our work.
• Testing scale solutions, partnerships, adaptions for new contexts and integrations
• Support the identification and testing of new scale solutions to get impactful community-run ECD to rural communities.
• Support the CEO to assess new opportunities and make recommendations about which ones to progress.
• Support the development and progression of funding opportunities and partnerships, - i.e developing budgets, proposals and project plans. 
• Collaborate with Marcomms and Partnerships team to ensure that data/research is presented accurately and in the most meaningful and compelling way for the audience.

Team Leadership

• Lead the directorate:  upskilling, motivating and managing the team and establishing a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and high performance.
• Line manage and support the progression and development  of Head of M&E, Content Manager, Special Projects Manager and Expansion Manager.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues in other directorates to break down silos, support teamworking, learning and information sharing.
• You may be assigned any other responsibility in agreement with your line manager, in contribution to Lively Minds work and in recognition of your experience and skills. It is therefore expected for staff to be flexible and willing to contribute to the work of the wider team. 

Required Skills or Experience

To succeed in this role you will need to

• Be an excellent people manager: you are able to set the bar high and inspire and drive high performance in others. The work we do is challenging and we will often only succeed if we produce the very best plans, materials, products. You will have to produce and/or review a wide range of materials  (lesson plans/content, reports, proposals, plans) and ensure that these are as good as they possibly can be to achieve their goal. 
• Be an expert project manager:  you have senior leadership experience in the design, implementation and evaluation of projects at scale in at least one country in the global South, understanding the realities and challenges of implementation.  
• Be a doer: we expect all our leaders to roll up their sleeves and lead from the front. You will be regularly in the field and will need to develop an excellent grasp of the details of the programme.
• Work at pace and with agility:  We operate in a challenging and dynamic environment. We need to move quickly to leverage opportunities and manage risks, whilst remaining true to our strategic goals and organisational values.
• Be a fast learner: we have a complex and multi-layer model and operating system as well as a wide range of partners and stakeholders. You will need to quickly learn how the different elements of our programme and organisation work, so that you can build and improve upon what already exists. Essential skills
• Proven experience in designing and leading innovation projects/programmes in (at least) one country in the Global South and confident in using best practice tools across areas such as planning, risk management, data collation and analysis, report creation. 
• Experience running projects at scale (i.e delivery to thousands of communities) and undertaking evaluation and analysis across multiple data sets. 
• Experience of designing & overseeing data information systems/flow. 
• Experience of designing, setting-up and managing external evaluations both qualitative and quantitative.
• At least 5 years experience in a similar leadership role managing cross-functional and multicultural teams.
• Excellent verbal and written English skills.

Desirable

• For a detailed understanding of the role and person criteria, please see the Job Description.
• Behaviour change experience.
• Research and evaluation experience. 
• Experience working in senior roles in the development sector.
• Experience building and managing relationships with external partners and stakeholders particularly in the research and evaluation space.
• Project management qualification
• Experience of Edtech programmes