Learning and Development Lead at Jaza Energy Tanzania

Jaza is working to power Sub-Saharan Africa. We build solar-powered shops which charge batteries customers use to power their homes. Since 2022, we’ve achieved over 4 million battery swaps, providing approximately 225,000 people access to clean, affordable energy.

We employ women from each community (known as Jaza Stars) to run the service, empowering our team to become leaders, entrepreneurs and drivers of economic growth within their communities. For more information on what we are building, check out www.jazaenergy.com and watch the video the BBC made about Jaza here.

Position Overview

As the Learning & Development Lead, you will build Jaza’s learning function from the ground up, shaping how all of Jaza’s talent grows and performs – from global leadership to our frontline Jaza Stars – as the organization rapidly scales across the African continent. You will not just manage a department; you will be a strategic architect of growth, designing the strategic plan, hiring a high-performing team, and executing high-impact learning strategies that directly support business outcomes and enable capability building at scale.

We are looking for someone with an entrepreneurial mindset who is eager to build implement, learn, and iterate by listening to team members and using data strategically to track and grow impact .

A central part of your mandate will be the Jaza Academy, where you will apply human-centered design to create practical, engaging learning experiences for teams in rural and frontier markets to support Jaza’s mission in scaling and while sustaining exemplary service in established locations. You will also work closely with our C-suite to strengthen leadership maturity and embed a high-performance, values-driven culture, ensuring that our growth into new countries is grounded training excellence and promotes our unique organizational culture. This role requires a rare blend of strategic vision, empathy, implementation rigor and the ability to move seamlessly between tailored executive development and scaled frontline empowerment. To achieve this ambitious mandate, you will recruit and build out an internal team to manage and deliver this programming, as well as forging strategic partnerships.

Roles & Responsibilities

Group Learning Strategy, Integration & Leadership

• Define and drive the global L&D agenda to ensure every initiative is aligned with Jaza’s mission and rapid global expansion.
• Architect the L&D department’s structure, identifying key roles and hiring the talent necessary to scale the function.
• Oversee design and delivery of high-impact programs for the C-suite and senior leaders to drive strategic alignment, executive maturity, and a high-performance culture.
• Establish clear impact measurement strategies focused on long-term behavioral change and business impact rather than just activity outputs.
• Implement a "Train-the-Trainer" framework that equips managers with the coaching skills and confidence to develop their teams with increasing autonomy.
• Partner with the Talent Lead and Business Leads to ensure L&D is woven into the fabric of performance management and talent acquisition at local level.
• Manage the L&D budget, vendor relationships, and global learning technologies (LMS), ensuring tools are fit-for-purpose in diverse, low-bandwidth environments.
  

Jaza Academy Innovation & Design

• Work with software and business teams to conceive and build an innovative Academy for Jaza Stars, utilizing "EdTech" solutions like WhatsApp-native learning and AI.
• Lead the creation of technical and foundational business/entrepreneurship programs specifically tailored for rural Africa.
• Ensure all content resonates across diverse cultures, accounting for variations in language, gender dynamics, community trust, and local institutions.
• Oversee capacity-building programs that empower Jaza Stars to become leaders and entrepreneurs within their communities.
  

Program Implementation, Technical Training & Measurement

• Oversee the delivery of high-quality technical skills training to onboard technicians, market expansion teams, and operations staff.
• Direct the design and implementation of a certification program to validate critical competencies before team members are deployed to the field.
• Track and report on training efficacy, monitoring how programs influence business KPIs such as revenue growth and reduced operational errors.
• Provide strategic direction and mentorship to facilitators and program managers, empowering them to autonomously deliver high impact training.
  

Field Commitment

Willingness to spend 20% of your time in the field, working directly with frontline teams to validate program effectiveness and ensure high impact adoption of the Jaza model.

Why You Should Apply

Be part of one of the most exciting growth phases at Jaza. We’ve proven our model, now we’re scaling fast, and your work will directly shape our teams, culture, and long-term impact, giving you a front-row seat to meaningful systems-building and rapid organizational growth.

Work with an international team across Canada, China, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and the United States, gaining exposure to diverse markets, leadership styles, and cross-cultural collaboration that will accelerate your professional growth.

Qualifications

Experience & Competencies

• 10+ years of deep experience in Learning & Development, Talent Strategy, or Functional Enablement. We value experience gained within a specific business unit or as a business owner (e.g., entrepreneurship, sales, operations, etc) provided the primary focus was the design, delivery, and scaling of learning ecosystems.
• 5+ years in a Leadership capacity. You must have experience not just managing people, but owning the vision, budget, and long-term roadmap for a learning function.
• 3+ years of expertise in rural Sub-Saharan Africa or frontier markets, with deep cross-cultural humility and the ability to adapt programming to regional frontline realities.
• Track record of designing high-impact learning programming, ideally targeted at rural frontline teams.
• Mastery of human-centered design principles, with a focus on building bespoke, innovative solutions rather than applying "off-the-shelf" programs.
• Data-savvy mindset with a history of using metrics to support programming efficacy and connect it to business outcomes.
• Strategic ability to partner with the C-suite and manage global budgets/vendors while empowering and upskilling training delivery teams.
• Bachelor’s degree, with a preference for Business, Entrepreneurship, International Development, Adult Education, Organizational Development, Instructional Design or a related field (Master’s or certification is a plus).
• An entrepreneurial mindset and someone who is self-motivated, adaptable, and comfortable architecting systems from the ground up, learning by doing, and leading a team to success in a fast-paced environment. Preference for prior work experience in a fast-scaling startup.
  

Must have skills

• Frontier Market Curriculum Design
• EdTech & Low-Bandwidth Delivery
• Strategic Global Leadership Development
• Data-Driven Impact Measurement
• Entrepreneurial & Innovative Mindset
• Human-Centered Instructional Design
• Vendor and budget operator
• Executive coach/people developer