About Imagine Worldwide

All children have immense potential, but hundreds of millions don’t have access to the learning they need. Imagine Worldwide believes that every child should be empowered with the basic right to literacy and numeracy. We provide an innovative education technology solution and implementation model to the global literacy/numeracy learning crisis using the onebillion application and various toolkits and systems to support implementation. Our model is massively scalable, evidence-based, and can deliver foundational learning to millions of the most marginalized children.

Imagine Worldwide partners with governments, organizations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that is accessible, effective, and affordable. We are incorporated in California (United States) as a nonprofit organization, but operate in Sub-Saharan Africa through locally-registered entities in Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. Learn more on our website.

About the Role

The Operations Manager is responsible for ensuring the smooth, efficient, and compliant functioning of Imagine Worldwide’s Malawi office. The primary purpose of this role is to provide strong operational leadership and oversight that enables program delivery at scale. Working closely with Finance, Programs, and Technical Services, the role ensures that systems, processes, and support services are well-coordinated, responsive, and aligned with organizational standards. The role will report to the Director of Finance and Administration and will oversee other Administration and Operations Officers 

This position is accountable for delivering high-quality administrative and operational services that support staff, management, and partners. Key outcomes include effective office and facilities management, streamlined operational processes, strong vendor and asset management, and full compliance with organizational policies and procedures. 

By strengthening the operational backbone of the Malawi office, this role directly contributes to Imagine Worldwide’s strategy of testing and scaling tablet-based learning solutions. Efficient and reliable operations enable program teams to focus on delivering impact—helping children become literate and numerate—while ensuring the organization can expand sustainably and responsibly.

Key Responsibilities

Cross-Team Coordination & Operational Support

• Provide day-to-day operational support to program, finance, and technical teams to enable timely and effective delivery of activities. 

• Coordinate logistics for internal events, donor engagements, stakeholder visits, and special projects, while ensuring international staff administrative needs (e.g., visas, work and residence permits) are efficiently managed.

Office, Facilities & Administrative Management

• Oversee the smooth running of office and warehouse facilities, ensuring they are safe, functional, and compliant with workplace standards. 

• Manage leases, utilities, and service contracts (including internet, security, and cleaning), ensuring high-quality vendor performance. 

• Deliver responsive administrative services that support staff productivity and maintain a professional working environment.

Procurement, Vendor, Asset & Fleet Management

• Lead and manage procurement processes in line with organizational policies, ensuring transparency, value for money, and timely delivery. 

• Oversee vendor selection, contracting, and performance management. 

• Maintain accurate asset registers and ensure proper safeguarding of organizational resources.

• Manage fleet operations, including vehicle registration, licensing, insurance, maintenance, and supervision of drivers.

Compliance, Governance & Systems Management

• Maintain all corporate records, licenses, and statutory filings, ensuring timely renewals and full compliance with local regulations and organizational standards. 

• Work closely with the Director of Finance & Administration and global teams to uphold governance requirements and strengthen internal systems.

Risk Management & Security Oversight

• Support the identification, assessment, and monitoring of operational risks, maintaining the risk register and tracking mitigation actions across teams. 

• Facilitate regular risk reviews in alignment with Imagine’s global risk framework. 

• Serve as the country office focal point for security, ensuring staff and visitors receive appropriate briefings and that relevant information is shared with leadership.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations, or a related field.
• Minimum of 6 years’ experience managing office, compliance, or operations functions — ideally with an NGO or international organization.
• Proven experience dealing with government agencies, corporate registration, and statutory compliance in Malawi (or similar contexts).
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with experience in vendor and contract management.
• Strong problem-solving ability and high attention to detail.
• Proficiency with MS Office tools (Excel, Word, PowerPoint); familiarity with cloud-based document systems is a plus.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Strong ability to plan, coordinate, and oversee day-to-day operations.
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and coordinate complex logistics in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to effectively engage with internal teams, global colleagues, partners, vendors, and government stakeholders.
• Sound knowledge of procurement processes, contract management, and supplier performance monitoring, with a focus on transparency and value for money.
• Basic financial management skills, including budgeting support, cost tracking, and understanding of administrative systems and controls.
• Familiarity with HR processes such as recruitment coordination, onboarding, staff welfare, and maintaining a positive workplace environment.
• Ability to identify operational challenges, assess risks, and implement practical, timely solutions with sound judgment.

