Learning Design Manager , East Africa (18-Month fixed term contract)

Acumen Academy is seeking a Learning Design Manager with a minimum of 8 years of professional experience, including at least 3 years in designing or delivering programs for African social entrepreneurs; to help with the ongoing design and production of our capacity-building programs for social entrepreneurs.

This is a great opportunity for a strong designer, writer, and communicator seeking to work on a fast-moving global team. This hybrid position is located in Nairobi with an expectation of working from the office 3 days a week. Remote from other geographies is not an option.

The role is offered on a 18-month fixed term contract basis.

About Acumen

Acumen is a global force of entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and social innovators working together to build a world based on dignity. We were founded by Jacqueline Novogratz on the radical idea that business, when cultivated with moral imagination, can break the cycle of poverty. We invest in transformational companies, build sustainable markets, and prepare leaders with the tools they need to create a more just and inclusive future. Since 2001, we have scaled companies and shaped markets in some of the hardest-to-reach communities on the planet, impacting over half-a-billion lives. To learn more visit acumen.org.

About the role

Acumen is expanding its program suite to better support the needs of social entrepreneurs in East and West Africa who are at the pre-investment stage. This role will collaborate closely with existing team members to conceptualize, design, and develop a range of new curricula and learning experiences, while also supporting ongoing improvements to existing programs that advance early-stage social enterprises.

You will be part of a team working on a new pan-Africa program, collaborating closely with a diverse mix of colleagues to bring the program to life. You will report into Acumen Academy’s central curriculum design team and be managed by the Associate Director, Curriculum & Learning Design, who is based in London.

Accountabilities include:

• Create user personas, define learning outcomes, and draw upon extensive user research to shape the programs, learning materials, and content you produce.

• Understand the learners' business models, stage of growth, market contexts, and key barriers to scale, tailoring program design accordingly.

• Design program arcs that include sequencing learning, mentoring, funding, milestones, and events to maximize engagement and progression.

• Design programs that translate learning into tangible business, social, and systemic outcomes. Key areas include job creation, resilient business models, investment readiness, and expanded impact.

• Ensure a cohesive learning experience that aligns content, delivery, and engagement methods with the needs, contexts, and learning styles of target groups.

• Ensure that all programs and learning experiences are grounded in Acumen Academy’s learning design principles and values, aligning content and delivery with our mission to develop moral and effective leaders who drive systemic change.

• Collaborate with the impact team to define and track metrics that measure engagement, learning outcomes, behavioral shifts, and the longer-term impact on learners’ work or communities.

• Integrate feedback loops and data collection processes to continually refine and improve the program.

• Create experiences that maximize the development of “social capital” through interactions among participants, mentors, experts, and investors, thereby strengthening the ecosystem surrounding each venture.

• Where necessary, adapt Acumen Academy’s existing content and curricula to ensure they align with the cultural, professional, and geographic contexts of the target group.

• Where necessary, design and produce new materials, ranging from modular e-learning content, workshops, practical assignments/tools, facilitated immersive experiences, and mentoring/coaching.

• Identify and support the management of suitable subject matter experts and relevant third-party business development support providers to bolster learning programs.

• Support the program delivery teams with learner troubleshooting and identify areas where the learner journey could be improved.

• Work collaboratively across internal functions, including with the marketing team, to ensure brand compliance of any new content created.

Skills and qualifications

• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience, including at least 3 years of designing or delivering programs for African social entrepreneurs.

• Experience with learning design, pedagogy, curriculum development, content production, and facilitation.

• Experience setting up large-scale mentoring programs.

• Experience in co-creating with third-party delivery partners, subject matter experts, and consultants.

• Detail-oriented project manager.

• Strong writing and editing skills.

• Critical thinker accustomed to working, problem-solving, and collaborating thoughtfully with different colleagues and personalities, at all levels both externally and internally, and across a variety of functions and geographies.

• Experience working in East Africa and other regions in the continent , preferred

• Effective collaborator able to work with different colleagues and personalities, at all levels both externally and internally, and across a variety of functions and geography.

• Advanced knowledge of business skills and the investment readiness process gained via experience with an accelerator or venture studio (desirable).

• Familiarity with human-centered design and lean start-up approaches (desirable).

Location : Nairobi, Kenya

Deadline: Candidates are encouraged to apply early, as applications will be reviewed, and interviews will be scheduled on a rolling basis.

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