Youth Impact’s mission is to connect youth to proven life-changing information. Our vision is all youth thriving, which we work towards through delivery of multiple evidence-based programs. We are at an inflection point in our growth: we have over 400 staff, three programs in health and education, and a cumulative reach of over 500,000 youth in 10+ countries. Our culture is unique: we are always learning, have a dynamic, youthful team, a fierce commitment to measurement and evidence, and work hand-in-hand with the government. On any given day our leaders will sing and dance, negotiate MOUs, and spend dedicated time with the field team in schools.

 

Primary Purpose

 

We are engaged in a multi-phased national scale-up of evidence-based education interventions in collaboration with South Africa’s National Department of Education, UNICEF, Zenex Foundation and LEGO. We are looking for a dynamic leader to strengthen operations and accelerate program growth in South Africa. The ideal candidate is a self-starter with some technical expertise in either program design, partnerships, management and training or a combination of all. 

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The candidate should have extensive experience in working with government partners and school leadership. They will lead organizing teacher and youth volunteer trainings and oversee high-impact program delivery to improve literacy and numeracy. Furthermore, they are responsible for managing the field team of youth volunteers. The candidate will also be able to work beyond the job description - enjoy problem-solving and applying creative thinking to challenges and building relationships with staff, program leaders, implementers, and government partners. We are exclusively interested in candidates located in South Africa.

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Primary Duties & Responsibilities

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• Field team management: Manage a team of 100+ youth volunteers and mentors.

• Oversee program delivery: Ensure that the program is implemented in schools at the highest quality. The Associate Manager will lead on overseeing training and recruitment of facilitators including coordinating school implementation calendars and reporting.

• Lead on managing partnerships: Liaise with and maintain healthy working relations with local and international programmatic stakeholders including government partners, CSOs, NGOs, academics, etc.

• Grant applications and reports: Key contributor to grant applications, funder milestone reports and program related reporting.

• Document and codify program and field logistics plans: Develop and iterate logistics and plans for fieldwork and execute with field teams while documenting and codifying program related strategy, decisions, procedures, best practices and protocols for quality improvement.

• Collaborate with departments to build consensus and buy-in: Build consensus and buy-in among departments and act as a bridge between them by supporting the departments and individuals to execute program activities with timeliness and quality, providing troubleshooting guidance when necessary and provide feedback to Program Coordinators on program progress and lessons learned via written reports and ongoing communications.

 

Required Qualifications & Experience

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• Bachelor’s degree in Education, Social Sciences, Development Studies, or a related field 

• Postgraduate qualification in Project Management, Education, or Monitoring & Evaluation would be an advantage

• Minimum of 5+ years’ experience managing large-scale development programs, working with schools and government partners

• Strong project management skills with experience in planning, logistics, and execution of multi-site education programs.

• Excellent communication and reporting skills, including experience with donor reports and grant applications

• Ability to problem-solve, adapt to challenges, and apply creative thinking

• Proven ability to manage projects, teams, problem-solve, and build and maintain relationships in a diverse environment

• Ability to build systems and create structure from the ground up in addition to nurturing and innovating on existing systems

• Adaptive, positive, resilient, and a person who can get tough things done with a positive attitude

• Willingness to learn and ability to balance having a strong set of skills and track record with an openness to feedback, learning, growth, and collaboration among colleagues

• Embodies Youth Impacts values and commitment to the youth, evidence, and scale

 

Location

​Based in South Africa with extensive travel to North West Province, Gauteng and others.

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Contract period

​2-year fixed term contract with potential for extension pending performance

 

Deadline

24 October 2025 at 23:59 CAT

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Benefits include generous annual leave, health care provision, professional development opportunities, the possibility to work remotely, access to our amazing global networks, and much more.