Senior Operations Manager

Senior Operations Manager
Remote (based in Sub-Saharan Africa)

Position Overview
The Senior Operations Manager will lead the design, iteration, and maintenance of our organizational and operational systems, policies and processes to ensure our entire team can execute our mission smoothly. We are a
fast growing start-up fund and this role will help prepare our operations for continued growth while ensuring alignment to our values.
The Senior Operations Manager will work closely with our co-CEOs to improve existing systems, create new, human-centered, and equity-minded operational systems, and build an organizational culture that effectively
delivers our mission, takes care of our people, and innovates beyond typical non-profit operations. The ideal candidate will have strong systems and operational chops, high emotional intelligence with a knack for collaborative design, and share our passion for creating a new type of non-profit organizational culture that honors humans, prioritizes collective care, and resists “grind culture.”
We are in the midst of raising $10M by EOY 2023, with a larger goal of driving $50M+ in catalytic resources to
African founders via a new fund by 2030. Aside from managing these innovative funding vehicles, we want to help
the entire philanthropic ecosystem center equity and shift power and resources to African innovators. We are a nimble start-up on a mission to live out our values in every aspect of our work. The Senior Operations Manager will have a unique opportunity to build organizational systems, policies and processes that push the boundaries of
how operations can look when centering the experience of our partners and putting people first.

About the African Visionary Fund
The African Visionary Fund (AVFund) is unleashing breakthrough impact by driving resources to high-impact
African founders. Our belief is simple—when tackling challenges and improving lives on the continent, proximity
matters. Despite their potential for impact, African-led organizations receive less than 5.2% of all US foundation
giving across Africa and less than 0.4% of all international funding. We envision a world where African visionaries
are recognized and resourced by funders for their ability to accelerate progress and drive systems change on the
continent.
The AVFund got started in 2020 and we are entering an exciting moment of growth as we expand our funding
partnerships and our portfolio of African changemakers, launch our philanthropic systems change strategy, and
grow our team to help us deliver on our ambitious vision. We have a small but mighty team of 7 spread across 3
time zones and 4 countries. In the last three years we have raised close to $8M, committed over $4.5M in flexible
multi-year funding to 25 African changemakers, been featured in the New York Times and The Guardian, and we
are just getting started!
We believe deeply in our core values of Transformative Impact, Equity, Solidarity, Trust and Integrity, and Striving
to Learn. We strive to take the path aligned to these values at every decision juncture, even if the less

values-aligned path might be faster or easier. We are looking for team members who are passionate and dedicated
to these values and who will continue to challenge us to live into them at every turn. Learn more about our values here.

What You’ll Do
Organizational Operations (~50%)
● Lead on all our organizational goals and projects that cover operations, organizational development, HR,
and legal compliance.
● Iterate and lead our annual work planning processes with our team, including ensuring regular reflection,
learning, and feedback loops.
● Lead our organizational transition from fiscal sponsorship to an independent entity, including US & Africa
legal registrations and set-up. This will include designing operations and ensuring legal compliance in
multiple geographies over the next few years.
○ Build and maintain cutting edge operational systems across the organization that are
human-centered and values-aligned. This may include developing SOPs, streamlining operations
across departments, documenting processes, etc.
○ Review, develop and implement all organizational policies to ensure values alignment, smooth and
effective operations, as well as legal compliance across multiple geographies.
● Manage existing technology resources including IT service providers, collaborative apps, and
communications systems, such as Salesforce, SmartSheet, Slack, GSuite, Google Drive, and Zoom.
● Build out centralized HR systems to ensure consistency and values-alignment in our hiring processes,
contracting, onboarding, job descriptions, compensation and performance management systems, and HR
data management.
● Work closely with co-CEOs to build organizational culture through team engagement and ensure our
values and core principles are embedded into all policies and systems, as well as lived out in how our team
collaborates and works together.
Grantmaking Operations (~30%)
● Build trust-based and human-centered grantmaking systems (grant agreements, disbursements, data
management, etc) that ensure our legal compliance while also innovating on traditional grantmaking
systems in order to create a positive, low burden, and respectful experience for all grantee partners.
● Lead our grants management systems, working in close partnerships with our Programs team, to
ensure on time grant disbursements, management of grant and reporting timelines.
● Build, maintain and execute systems of technical and legal due diligence including equivalency
determinations, compliance checks, grant agreements and all required reporting of our disbursements.
● Upon organizational transition out of fiscal sponsorship, spearhead the design of grantmaking
templates including grant agreements, reporting schedules, and policies.
Finance Coordination (~20%)
● Manage AVFund’s relationship with our finance and accounting management service providers, ensuring
timely monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting; and smooth monthly payment and bookkeeping
processes.

