How you'll help us achieve it

We are seeking a Strategic People Partner who combines curiosity, strategic thinking, and hands-on HR delivery. This Partner will help us shape our people's experience, talent initiatives, and ultimately own an org/s as a trusted People Partner.

You’ll partner across teams to strengthen how we grow, support, and develop Wavers. Your work will touch key areas such as: performance coaching, development, talent management, organizational design and employee experience, while also supporting talent programs.

In this role, you'll;

• Support Organizational Design & Effectiveness

  • Partner with business leads to assess and evolve team structures that enable collaboration and effectiveness.
  • Facilitate organization health reviews, using people analytics to identify strengths, gaps, and growth opportunities.
  • Support managers on change management, team design, and culture alignment as their orgs scale.
  • Contribute to cross-functional projects that enhance employee experience, performance, and engagement.

  Learning & Development Collaborations

  • Partner with the L&D team and business leads to identify development needs and learning priorities across functions.
  • Support individual development planning and ensure learning insights are embedded into performance and career frameworks.
  • Track participation, to inform continuous improvement of learning initiatives.

  Talent Management & Growth

  • Partner with leaders to map career paths and growth frameworks across their teams.
  • Support performance review cycles, calibrations, and feedback conversations that drive meaningful development.
  • Build visibility into succession planning, and emerging talent across Wave.
  • Collaborate with the Talent team, to ensure a consistent strong pipeline of talent during hiring processes.

  Grow our Talent & Development Programs

  • Manage Wave’s internship and Support rotation programs: canvassing roles, coordinating interviews, onboarding, and successful integration.
  • Partner with leads to identify high-performing participants for continued development and full-time conversion opportunities.

  Strengthen Employer Branding 

  • Collaborate with Marketing and Comms to capture authentic stories that reflect Wave’s culture and employee experiences.
  • Contribute to content for social channels, events, and recruiting campaigns showcasing Wave as a great place to grow.

Key details

• Location: You'll work from our office in Abidjan and may travel to field locations.
• Work authorization in Côte d'Ivoire. 
• This is a permanent position.
• Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula. 
• We offer generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents.
• We support working parents - we offer 26 weeks of parental leave for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers, in addition to subsidized child care when they return to work.
• Airtime reimbursement.
• Free food and a beautiful office space.

Requirements

• 5-8 years of experience in Recruiting, Learning & Development, Talent management, or HRBP in a high-growth environment
• A degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, or equivalent.
• French and English proficiency. 
• Demonstrated background in talent and leadership management, as well as a proven ability to attract and retain outstanding talent and motivate high-performing teams.
• Hands-on operational experience in managing employee relations. 
• Ability to work with a variety of organizational leaders, to build consensus around HR strategy and tactics.
• Excellent negotiation and conflict resolution skills in dealing with sensitive employee issues and managing cultural differences.

You might be a good fit if you

• Are strategically minded but operationally hands-on. You can design frameworks and also execute them.
• Have strong coaching, facilitation, and communication skills, with a passion for helping others grow.
• Are analytical and data-informed, using insights to guide decisions and measure impact.
• Excel at building relationships and trust, partnering across multiple levels and cultures.
• Are curious, proactive, and adaptable; you thrive in a fast-moving, mission-driven environment.

About the ONE Academy Project

ONE Academy is a free dynamic online learning platform designed to equip global activists and young people with the knowledge, tools, and skills to drive social change, promoting healthier lives and economic vitality in their communities. The platform is built to be accessible, interactive, and scalable, delivering high-quality educational content while fostering peer learning and community engagement, including in low-bandwidth environments.

For this project, ONE Academy will build on its existing platform to support foundational learning reform and youth-led advocacy in Kenya and Senegal to improve learning outcomes. This training module will be hosted on the ONE Academy platform and delivered in English, French, Wolof, and Swahili, with the aim of supporting real-world foundational learning system reform efforts in both countries.

Role Purpose

The Foundational Learning Lead will drive the end-to-end design and delivery of ONE Academy’s flagship learning module. As the technical authority on learning design and pedagogy, they will both create high-quality learning materials and ensure all content meets rigorous standards of instructional quality, relevance, and evidence-based practice.

They will play a critical role in translating foundational learning concepts into engaging, accessible, and action-oriented learning experiences for young people, with a strong emphasis on advocacy and real-world application. The role includes leading curriculum design, aligning inputs from partners, and overseeing the creation of engaging, evidence-based learning materials. 

