Job Title: Expansion Director
Organisation: Bridge International Academies
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
About Bridge International Academies:
Bridge International Academies is transforming education by attacking one of the emerging world’s biggest problems: inadequate access to and quality of education for the children of families living on less than $2/day. As of January 2013, Bridge is operating more than 130 academies in Kenya with 50,000 pupils. Bridge is one of the fastest growing education companies in the world with plans to open 100 new academies in Kenya alone in 2013; and aggressive global expansion planned for 2013 and beyond. Bridge utilizes a research-proven, scripted-learning education methodology coupled with big data (all teachers have tablets for instruction, assessment, and data-gathering) to profitably deliver high quality education at less than $6 per child per month.
Bridge is a for-profit company that deeply believes that financially sustainable solutions are the long-term answer to development in emerging countries. The Company is backed by top-tier, global venture capital firms including New Enterprise Associates (the largest VC firm in the world), Omidyar Network, Khosla Ventures, and Learn Capital.
Job Summary: The Expansion Director will be responsible for entering a new market, and bringing Bridge International Academies’ expansion in the country to fruition. The Expansion Director will learn the full spectrum of business operations and business methods from the group headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and then work as an entrepreneur in the expansion country. While the Expansion Director will have full corporate support and benefit from the lessons learned and processes developed over 5 years of the operations of the company, this is a role that will require fearless, dogged, entrepreneurial spirit. There will be no job harder than this, as the breadth of functions needed to operate a vertically integrated education system is staggering, and the challenges of accessing and serving the bottom of the pyramid are well known. Great challenge is where there are great rewards: the opportunity to be the person who innovates across every step of multiple industrial value chains to succeed in radically altering the future of hundreds of thousands of children in the country.
There is no pre-determined previous work experience for an Expansion Director. This person may have been in operations of a large corporation, strategy consulting, business development, or even from a PhD. The experience of having started a company previously may be an advantage. The experience of having started a company previously in the specified expansion country is an advantage. The most important qualities of a successful Expansion Director are ambition, organization, drive, intellect, problem solving and respect for others.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- In charge of market entry in specified country, including managing team needed to execute in-country and interfacing with and leveraging team support from global headquarters
- Learn every step of the lifecycle of producing an operational Bridge International Academy
- Create highly-structured, insightful processes, systems and recommendations with a data-driven approach; alongside senior executives, critique and modify the Bridge lifecycle for expansion into specified country
- Do or lead every job in the entire Bridge lifecycle, to some extent. No job is too big or too small.
- Establish corporate presence in specified country, physically and legally
- Take lead in the development pipeline to ensure successful meeting of targets for initial cohort of Bridge International Academies: research, real estate, physical planning, and construction.
- Establish parameters for all academic work and begin work for regulatory entry and curriculum modification, until Academic Director joins the team.
- Celebrate the opening of the first cohort of Bridge International Academies, and the thousands of children who now access quality education due to your work. Keep working!
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- A minimum of five years’ post-undergraduate, full time work experience
- At least a year’s experience that required highly independent work in an exceedingly challenging environment
- Work experience at top institutions balanced by a demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship and data-driven decision-making, including the ability to flourish in dynamic, ambiguous environments
- Work experience in emerging markets
- Excellent track record of strong academic performance from a leading undergraduate and, if attended, graduate institution
- Prior full time work experience in the specified country
- Prior experience starting a start-up; secondarily, prior experience as an early hire at a start-up who remained with the company through to profitability, acquisition, or bankruptcy.
- Work experience, preferably in development or 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.
How to Apply:
If you so desire to join Bridge International in the aforementioned capacity, please send a resume with a brief cover letter explaining why you are interested and what you will bring to the position.
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