Research Project Manager at Educate! Full Time

Position Overview

Educate!, a high-growth and award-winning non-profit social enterprise, is looking for a Research Project Manager to lead a 2-year research grant project for our work in Rwanda. The Research Project Manager is responsible for maintaining the efficient operations of the project. This role demands a high level of project management skills, excellent communication abilities, and a strong aptitude for report writing, data analysis, relationship management and coordination.

This role will work closely with the Principal Investigators and their team on research activities ensuring the work done adheres to set timelines and protocols, is well implemented and meets the highest standards of quality. You will provide administrative and project management support on the project implementation. During the course of project implementation the Research Project Manager will also write and edit reports and presentations in liaison with other departments, as well as engage stakeholders and communicate the study results.

The right person for this role will:

• Have experience in research project management and support
• Have strong strategic communication, collaboration, and relationship management skills
• Have strong report writing and analytical skills
• Have a genuine passion for working within government education systems to create a broad and sustainable impact on youth through those systems.

About Educate! 

Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more 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 learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by:

1) introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and

2) delivering livelihood bootcamps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 250,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 250 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, Big Bang Philanthropy,  #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, 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. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth.

Performance Objectives

Project Management

• Manage day-to-day research activities, from planning to implementation, and monitoring quality.
• Develop and implement project plans to meet research objectives within the stipulated timeframe and budget.
• Monitor project progress, adjusting plans and resources as necessary to ensure project success.
• Perform data analysis, interpret and present data to a variety of audiences

Report Writing

• Document all activities related to the project, including preparation of comprehensive reports detailing project progress, findings, and outcomes in a timely manner.
• Ensure reports are clear, concise, and support grant reporting.
• Ensure project adherence to general research design and standards, sample selection, data management.
• Present findings to stakeholders and grant bodies in a professional manner.

Project Coordination

• Coordinate and communicate with internal teams, external partners, and stakeholders to ensure smooth project execution.
• Organize and facilitate project meetings, workshops, and other collaborative activities.
• Manage project documentation and records diligently. Including managing the collection, process and storage of administrative data.
• Keep the project team apprised of all developments on the project, and serve as key link between Educate! and external stakeholders (e.g. government).

Liaison

• Act as the point of contact between the research team and external entities.
• Foster positive relationships with all stakeholders. Including providing timely updates and responses to partner organizations
• Communicate effectively with all project participants to keep them informed and engaged.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (Masters preferred) in social sciences, economics, project management or education /public policy
• Proven experience in project management.
• Excellent communication, writing and collaboration skills.
• Strong client-facing and presentation skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities (knowledge of qualitative analysis software)
• Proficient in documenting processes and utilizing organizational tools for systematic organization.
• Passion for making data-driven decisions a reality in the education sector.
• Passion for Educate!’s mission is a must. We value diverse perspectives and encourage applications from people with a variety of backgrounds.
• Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck her

What Is Educate! About? 

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 never forget that Educate! exists to impact youth. We are purpose-driven. We obsess over impact daily and if it doesn’t lead to impact, we want nothing to do with it. We prioritize interacting with and listening to youth. We design and manage the organization to ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences that youth value.
2. We Exceed Expectations – We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results. When we know what needs to be done, we do it. We don’t wait to be asked and we don’t stop at what is asked of us. We look for solutions as much as we identify problems.
3. We Are Always Learning – We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded. We know there is always another way and we are excited to learn about it. We continuously look for resources of all kinds from multiple disciplines. We try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
4. We are One Team, Many Views – We say what we think while treating each other well. We believe that all people have the same inherent value and that diverse ideas and open dialogue fuel excellence. We constantly strive to create an environment where everyone can and does express themselves freely. We support and respect each other as people and colleagues. We act as one team: We prioritize the organization’s mission and goals over team or individual goals.
5. We have the Startup Mindset – We will always keep innovating to grow our impact. We aspire to be game-changing. We never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.” We question the status quo in our industry. We move fast and embrace change to move towards our long-term vision. We’re not afraid of failure. We interrogate anything that slows us down.

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.

Child Safeguarding: Educate! is committed to child-safe/youth-safe recruitment, selection and screening. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programs. The successful candidate will be required to provide a satisfactory Certificate of Good Conduct as a condition of employment. We reserve the right to decline to offer employment to an individual or terminate an employment contract with an employee that may pose a risk to children and youth.