Bridge International Academies
Job Vacancy: Operations Programme Manager
Bridge leverages in-depth teacher
training and support, advanced lesson plans and wireless technology to provide
pupils with a meaningful and life-changing education.
Job Vacancy: Operations Programme Manager
Who We Are
Bridge believes every child has the
right to high quality education and works in partnership with governments,
communities, parents and teachers to deliver education to over 100,000 children
in underserved communities across Africa and Asia.
Globally, there is an education
crisis. Around 263 million children and young people are not in school and the
number of primary school aged children not in school is increasing. Bridge is
committed to helping tackle this through a data driven, evidence based approach
that delivers strong schools and a great education for all.
About the Operations Programme
Manager Role
As an Operations Programme Manager,
you join a fast-scaling company with growing operations in Kenya, Uganda,
Liberia, Nigeria and India. You will work closely with other teams such as
People Operations, Finance, Retail, and Software to operationalize programs and
execute processes aimed at strengthening our Academy Operations. The challenge
in this role is to not only help the company scale in East Africa, but to
ensure efficient and effective delivery of our academic services in each school
in the country.
Simply put, you will be the glue that
solves hundreds of important issues at our academies and keeps them delivering
high quality education to all our students. This is a high-impact role for
someone who loves taking on challenges in large scale – we
employ 6000+ employees.
What You Will Do:
Here are some examples of the types
of issues you’ll be tasked with analysing, creating systems and
processes to effectively address, and managing on an ongoing basis:
·
Teacher Staffing – Bridge promises to
have a teacher in class every day of the academic year. To meet this promise to
our parents, the Programme Manager must work closely with our Recruiting and
Training and People Operations Departments to make sure we find effective ways
of filling local vacancies and with our Customer Care Department to devise ways
to manage our nationwide team of substitute teachers so that can immediately
provide cover for any class missing a teacher due to sickness or other. The
challenge is to efficiently and effectively provide coverage for over 4,500
classrooms across Kenya and Uganda.
·
Academy Repairs – with over 400
academies, we need to continually ensure our academies are in good condition
and account for both minor and major repairs. The Programme Manager must
identify common challenges and problems and provide efficient and
cost-effective solutions. This programme must work closely with our
Construction Department and with regional managers to ensure quality repairs
are carried out.
·
Lesson Delivery – Bridge’s teachers
use teacher computer tablets to deliver our Kenyan- and Ugandan-curriculum
focused lessons every day. To make sure everything is working properly, the
Programme Manager must analyse vast amounts of data to pinpoint any challenges
in this process. This includes working closely with the Software Team to limit
the number of technological issues that come up and to immediately solve those
that do arise and coordinating with our Academic Team to devise strategies and
processes to drive improvements in lesson deliveries.
·
Building Teams in Operations –
as a senior manager in the Operations team, you’ll build the Customer Care
team, training them on inbound and outbound call processes, analysing their
call performance through various metrics, and ensuring the team excels in its
vital function as the central nervous system of our academy operations.
Likewise, you may build other teams as well, such as a field-based auditing
team to ensure consistency and quality across all of our schools.
What You Should Have:
·
4+ years of experience building
processes at a start-up company or executing on multiple programs at an
established firm
·
MBA is helpful but not required
·
Enthusiastic gathering and analysing
data, always willing to learn new tricks and processes in Microsoft Excel, and
comfortable using data to drive decisions and execution
·
Team building and management skills
·
Clear track record working with
multiple departments across a company, making sure everyone is coordinated and
delivering on crucial tasks
·
Persistent and versatile in getting
things done and a track record achieving success. You must be a fighter and
determined to achieve; we have a large mission. Don’t accept what has been done
before and eager to challenge the status quo
You’re also
·
A detailed doer – You have a
track record of getting things done, with at least 5 years of post-graduate
school experience. You’re organized and responsive. You take
ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting
targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job
done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose
sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or
other rapid-growth company.
·
A networking mastermind – You excel
at meeting new people and turning them into advocates. You communicate in
a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech.
You can influence strangers in the course of a single conversation.
Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas. You have an existing
network in East Africa from prior experience in the country, preferably in the
regulatory, education, or business sectors.
·
A creative problem-solver – Growing
any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On
top of that, Bridge works in volatile, low-resource communities and runs on
fees averaging just $6 a month per pupil. You need to be flexible and
ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the
materials at hand. Every dollar you spend is a dollar our customers, who
live on less than $2 a day, will have to pay for.
·
A customer advocate – Our customers –
these families living on less than $2 a day per person – never leave your
mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be
happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a
parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was
wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their customer
benefit, experience, and value.
·
A life-long learner – You
believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and
provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when
others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
How to Apply
Interested candidates are encouraged
to CLICK HERE to apply
online by 31st July 2018.
