Sr. Director of Digital Literacy & Education Innovation 275 views0 applications

Position: Sr. Director of Digital Literacy & Education Innovation

Reporting: Reports to the Executive Director

Duty Station: Nairobi, Kenya

Position Type: National

Contract type: Fixed term contract – 1 year with possibility of renewal based on performance
Proposed start of contract: September 1, 2020

ABOUT REFUSHE

RefuSHE is the only organization in Kenya exclusively designed and dedicated to serve the needs of vulnerable refugee girls, serving both their immediate requirements for safety and security and their longer-term needs of healthcare, education, empowerment, and income generation. Founded in 2008, RefuSHE Inc is a U.S. nonprofit, headquartered in the U.S. and operating in Nairobi, Kenya.

Our mission is to protect, educate, and empower orphaned, unaccompanied, or separated refugee girls and young women and to help them build healthier and more resilient futures for themselves and their children. **

OPPORTUNITY

RefuSHE is seeking a dynamic and globally fluent leader to serve as the Sr. Director of Digital Literacy & Education Innovation of RefuSHE Kenya. This is a new position at RefuSHE and will report directly to RefuSHE Kenya’s Executive Director. The Sr. Director will be responsible for leading and managing RefuSHE’s new flagship program being launched by RefuSHE in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and Kytabu. The program aims to develop an E-Learning and Wellness Platform for urban refugees, with a specific emphasis on girls and women. The candidate should have demonstrated experience in education, Ed-Tech, Instructional Design, and/or Digital Literacy. They should also have experience working on holistic programming that also includes protection, counseling, case management, and livelihoods development. The candidate will be leading a team to digitize RefuSHE’s curriculum and trauma-informed approach and will need to have a strong understanding of how to translate pedagogy and counselling methodologies into a digital format to be used by urban refugee girls and young women that is easy to engage with and sets them up for success. Ideal candidate has a strong educational background, demonstrated technical acumen, advanced teaching skills, and a passion for working with young people and refugees. They should be proactive and self-motivated to advance the use of technology for education and mental health.

This person is a visionary and creative who can look forward and design and develop strategic initiatives to ensure the organization’s viability, sustainability, and efficacy in an ever-changing environment. They will need to not only have the ability to translate RefuSHE’s academic curriculum to a digital format but its life-skills training, vocational training, early childhood education, counselling, legal advocacy, and case management. They will also need to have a strong background in community design and human centered design with an understanding of the challenges facing refugees in the informal sector in Kenya. They should have experience in a director or executive-level role at a nonprofit, academic, or social impact setting.

E-LEARNING & WELLNESS PLATFORM DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, AND LAUNCH

· Serve as the RefuSHE lead team member responsible for implementing the Mastercard Foundation E-Learning Project

· Play an active leadership role as a member of the collaborative working group focused on designing, developing, and launch the E-Learning Platform.

· Work with RefuSHE’s teachers, case managers, and counsellors to digitize RefuSHE’s curriculum, approach, and methodology

· Work with RefuSHE’s technology partner Kytabu to identify best practices for digitizing the ideal “learning journey” for urban refugees

· Lead community design workshops to understand the needs, challenges, and opportunities facing refugee girls and young women in the urban settings that lead to viable recommendations and solutions for the Platform design and development

· Research, collect, analyze, verify, and synthesize information to facilitate the program’s development, design, and preparation with a focus on adolescent refugee girl’s access to and participation in education and promoting their protection and wellbeing.

· Work to develop programming that foster participation and success for refugee girls and young women to participate in education while making the learning environment, safe, accessible, and fun.

· Suggest solutions for increasing access to education for refugee girls and women through digital solutions and approaches.

· Oversee program implementation and design to deepen RefuSHE’s impact in the field of refugee protection, education, and livelihoods development for urban refugee girls, young women, and their children

· Lead the program team to develop creative and outcome driven program activities and interventions to be delivered on the E-Learning & Wellness Platform

· Ensure that all programs are developed and implemented with a trauma-informed lens

· Strengthen program design to elevate RefuSHE as a strong and desirable contender for funding, partnerships, and recognition for excellent service and outcomes

· Ensure program quality through rigorous assessment, design, development, comprehensive data collection and tracking

· Maintain official records and documents and ensure compliance with international, federal, state, and local regulations

· Work with Education Officer and Associate Director of GEP to strengthen and build RefuSHE’s academic offerings and work to translate those offerings into a digital format

· Work with Associate Director of Case Management and Safe House to strengthen and build RefuSHE’s counselling, case management, and protection services and work to translate those offerings into a digital format

· Work with ED and Program Team to strength and define the “RefuSHE journey” to improve programming ability to move a refugee girl from dependency to self-reliance

· Manage program budget and ensure strong compliance

POLICY & ADVOCACY

· Maintain a strong working knowledge of local, regional, and international policies affecting RefuSHE’s beneficiaries

· Keep the US office abreast of any implications of policies that may affect RefuSHE’s operations and programs in Kenya

· Work with Advocacy Officer to advocate for refugee’s access to resources

PARTNERSHIP & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

· Develop and lead RefuSHE’s partnerships and collaborations with other implementing NGOs to improve quality and efficiency of service delivery

· Represent RefuSHE while presenting at conferences, events, and high-profile meetings

CANDIDATE PROFILE

· RefuSHE seeks an education professional with the experience and expertise in the areas of digital curriculum design, technology integration, and change management. The Sr. Director of Digital Literacy & Education Innovation will embody RefuSHE’s values and mission. They will be a self-starter who is resourceful, entrepreneurial, and team oriented. The ideal candidate will have the following professional and personal qualities, skills and characteristics:

· A bachelor’s degree in a related field such as education, education technology, child psychology, sociology, social work, nonprofit management, or related field is required

· Master’s Degree or equivalent in education is preferred

· 10-15 years of nonprofit management with increasing responsibility, including 1-3 years in an senior management or executive leadership position.

· Demonstrated experience working in education or on educational programs or equivalent.

· Demonstrated experience working in the Ed-Tech space including designing digital literacy curriculum, working on education technology platforms, training schools, students, or teachers in digital tools preferred.

· Grant writing and management experience a plus.

· Strong public speaking and presentation skills.

· Proficiency in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

· The ability to work and live in Kenya; fluency in English and Kiswahili

· Language skills in French or local dialects spoken in Somalia, DRC, and South Sudan a plus

· A strong data and analysis orientation and a proven ability to use metrics to drive decisions and achieve strategic objectives

· Demonstrated understanding of how to manage and maintain program budgets

· An engaging and supportive leader, with a track record of motivating and inspiring others to achieve impact through creativity and teamwork and of leveraging individual strengths to meet organizational goals

· A high level of emotional intelligence with a demonstrated ability to build trust and credibility with people quickly

· Able to effectively address overlapping projects, deadlines, and budgets.

· Adaptable and reliable in the face of crisis, or changing priorities.

· Takes a coaching approach to talent development and supervision

· Able to lead a team managing multiple and often simultaneous tasks and create a work environment recognized for high level of organization, timeliness, cost-effectiveness, accuracy, and results.

SALARY & BENEFITS

Salary is competitive and based on the candidate’s experience and qualifications. The benefits package includes medical healthcare coverage and pension.