Project Duration

May - October 2026

In this role, the successful candidate will:

• Define the learning architecture, curriculum, and progression pathways;
• Develop high-quality learning materials across all units;
• Guide, review, and ensure the quality of all materials;
• Align inputs from partners to ensure coherence;
• Ensure the program is pedagogically sound, engaging, and actionable.

 Core Responsibilities

1. Learning Strategy & Curriculum Design

• Lead the design of the overall learning framework and curriculum structure that is engaging, interactive, and tailored to youth audiences.
• Define learning objectives, competencies, and progression pathways.
• Structure the module across thematic units including:
  1. Structured Pedagogy Fundamentals;
  2. Targeted Instruction Principles;
• Science of Teaching Principles;
• Data & Evidence for Decision-Making;
• National Language Instruction – teaching kids in a language they understand;
• Responsible AI for Learning Outcomes;
• Investment Case for Foundational Learning – cost effectiveness + budgeting;
• Government Engagement, Civil Society Collaboration, and Coalition building;
• Youth Movement-Building.

1. Pedagogical Oversight & Quality Assurance

• Set instructional design standards for all learning materials.
• Review and validate materials produced by multimedia teams, ensuring it is evidence-based; contextually relevant, and engaging for youth audiences.

1. Content Design

• Design detailed lesson plans, core instructional content, and activities for each unit, ensuring clarity and coherence, strong learning outcomes, and practical applicability.
• Develop assessment tools such as quizzes, reflection prompts, and applied learning tasks.
• Incorporate interactive and participatory elements (e.g. decision-making exercises) to drive youth engagement and retention.

1. Localization & Relevance

• Ensure curriculum is adaptable across Kenya and Senegal contexts as well as multiple languages (EN, FR, WO, SWA).

1. Low-resource Settings Adaptation 

• Define learner experience requirements for accessibility and engagement in low-resource settings (e.g., offline features, mobile-first, low bandwidth).
• Assess and validate whether ONE Academy’s features effectively support learner uptake, comprehension, and engagement in low-resource settings. Recommend adjustments to content and learning design as needed.

1. Youth-Centered Design

• Integrate youth feedback into curriculum refinement.
• Ensure the learning experience supports:
  • Action-oriented advocacy;
  • Movement-building skills;
  • Real-world application including clear pathways from learning to action.

1. Collaboration & Advisory

• Work closely to advise product and platform teams, external subject-matter experts, and country partners.
• Support coherence across all components of the program.
• Learning Framework & Curriculum Architecture

• (competencies, structure, unit outlines)
• Detailed Module Design & Learning Material
  (learning objectives, authored lesson content, scripts, activities, and assessments across all units)
• Instructional Design Guidelines
  (for external multimedia content developers)
• Quality Assurance Reviews
  (validated script and learning materials)
• Localization Guidance
  (adaptation approach for Kenya & Senegal contexts)
• Feedback Loop & Continuous Improvement (to glean outcomes and feedback from learners, country partners, and stakeholders)

  Success Indicators

• Curriculum is:
  • Pedagogically sound;
  • Coherent across all units;
  • Adaptable across countries and languages.
  • Tailored to youth audiences (18-35).
• Learning content produced meets defined instructional quality standards.
• Demonstrated impact through positive feedback from pilot learners, country partners, and key stakeholders.
• Strong learner engagement and completion during the pilot phase.

 Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree (or higher) in Education, Curriculum Design, Pedagogy, or related field.
• 5+ years’ experience in foundational learning and curriculum and instructional design.
• Proven experience designing engaging, action-oriented learning experiences for youth (18-35), ideally linked to advocacy, civic engagement, or social impact.
• Demonstrated expertise in evidence-based pedagogy and learning design for low-resource context.
• Strong skills in youth-focused storytelling, messaging, and learner engagement.
• Excellent ability to translate theory into practical learning design and provide structured feedback to multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong understanding of advocacy with civil society and engagement with government.
• Experience reviewing and guiding e-learning content development.
• Proven experience designing youth-focused programs or campaigns. 

Preferred

• Multilingual with proficiency in English and French (Compulsory).
• Experience in Kenya and/or Senegal.
• Familiarity with multilingual education environments.
• Exposure to digital learning platforms or edtech.