Qualities

•  Passion for Imagine’s mission and vision 
•  Demonstrated commitment to equity in educational access and outcomes
• Passion for project management
• Demonstrated ability to think independently and solve problems
• Collaborative team player; clear and proactive communicator
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to work in a fast-paced, changing environment

Compensation & Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience.

Location

The Operations Manager must be based in Lilongwe, Malawi.

* * *

Imagine Worldwide is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

About Imagine Worldwide 

All children have immense potential, but hundreds of millions don’t have access to the learning they need. Imagine Worldwide’s mission is to empower millions of children across Sub-Saharan Africa with the literacy and numeracy skills they need to reach their full potential. We provide a tablet-based, personalized learning solution designed for the most challenging environments. Nine Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) across multiple countries and settings have shown dramatic learning gains, increased school attendance, and gender parity, all for less than $7 per child per year.

Imagine Worldwide partners with governments, organizations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that is accessible, effective, and affordable. We are a California-based (United States) nonprofit organization operating across seven Sub-Saharan African countries. 

In Malawi, under the BEFIT program, Imagine works with the Malawi Ministry of Education and partners onebillion and VSO, among others, to eventually serve 3.8 million children per year in Standards 1-4 across all 6,000 public primary schools in Malawi. The BEFIT program began rolling out in September 2023 and served 500 schools in Year 1 across 18 districts. Year 2 will serve an additional 460 schools across the remaining 16 education districts in Malawi.

About the Role

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Project Manager will play an instrumental role in coordinating and delivering key projects that enable Imagine's mission to test and scale tablet-based learning solutions. This role manages project implementation across multiple locations, ensures alignment with organizational priorities, and coordinates with government agencies, implementing partners, and internal teams to drive results.

Key Responsibilities

The Project Manager will work closely with Imagine Malawi’s Executive Director and the management team to provide project and operational support. The Project Managers responsibilities will include - but will not be limited to the  following: 

Strategic Project Management

• Support planning, implementation, and monitoring of project activities across assigned districts and partners, ensuring alignment with Imagine’s strategy and government priorities.
• Develop detailed project implementation plans with clear timelines, deliverables, budgets, and M&E indicators.
• Track progress against work plans, budgets, and performance targets, proactively identifying risks and bottlenecks and proposing mitigation actions.
• Coordinate with government education offices, implementing partners, and internal teams to ensure smooth execution of activities at both central and district levels.

Operational Support

• Lead in the development of tools, manuals and training resources needed to ensure successful project implementation. 
• Coordinate and supervise the implementation of all program activities to achieve their outputs
• Conduct relevant research to inform program implementation and disseminate relevant information to relevant stakeholders. 
• Convene, document and follow-up on the outcome of monthly project accountability meetings.

Executive Director Support

• Manage the flow of information for the Executive Director in a timely and accurate manner to support coordination and productivity across the country team.
• Coordinate with internal teams and external stakeholders on behalf of the Executive Director to ensure alignment on priorities and follow-through on key actions.
• Schedule and coordinate meetings for the Executive Director with country teams and partners; assist in the preparation and distribution of meeting agendas and materials.
  Support the Executive Director in coordinating priority initiatives, including tracking actions, timelines, and follow-ups across teams.
• Support the Executive Director in promoting the effective use of collaboration and productivity tools to enable asynchronous work and maximize team efficiency.
• Perform a variety of administrative, coordination, and document preparation tasks to support the Executive Director in managing country operations.

Donor Support

• Prepare comprehensive quarterly reports for management information and decisions. 
• Actively participate in donor review and reflection meetings, and highlight project successes, challenges, and mitigating measures to overcome challenges. 
• Track and monitor compliance with donor requirements and reporting deadlines
• Support board meeting preparation, including agenda development, materials preparation, and follow-up on action items

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

The successful candidate will possess the following competencies, experiences, and qualities: 

• Bachelor's degree in Project Management, Business Administration, Development Studies, Public Policy, or related field. Project Management Certification  is an added advantage.
• Minimum of 6-8 years of progressive experience in project management, program coordination, operations, or strategy roles within education, international development, or nonprofit sectors
• Strong digital literacy and proficiency with project management tools and methodologies

