Job Title: Operations Associate
Organisation: SHONA Capital
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
About Organisation:
SHONA grows East African Good Businesses. A Good Business is a viable business that positively benefits society by creating and balancing value for all its stakeholders, including customers, employees, owners, value chain partners and the communities in which it is based. By 2030, our goal is to build a community of at least 1,000 Good Businesses positively benefitting at least 35 million people.
Job Summary: We are looking for an Operations Associate to support the effective implementation of our programs.
You will be responsible for coordinating, implementing, and supporting SHONA’s program activities to ensure smooth delivery, effective operations, and measurable impact. This role involves organizing and managing program activities, providing logistical and administrative support, ensuring financial accountability, and facilitating communication and reporting. This includes travel to the location of the businesses for various program activities.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
Program Planning and Coordination
- Regularly update and maintain the annual program/activity roadmap
- Support the team in keeping track of the different activities, regularly flagging follow ups and ensuring smooth implementation
- Organising program activities such as training sessions, workshops, and all activities that bring together our entrepreneurs physically and virtually.
- Support and scheduling of program activities, including invitations, venue bookings, material preparation and entrepreneur mobilisation.
Logistics and Administration
- Prepare and manage attendance sheets
- Ensure all activities and events reflect the right SHONA branding and have the necessary materials
- Develop logistical notes and coordinate with service providers for activity implementation.
- Ensure administrative templates are updated and shared with the team for appropriate use(e.g. travel request forms, goods and services requests, travel allowances etc) and ensure timely requests, accountabilities, and declarations by the team.
- Ensure LPOs are issued, advance requests are prepared, and invoices are scrutinized for accuracy and quality before payment submission
- Update and maintain a database of consultants and service providers, including cost and performance ratings, for reference in sourcing and contracting.
Financial Support
- Develop activity budgets and conduct quote analyses for respective activities
- Support financial accountability by ensuring timely processing of invoices, advances, and payments in line with SHONA procedures.
- Scrutinise and check invoices for accuracy and check if goods and services have been delivered/received at the expected quality standards as contracted before submission for payment.
- Monitoring, Reporting and Knowledge management
- Support program teams in applying tools for results monitoring and documentation, regularly collecting relevant data from entrepreneurs.
- Lead activity-based reporting, capturing lessons learned and best practices for continuous improvement.
- Maintain entrepreneur information on the shared drive to ensure smooth program operations and support to their business development.
Communications and Stakeholder engagement
- Share program updates with the communications team, including photos, teaser text, and relevant stakeholders to tag.
- Coordinate with contracted experts by following up on their engagements, invoices, reports, and payments.
- Doing whatever it takes to support the work of SHONA and the businesses we work with. We are a
- small entrepreneurial team that steps up when there is work to be done. At times, you’ll be expected to work outside of just your role to contribute to our team’s overall efforts.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Development Studies, Project Management, or a related field
- At least 3 years’ experience in program or project coordination, preferably in entrepreneurship, business development
- Strong organizational and multitasking skills with attention to detail.
- Proven ability to manage budgets, logistics, and administrative processes.
- Experience in monitoring, reporting, and data management.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder coordination skills.
- Proficiency in MS Office and digital collaboration tools.
- Strong problem-solving abilities and ability to work independently and in a team.
- At least 2 years experience of living and working in East Africa
SHONA Foundational Skills
- These are core foundational skills that apply to all members of our team.
- Independence/Self Starter – Ability to assess and initiate things independently. Ability to manage a growing task/project without much guidance or structure. A person who is sufficiently motivated or ambitious to work on their own initiative without needing direction. Shows Initiative and is proactive in taking action.
- Business Acumen – Ability to understand how a business operates and makes money, and to proactively anticipate, navigate and leverage trends impacting the business.
- Proven at accomplishing results – Diligent executor, result driven and methodical in their execution.
- Team collaborator – Ability to work as a team to achieve the common goal.
- Life-long learner – Has a growth mindset, is curious and demonstrates a commitment to continued learning and development
- Intellectual curiosity – The desire to want to know more, to poke around in blind spots and new areas, to make connections between different challenges and opportunities to cross-pollinate ideas.
- Resilience and perseverance – The ability to thrive in a variety of circumstances.
- High emotional intelligence – Self-aware, self-regulated, strong interpersonal skills, curious about people and empathetic.
- Relationship building – Ability to quickly build rapport and engagement with people, including listening and clear communication.
- Analytical skills – Ability to collect, gather, visualise and analyse information in detail and see a problem or situation from different points of view. Analytical skills allow you to solve complex problems by making decisions in the most effective way.
- Project management – Ability to plan, execute, coordinate – leading to completion of the work of a team, achieving specific goals and meet specific success criteria in the required timeframe
- Technology Savvy – Ability to use a computer and online tools to support effective delivery of SHONA work, including but not limited to Google Drive, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint and Email.
SHONA Values
We are a values-driven organisation, and we love to work with people that share these values:
- We are People focused
- We Do and Do better
- We Bet on potential
- We are Bold and Courageous
- We are Honest and Transparent
How to Apply:
Please submit your application through this link >
Deadline: 6th September, 2025
NB: SHONA is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Level of Education: Bachelor Degree
Work Hours: 8
Experience in Months: 36