● Work closely with our financial management consultants and co-CEOs to lead annual organizational
budget creation and projections for future year budgets aligned to our strategy and growth goals.
● Ensure efficient and effective budget management, working closely with our financial management service
provierss to produce monthly and quarterly budget vs actual and cash flow reports. Act as the internal
budget lead understanding our different budget priorities and funding flows in depth.
● Work closely with financial management service providerss to produce accurate and accessible financial
reports for funders and our board of directors.
● Partner with our financial management service providers to ensure federal and state legal compliance
including supporting our audit and tax filing processes.

What You’ll Bring
Our ideal Senior Operations Manager is a systems-oriented executor, empathetic collaborator, and is deeply
passionate about upending philanthropic inequities to drive resources to African founders. The ideal candidate has
experience working or collaborating with local social impact organizations. AVFund knows the potency and power
of impact when it is driven by local changemakers, and we want our Senior Operations Manager to help develop
and maintain an organization committed to changing philanthropic systems and norms.
● You possess strong operations leadership and project management skills with the ability to successfully
handle multiple moving pieces ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
● You have at least 4 years of experience in operations leadership and at least 10 years of overall work
experience.
● You see an opportunity to transform the development and non-profit sector by aligning operations with
human-centred values and challenging the status quo.
● You have a track record of managing the balance between systems and people – you design great systems
but you do so in ways that are collaborative and incorporate the human element of implementing systems.
● You have high emotional intelligence and build relationships of trust and mutual respect with colleagues.
You build systems that help people thrive and lead with patience and empathy in supporting colleagues to
help systems thrive.
● You are a self-starter who is resourceful, has a high level of initiative and a strong ability to work
independently. You have a strong ability to make decisions based on information and insights gathered.
● Proven ability in reviewing, analysing, and providing strategic feedback on budgets, financial reports, audit
reports, etc.
● Ability to gather information, research, and insights to gain deep understanding of new topics or areas of
work to create valuable recommendations to move projects forward.
● You have a track record in creating operations systems from scratch and iterating on existing systems to
make them more effective and user-friendly.
● You love working in start-up environments, are highly agile, and are comfortable with creating results even
when faced with ambiguity and changing contexts.
● You have an understanding of the social impact space, funding, and the inequities present in both spaces.
You have a strong belief in the power of community-driven development and the importance of African
social changemakers being at the forefront of development.
● You love systems, keeping operations humming, and you are often known as a team member who excels
at keeping things on track.

● You can effectively communicate about systems and processes in ways that bring your ideas to life for
colleagues who are not as systems-oriented.
● You have experience in and enjoy managing people and supporting managers to support their teams. This
role will not include a lot of people management at the start but will as we grow.
● Strong cultural awareness to work in a very diverse work environment of teams across cultures and
timezones.
● Familiarity with Google Suites, Slack, Smartsheet, and Salesforce a big plus
Additional Information
● This is a Africa-based full time remote role of 40 hours per week, location flexible within Sub-Saharan
Africa.
● While there is some autonomy and flexibility of work schedule during the week, the typical hours for this
role are 9am-5pm EAT, Monday-Friday.
● The role requires some travel, likely 1-2 trips per year or as needed.
● The compensation for this position will be commensurate with experience, alongside such benefits as
generous PTO and health insurance and retirement savings stipends.
● AVFund believes our team is better and stronger with a diversity of perspectives and experiences. We
welcome applications from candidates historically underrepresented in the nonprofit sector, especially
within the international development sector. AVFund is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is
committed to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment.

To Apply
● Please fill out this form https://bit.ly/OpsApplication. Be sure to answer all questions comprehensively and
concisely.
● You will be asked to upload your CV as part of the application form. Please ensure your CV is in PDF
format, tailored to this role and no more than 4 pages.
● Applications will be shortlisted on a rolling basis. Due to the high number of applications anticipated, only
shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
● Recruitment process in partnership with edge. All emails regarding this role will come from email accounts in the domains @edgeperformance.co.ke and @africanvisionary.org. If you have any questions, please reach out to [email protected].