Africa Strategy & Growth Associate

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Ghana.

📋 Description

• Lead the assessment of market opportunities and feasibility studies for potential new Generation regions in Africa, initially targeting Ethiopia, Nigeria, and South Africa.

• Analyze labor market conditions, employer landscapes, training ecosystems, regulatory frameworks, and competitive dynamics in key markets.

• Create structured opportunity evaluations and investment proposals to guide go/no-go decisions by regional and global leadership.

• Collaborate with relevant global teams (Program Delivery Support, Data & Impact, Digital) and current country teams to tailor Generation's model for new market entry.

• Facilitate the transition of validated expansion strategies to country or regional operating teams for execution.

• Identify and assess prospects for Generation to broaden its program portfolio into new sectors or professions in Africa, extending beyond the current GBS/digital focus.

• Perform landscape evaluations of employer demand, learner availability, salary benchmarks, AI resilience, training viability, placement potential, and career pathways for prospective new programs.

• Collaborate with PDS and country teams to create program concept notes and pilot designs.

• Lead outreach and engagement with employers to confirm hiring demand, role specifications, and employer challenges, ensuring these insights shape program design, secure employer commitments for pilot hiring, and establish a robust pipeline of job opportunities.

• Work together with our Employer Partnerships teams on these initiatives.

• Monitor and synthesize emerging sector trends across Africa (e.g., healthcare, construction, green economy, logistics) to identify high-potential opportunities.

• Design and test innovative commercial and revenue-generation models to decrease Generation Africa's reliance on donor funding, including employer cost-sharing arrangements, fee-for-service models, and social enterprise frameworks.

• Conduct stakeholder research with employers, training partners, and sector organizations to validate willingness-to-pay assumptions and model parameters.

• Create model blueprints, pilot frameworks, and business cases for review by regional and global leadership.

• Oversee the design, development, and launch of an employer-funded BPO/ITO manager upskilling program in collaboration with the Employer Partnerships and Curriculum & Instruction teams.

• Support significant existing revenue-generating pilots, specifically the Digital Talent Hub and the Kenya Garment Hub, which aim to employ Generation alumni to directly address customer/client needs and generate revenue for Generation while offering apprenticeships to alumni.

• For each pilot, assist in refining its commercial model, documenting lessons learned, and extracting transferable insights for other markets.

• Assist in designing and piloting a sector skilling ecosystem model to coordinate skilling providers and attract employer, donor, and government funding.

• Map key ecosystem participants (employers, government entities, sector associations, training providers, development partners) in priority sectors.

• Formulate stakeholder engagement strategies and partnership frameworks to convene and align ecosystem participants around Generation's approach.

• Maintain an up-to-date pipeline of growth opportunities (new countries, new sectors, new revenue models), regularly refreshed and accessible to regional and global leadership.

• Generate high-quality analyses, briefings, and presentations for internal decision-making and, where applicable, funder reporting.

⛳️ Requirements

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., business, economics, international development, social sciences, public policy) is required.

• 4–8 years of relevant professional experience in strategy, management consulting, business development, program design, market entry, or a closely related area.

• Demonstrated capability to evaluate new markets, sectors, or opportunities and translate analyses into clear recommendations for senior decision-makers.

• Experience in designing, testing, or supporting new programs, pilots, products, or business models, particularly in environments characterized by ambiguity and limited precedents.

• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with the ability to clearly reason about revenue models, sustainability, incentives, and cost structures (deep finance expertise is not a prerequisite).

• Proven ability to engage credibly with diverse stakeholders across the public, private, and social sectors and influence without formal authority.

• Experience working in or across Sub-Saharan African markets (e.g., Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana).

🏝️ Benefits

• A 12-month fixed-term contract, renewable based on performance and funding, with strong potential for extension and long-term growth.