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Proven track record of managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects from initiation through completion
• Experience working in Malawi or similar contexts, with deep understanding of the education sector and government systems
• A track record of managing large, multi-stakeholder initiatives across community, district, and national levels.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills 
• Results-oriented with strong execution capabilities
• Strategic thinker with ability to translate vision into actionable plans
• Natural coordinator who thrives managing multiple priorities
• Excellent working knowledge of MS Office
• Ability to prioritize and display a high level of adaptability/flexibility while handling job responsibility

Qualities

•  Passion for Imagine’s mission and vision 
•  Demonstrated commitment to equity in educational access and outcomes
• Passion for project management
• Demonstrated ability to think independently and solve problems
• Collaborative team player; clear and proactive communicator
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to work in a fast-paced, changing environment

Location

The Project Manager must be based in Lilongwe, Malawi, with travel to field sites as required. The Project Manager will frequently collaborate and coordinate with the local team and Imagine Global. 

Compensation & Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience.

* * *

Imagine Worldwide is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

About Imagine Worldwide

All children have immense potential, but hundreds of millions don’t have access to the learning they need. Imagine Worldwide believes that every child should be empowered with the basic right to literacy and numeracy. We provide an innovative education technology solution and implementation model to the global literacy/numeracy learning crisis using the onebillion application and various toolkits and systems to support implementation. Our model is massively scalable, evidence-based, and can deliver foundational learning to millions of the most marginalized children.

Imagine Worldwide partners with governments, organizations, and communities to provide child-directed, tablet-based learning that is accessible, effective, and affordable. We are incorporated in California (United States) as a nonprofit organization, but operate in Sub-Saharan Africa through locally-registered entities in Malawi, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Learn more on our website.

About the Role

The Senior Director of Delivery is the second most senior leadership role in the organization, reporting directly to the Executive Director and serving as a key driver of Imagine Worldwide Malawi’s strategy and impact. This position plays a central role in advancing Imagine’s mission to design, deliver, and scale high-quality tablet-based learning solutions that enable children across Malawi to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy at national scale.

This role carries significant organizational value and influence. The Senior Director of Delivery is responsible for translating strategy into execution by ensuring that programs, technology, logistics, data systems, and partner engagement are aligned and operating effectively. The position provides executive-level oversight to ensure that implementation plans move beyond design into measurable, real-world impact in schools and communities.

Working across both global and in-country teams, the Senior Director of Delivery drives alignment, accountability, prioritization, and cross-functional problem-solving. The role ensures that learning programs launch successfully, operate reliably, and continuously improve through strong systems, data-driven decision-making, and collaborative leadership. As a senior organizational leader, the Senior Director of Delivery also contributes to shaping institutional culture, strengthening operational excellence, and guiding teams through periods of growth and scale.

The successful candidate will join a highly committed and collaborative leadership team dedicated to empowering every child, everywhere to reach their full potential. This position requires a strategic thinker with strong execution skills, the ability to lead across diverse teams and stakeholders, and a passion for delivering large-scale education transformation in Malawi.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Delivery Leadership

• Provide leadership and accountability for coordinated delivery across Programs, MEAL, Logistics, and Technical Services, ensuring work is coordinated to achieve program outcomes and operational reliability
• Serve as the country's primary integrator for delivery execution, ensuring leadership receives one coherent view of delivery progress, constraints, and decision needs.
• Shape and translate the country scale plan into clear delivery outcomes (e.g., launch readiness, device uptime, training completion, data completeness, time-on-task enablement) and hold delivery leaders accountable.
• Ensure coordination with global functions as needed and alignment with Imagine’s key performance areas and indicators.
• Contribute to discussions, policy notes, etc., as needed, on national scale and government transition.

