People & Culture Architect (PCO) Jobs – Media Challenge Initiative

Job Title:  People & Culture Architect (PCO)

Organisation: Media Challenge Initiative

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

About Organisation:

Media Challenge Initiative is a youth-driven non-profit, building the next generation of journalists in Africa through training, mentorship and experiential peer-to- peer learning. MCI has been providing professional journalism and multimedia journalism training since 2012. It is a social enterprise led by a team of four Ugandans that focus on student journalists who hope to improve their skills in the fields of journalism by providing media fellowship and journalism workshops.

Job Summary: We are looking for someone who understands that talent development in media is both an art and a system, and who enjoys designing environments where young people can experiment, fail safely, grow fast, and still be held to high standards. Ideal candidate here is someone who can make HR cool and future-facing, especially for young people entering the media and creative economy. Online art courses

Your role is to design, steward, and evolve the human systems that power the newsroom, the apprenticeship model, and the wider organization. Your role goes far beyond HR administration — you are responsible for how people grow, belong, perform, transition, and thrive inside a high-pressure, youth-led, creative institution.

Your mission is to ensure that:

MCI operates as a world-class apprenticeship institution

Talent flows intentionally toward the vision of the organization

The organization remains healthy, humane, accountable, and high-performing

Growth does not come at the cost of dignity, clarity, or culture

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Architect MCI’s Organization-Wide People System
• You are the custodian of how MCI is structured and staffed.
• You will:
• Design and continuously update the organizational structure
• Clarify reporting lines, decision rights, and role purpose
• Ensure every role exists to support:
• The newsroom
• Apprenticeship outcomes
• Sustainability (S7)
• Develop people policies across:
• Contracts & terms
• Performance & incentives
• Transitions, exits, and alumni pathways
• Align HR systems across NGO and Social Enterprise, with clarity on differences
• Architect & Run the Apprenticeship Newsroom System
• You are the architect running of the apprenticeship newsroom model.
• You will:
• Design learning pathways and rotations across desks and channels
• Build mentorship, supervision, and coaching structures
• Establish progression, assessment, and graduation frameworks
• Ensure every apprentice:
• Has a desk and role
• Has a mentor
• Has a growth plan
• Leaves with a portfolio, references, and pathways
• You work closely with the Newsroom Manager to ensure:
• Learning happens through real production
• Performance is developmental, not extractive
• Manage Talent Flow Across the Whole Institution
• You ensure people move where they are most impactful.
• Discover more
• Media Challenge Initiative
• Art
• Business Intelligence
• This includes:
• Rotations across:
• Newsroom
• Production
• Research & Learning
• Programs
• Social enterprise
• Promotion and leadership pipelines
• Graceful exits and transitions
• Tracking alumni outcomes and long-term impact
• Performance as Learning (Not Punishment)
• You design performance systems that:
• Measure growth, contribution, and collaboration
• Value learning alongside output
• Encourage experimentation without fear
• This includes:
• Portfolio-based evaluation
• Skills and competency tracking
• Feedback, reflection, and coaching systems
• Clear expectations and accountability
• People Experience, Care & Culture
• You are the steward of MCI’s internal culture.
• You will:
• Build systems for:
• Feedback
• Coaching
• Wellness and workload management
• Conflict resolution
• Safeguard MCI as a:
• Safe space
• Brave space
• Fun space
• High-expectation space
• Support leaders to manage people with empathy and clarity
• Leadership Development & Succession
• You ensure MCI is not dependent on a few individuals.
• You will:
• Develop future:
• Newsroom leaders
• Program leads
• Creative directors
• Project managers
• Media entrepreneurs
• Support leadership transitions
• Design succession plans across key roles
• Align People, Budgets & Roles to the 6S Engine
• You are a strategic mirror to leadership.
• Discover more
• Interview coaching sessions
• Mentorship program access
• Uganda business directory
• You will constantly ask:
• Are we investing enough in S1–S4 (core engine)?
• Are we overstaffed in admin and understaffed in impact?
• Do our people’s systems support learning or slow it down?
• Who do we need more of — and who do we need less of?

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• You are:
• A systems thinker with a people-first lens
• A mentor and coach, not just an administrator
• Comfortable in creative, fast-moving environments
• Grounded in HR fundamentals but unafraid to innovate
• Deeply respectful of young people and their potential
• Emotionally intelligent, firm, and fair
• You believe HR can be creative, playful, and deeply human without losing structure
• You enjoy working with young, opinionated, expressive, creative people
• You see mentorship, feedback, and learning as design challenges
• You are excited by apprenticeship models, studios, newsrooms, and innovation hubs
• You are comfortable blending:
• Structure + experimentation
• Care + accountability
• Creativity + discipline
• You are more interested in building people than policing them
• You want to help shape Africa’s next generation of media leaders
• You care about both: Human dignity and High performance

Why This Role Matters

• You will help build:
• Africa’s next generation of journalists and creators
• A globally relevant apprenticeship newsroom model
• A humane, sustainable, youth-powered media institution

How to Apply:

Send your CV and cover letter to This vacancy has closed — applications are no longer acceptedApplications closedSee open jobs at Media Challenge Initiative (MCI) → 

Deadline: 19th February 2026.

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: no experience required