Job Vacancy: Operations Director
Who We Are:
Bridge believes every child has the
right to high quality education and works in partnership with governments,
communities, parents and teachers to deliver education to over 100,000 children
in underserved communities across Africa and Asia.
Bridge leverages in-depth teacher
training and support, advanced lesson plans and wireless technology to provide
pupils with a meaningful and life-changing education.
Globally, there is an education
crisis. Around 263 million children and young people are not in school and the
number of primary school aged children not in school is increasing. Bridge is
committed to helping tackle this through a data driven, evidence-based approach
that delivers strong schools and a great education for all.
About the Role
The Operations Director is ultimately
responsible for the critical performance of our entire network of 350+ schools
across Kenya and Uganda. This includes operations, supply chain, IT, internal
audit, and retail.
You will be responsible for ensuring
every school operates effectively. That school staff are supported, provided
with the correct tech assets and supplies. That the school facilities are
maintained. That revenue is collected effectively, that uniform, school feeding
and other programmes are running well. That instructional delivery runs
effectively.
This is a high-impact role for
someone who loves taking on challenges in large scale – we
employ 5,000+ employees across East Africa.
The Operations Director is one of the
most senior roles in the East African, business, making up a key role in the
Senior Management Team. You will be responsible for managing a team of 50+
staff across two countries, driving the execution, management and innovation of
the following departments to serve our academies’ needs:
·
Customer Care Call Centre – serving
both as the support hub for our academy manager, teachers and parents;
·
Quality Assurance – our internal
data-driven, field based audit and monitoring team;
·
IT – supporting our tech-enabled
academies to function and excel;
·
Supply Chain – overseeing our
warehousing, procurement and logistics, making sure every academy has all the
resources needed in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible, while
negotiating with global suppliers;
·
Retail – ensuring school feeding,
uniform and other potential revenue drivers are run effectively;
·
Programme Management teams – managing
3-4 programme managers responsible for everything from preventative fraud
management, facilities and repairs, instructional and academic delivery through
systems compliance.
What You Will Do
·
General management of the warehouse
operations and strategic planning on activities to provide feasible solutions
to challenges that may arise while involving yourself in practical work on the
floor on receiving, arranging and dispatching of materials.
·
Responsible for all operational
performance indicators of our academies, including but not limited to:
1. improving adherence and compliance to existing systems and
processes
2. Striving for operational excellence in a resource-constrained
environment
3. Continually iterating and improving systems
– cost of headquarters support per
pupil
– educational outcomes as measured by
academic testing programme
·
Learn, reinvent, optimize and manage
every aspect of the operations of a Bridge International Academy and the
necessary headquarters support, from classroom instruction to latrine-cleaning
to customer care.
·
Create highly-structured, insightful
processes, systems and recommendations with a data-driven approach; and,
alongside senior executives, critique and modify the operational components of
the Bridge model.
·
Do or lead every job in the entire
academy operations and support to some extent. No job is too big or too small.
·
Manage a diverse support team
including customer care, quality assurance, IT, programme managers,
procurement, warehousing and logistics.
What You Should Have
·
At least 8+ years of
post-undergraduate, full time work experience
·
Work experience managing a multi-unit
retail environment
·
Work experience developing and managing
a culture of total focus on customer satisfaction
·
Work experience drastically improving
the productivity and reducing cost of a product or service
·
Work experience managing and
coordinating several teams to deliver on a tight schedule
·
Work experience in emerging markets
·
Record of building data-driven
operational systems
·
Record of strong academic performance
from a leading undergraduate and, if attended, graduate institution
·
Work experience, preferably in
operations, as an employee at any company that has rapidly grown in headcount
and number of locations, e.g., large scale retail
·
Work experience in a highly political
industry, where ideological conflict is common and strategy, ingenuity,
negotiation and persuasion are necessary for success
·
Experience of management consulting a
plus
You’re also
·
A detailed doer – You have a
track record of getting things done, with at least 8 years of post-graduate
school experience. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of
every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets,
engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can
multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details.
Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth
company.
·
A data analyst – You are comfortable
interrogating assumptions, testing ideas, and making decisions based on data.
You have experience crunching numbers, but also do not lost sight of the bigger
picture. You can take a strategic view while also getting stuck into the weeds.
·
A creative problem-solver – Growing
any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of
that, Bridge works in volatile, low-resource communities and runs on fees
averaging just $7 a month per pupil. You need to be flexible and ready to
get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at
hand. Every dollar you spend is a dollar our customers, who live on less
than $2 a day, will have to pay for.
·
A customer advocate – Our customers –
these families living on less than $2 a day per person – never leave your
mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be
happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s
hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or
looked like. Every decision you make considers their customer benefit,
experience, and value.
·
A life-long learner – You
believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and
provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when
others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
How to Apply
Interested candidates are encouraged
to CLICK HERE to
apply online by 31st July 2018.
Only shortlisted candidates will be
contacted.