Delivery Planning 

• Develop and own a single integrated delivery plan that synchronizes all delivery workstreams (launch preparation and recurring operations), with clear milestones, dependencies, resourcing assumptions, and accountable owners.
• Establish and lead a delivery operating rhythm (planning, execution reviews, performance reviews, and retrospectives) that drives disciplined execution, early risk detection, and timely decision-making.
• Balance competing priorities across delivery functions and make unified prioritization calls grounded in mission outcomes, data, capacity constraints, and delivery risk.
• Define and monitor delivery KPIs; track performance trends via a delivery performance dashboard; and drive corrective actions through structured data reviews and cross-functional problem-solving.
• Own delivery risk management and escalation by maintaining a delivery risks and issues register, proactively identifying material risks, defining mitigation plans with clear owners and timelines, and ensuring risks are escalated early through agreed pathways.
• Lead incident response for material delivery disruptions (e.g., rollout delays, uptime failures, safety/security incidents impacting learning, partner underperformance) by coordinating rapid triage, containment, root-cause analysis, and prevention of recurrence.
• Ensure transparent progress and governance reporting, including decision logs, escalation pathways, and measurement systems that support delivery improvement through data quality assurance and actionable insights.

Operational Excellence

• Build and maintain standardized training systems, SOPs, and capacity-building programs that ensure consistent, high-quality delivery at scale. Oversee delivery-critical partner performance (e.g., ISPs and service providers), ensuring clear expectations, coordinated work, and timely issue resolution.
• Codify best practices and policies that reduce institutional knowledge gaps and increase delivery resilience.
• Partner with the ED as a senior leader, providing integrated delivery oversight and escalating only the highest-priority issues requiring ED intervention. Contribute to the country leadership team by role-modeling Imagine values, driving organizational health, and leading through ambiguity and change.

People Management

• Line manage the delivery function leads (Directors of Program, Director Technical Services, Logistics Manager, and MEAL Manager). 
• Lead and manage staff reporting to them, setting clear expectations, priorities, and performance standards.
• Develop leadership capacity through coaching, feedback, performance management, and succession planning to support scale and sustainability.

Requirements

The successful candidate will possess the following competencies, experiences, and qualities:

Education and Work Experience

Bachelor's degree or higher with a minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in operations leadership, program delivery, or a similar senior role, including at least 5 years managing teams. Management consulting experience is a plus. 

Role-Specific Skills Required

• Significant experience in managing successful program scaling.  
• Proven track record in managing scale operations in complex environments working with multiple partners 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
• Strong ability to analyze and interpret data to inform decisions, coupled with proven project management skills to plan, execute, and deliver projects effectively.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills and ability to proactively manage and resolve conflicts
• Excellent understanding of budgets, financial processesR, reporting requirements, and compliance regulations within donor-funded grants and contracts
• Ability to work effectively in multicultural environments and teams 
• Strong organizational skills, superior attention to detail, ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Compensation & Benefits

Location

The Senior Director of Delivery must be based in Malawi

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis

* * *

Imagine Worldwide is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

Your journey to leading impact at one of Africa’s leading social enterprises starts here.

Agriculture is one of Africa’s leading employers, engaging 46% of the population, with smallholder farmers producing 80% of the continent’s food. We have made it our life’s work to make these smallholder farmers more prosperous. One Acre Fund is a non-profit social enterprise headquartered in East Africa, and we exist to help smallholder farmers grow more food and earn more money. By 2030, we will be serving over 10 million farmers, generating $1 billion in impact along the way.

If you’re reading this, we believe you could be a part of that growth.

The Future Leaders Program is a 12-month program designed to provide high-potential, impact-driven professionals such as yourself the opportunity to get hands-on experience with some of our most impactful work, coupled with targeted mentorship and professional development. Simply put, the Future Leaders Program is an accelerated path to where your career ambitions and potential impact meet.

If you meet these requirements, then apply below!

You should have:

1. The right to work in one of our existing countries of operation (Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, Burundi, or Malawi). We are unable to sponsor a work permit.
2. A bachelor’s degree or higher.
3. 2-4 years of relevant work experience
4. Working proficiency in English, with fluency in one of our program country languages (Swahili, Kirundi, Amharic, Chichewa, French, etc.) is desired.

And have an aptitude for:

1. Exceptional project management and stakeholder engagement skills.
2. Quickly translating strategy memos into structured project plans.
3. Designing systems, processes, and partnerships from the ground up.
4. Using data and sound business judgment to guide decisions and shape recommendations.
5. Some experience in or exposure to social enterprises, agriculture and/or rural development programs is advantageous, but not required.

Note: One Acre Fund cannot support a work permit for this role, all candidates must have the right to work in one of our program countries