ABOUT ALA:

African Leadership Academy (ALA) seeks to transform Africa by identifying, developing, and connecting the next generation of ethical and entrepreneurial African leaders. Since 2008, ALA has built a pan-African community of young leaders who are driving impact across sectors and geographies.

Through a world-class residential secondary school in South Africa and a lifelong leadership development model, ALA equips high-potential youth with the skills, networks, and opportunities to accelerate Africa’s growth and prosperity.

POSITION OVERVIEW:

At ALA, we believe in embedding data into the way that we work across all parts of the organization, not in creating separate institutional learning/impact measurement silos. ALA believes that all employees of the organization should own and lead the measurement of our work activities towards the organization’s mission and vision. Therefore, the Institutional Learning (IL) department works closely with program teams to steward ALA’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) activities across all divisions. This work includes:

• the systemic collection, storage, and observation of program data, supporting program teams to improve their data literacy and behaviours,
• evaluating ALA's Progress against its Mission and building a common M&E understanding and practice, and
• sharing evidence-based learning internally to inform and strengthen our program delivery, and externally to advance ALA's contribution towards transforming the African continent.

The Impact Manager for Career Networks manages the close collaboration between the IL department and ALA’s Africa Career Networks (ACN) team. ACN is focused on enabling students and alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program and African Leadership Academy to access transformative early-career opportunities and accelerate their progression to impact through the world of work. This is achieved through: 1) the existing AL Networks, 2) enabling others to build career networks for young Africans, 3) investing in ALA as a center for career preparation and alumni engagement innovation, and 4) developing and sharing stories, learning, and insights.

The Impact Manager for Africa Career Networks will report directly to the Director of Institutional Learning but will work closely with the African Careers Network Program team and attend many of their internal meetings and events.

• Support the development of robust MERL frameworks, appropriate indicators, and utilize tools like the Logical Framework Approach (LFA).
• Design and administer data collection tools aligned with MERL frameworks across a range of grants, ensuring alignment across all the networks.
• Contribute to strategic planning, implementation, and redesign of high-quality data systems to capture, audit, analyse, and retrieve critical organizational performance and program impact metrics.
• Manage data visualization platforms to ensure that program teams can monitor their progress against results and articulate progress against ALA’s strategic priorities.
• Support and manage the routine collection, audit, and analysis of program impact metrics.

• Analyse quantitative and qualitative data and communicate verbal, visual, and written insights, learnings, and recommendations to internal and external audiences.
• Support evaluations by external experts such that they support our internal learning agenda and program strengthening.
• Engage with program teams as a thought partner to enable strategic and operational decision-making that is grounded in empirical program data and internal and external learnings.
  

• Produce periodic reports and/or dashboards for internal and external stakeholders.
• Support donor proposal development and donor reporting processes and requirements.
• Communicate donor requirements and ensure compliance in the programmes you support.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS AND SELECTION CRITERIA

Required Education and Experience: 

• A post-graduate degree in any of the following fields: Development, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, or Statistics with a research component.
• Qualification in monitoring and evaluation will be an added advantage.
• 5 years of general work experience or at least 2-3 years’ experience in MERL.

COMPETENCIES: 

Technical competencies: 

• Monitoring and Evaluation specialist with a good understanding of the monitoring and evaluation methodologies for development programmes.
• Proficiency in using data analysis and visualization tools (e.g., Excel, SPSS, Tableau, Power BI) to interpret complex data and translate it into actionable insights.

Generic Competencies

• Strategic and analytical skills - Analyzing complex data and research to identify opportunities for increasing impact.
• Project management skills - Strong skills in planning, executing, and monitoring projects to ensure efficiency and maximum impact.
• Communication and Facilitation - Effectively translating data and project results into compelling narratives/dashboards for different stakeholders.
• Strong writing skills – concise, clear, and articulate.

Attributes

• Stakeholder Engagement: Building relationships with diverse stakeholders, including funders, beneficiaries, and collaborators.
• Critical Thinking and problem solving: Be able to analyse situations, identify problems, and develop solutions, as well as think critically about the data and its implications.
• Adaptability and Flexibility: Being able to adjust to changing circumstances, learning new skills, and embrace innovation.
• Teamwork: Collaborating effectively with colleagues, sharing knowledge, and working towards common goals.
  
• Leadership: Inspiring and motivating teams, providing guidance and support, and fostering a collaborative environment.

Report to: Director of Institutional Learning
Job Location: ALA Campus, Honeydew, Johannesburg
Start date: 01 June 2026