Business Planning and Analysis Director

ABOUT ALU

ALU provides higher education for a higher purpose. Our students declare missions, not majors.They develop the real-world skills to take on the world’s most pressing challenges. And they take ownership of their learning from day one through our peer and student-led approach – because ALU believes in the power and agency of young people to start shaping the future right now. Together with a world-class faculty and staff, our students are igniting a ripple of positive impact across Africa and the world.

We are dedicated to fostering an open yet secure environment, balancing the safety of students, staff, and visitors with respect for individual rights, and safeguarding responsibilities.

HOW WE WORK

The ALU Team works in starkly different ways to traditional academic bureaucracies. We approach education from first principles, empower individuals to design, test, and implement creative new ideas, and work closely together to craft transformative learning experiences. We are deeply passionate about our students and excited by the challenge of building something entirely new.

The African Leadership University is committed to ensuring the safety and Well-being of all students under our care. As part of this commitment , we have a comprehensive safeguarding policy in place , which outlines our Zero-tolerance approach to any violation of safeguarding.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As part of our strategic growth, we are seeking a Business Planning & Analysis Director to drive organizational excellence and support our mission. The ideal candidate is a strategic operator with a strong analytical foundation and an execution mindset, able to translate complexity into clarity and drive alignment across diverse teams. A systems thinker who thrives at the intersection of strategy, operations, and data. The Business Planning & Analysis Director (BP&A) serves as the organization’s integrator, ensuring that strategy, performance, and execution are coherent, aligned, and data-informed.

This role leads the business planning cycle, owns our performance management framework and builds analytical insights for decision-making, and drives operational excellence through process optimization and risk management.

The BP&A Director is both a strategic planner and an execution architect, ensuring that priorities are translated into actionable and measurable plans, monitored through robust systems and reliable data, and continuously improved through disciplined analysis and operational refinement.

The Director also establishes systems to monitor process discipline and efficacy, ensuring that operational improvements translate into sustained performance and accountability across the institution.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Business Planning & Strategy Execution

• Lead the annual and multi-year business planning cycle, translating strategic priorities into measurable operational and financial targets.

• Coordinate institutional planning inputs from departments and campuses, ensuring coherence and resource alignment.

• Develop and maintain the organizational performance framework, aligned to organizational goals and KPIs, and planning calendar, that integrates finance, operations, and strategic milestones.

• Partner with Finance and all departments to align forecasts, enrollment targets, and investment plans with institutional priorities.

• Develop forward-looking models and business cases to guide decision-making and growth planning.

• In collaboration with the Finance Performance team and the Data team, drive periodic performance reviews, building dashboard and analysis, and consolidating insights from across functions.

• Develop performance dashboard and report, from Management committees to board updates.

Operational Excellence & Process Optimization

• Lead the process mapping and optimization agenda, ensuring that core business processes are efficient, standardized, and scalable.

• Identify operational bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and duplication across the value chain (e.g., admissions, finance, academic delivery).

• Design and implement systems and metrics to measure process adherence, efficiency, and effectiveness.

• Oversee implementation of improvement initiatives in collaboration with function heads and the transformation office to drive standardization, automation and continuous improvement.

• Partner with function heads to ensure processes are embedded, followed, and continuously improved.

• Partner with the Systems and Data teams to ensure automation, process integration, and digital enablement.

Risk Management & Institutional Resilience

• Serve as custodian of the institutional risk register, ensuring systematic identification, assessment, and mitigation of risks.

• Lead quarterly risk reviews with ExCo and ensure linkages between risk management, performance, and planning.

• Partner with Legal, Finance, and People & Culture to strengthen enterprise governance and business continuity strategies that enhance organizational resilience, agility, and sustained performance.

• Embed risk awareness into planning and project management processes.

• Coordinate with department heads to ensure that controls are effectively integrated into day-to-day operations.

• Provide training and support to staff on control processes and compliance requirements.

Systems, Data & Insight Enablement

• Partner with Data teams to ensure consistency and reliability of institutional data sources.

• Develop dashboards and reports that track both performance outcomes and process adherence indicators.

• Conduct analysis and scenario modeling to assess process impact on institutional performance and guide decision-making.

Ensure the safety and well-being of all young persons and vulnerable adults with whom we deal, by adhering to ALU’s comprehensive safeguarding policy, maintaining a zero-tolerance approach to any violations of safeguarding standards.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• 8–12 years’ experience in business performance management, strategic planning, operational excellence management, financial planning analysis or related roles.

• Proven experience leading planning or performance cycles in complex, multi-unit organizations.

• Strong analytical and modeling skills; proficiency in dashboards and performance reporting tools (Excel, Power BI, Google Suite, or equivalent).

• Demonstrated success in process improvement, risk management, and data-driven decision support.

• Exposure to risk management frameworks and organizational governance preferred.

• Experience in education, mission-driven, or growth-stage organizations is an advantage.

• Project management experience

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Systems thinking and structured problem solving

• Strategic and operational planning

• Process mapping and continuous improvement

• Data-driven analysis and storytelling

• Risk awareness and mitigation planning

• Stakeholder alignment and influence across functions

You might be a good fit if you:

• Are resilient: We move fast, and things can change quickly, so you're not afraid of adapting to strategy changes and updates. You demonstrate tenacity and a willingness to go the distance to get things done

• Are a self starter: you know how to build in complexity, how to pivot, and how to ensure that things work sustainably, with rigor, discipline and follow-through

• Are an enthusiastic and energetic leader who thrives in a collaborative environment and has a creative, engaging, and people-focused attitude.

• Are comfortable defaulting to over-communication and overreaching when it comes to coordination

• Are flexible to work irregular hours

• Are comfortable traveling regularly to meet your team members and the rest of the leadership team

Location: Remote / relocation support offered to our operations