Executive Associate to the Executive Director at Imagine Worldwide Tanzania

Imagine Worldwide Tanzania (Imagine-TZ) is a non-profit organization affiliated with Imagine Worldwide (IW), a global NGO committed to transforming education through innovative technology. Imagine-TZ seeks to demonstrate that children when provided with access to personalized, tablet-based learning can acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills with minimal adult supervision.

By leveraging evidence-based digital learning solutions, IW partners with governments, schools, and communities to expand access to quality education for underserved children across the country. Literacy and numeracy skills are the basis for a better life and the positive benefits to health, wealth, and social outcomes are multi-generational. However, 9 out of 10 children across Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. Imagine works with partners worldwide to confront this crisis, using data and research to continuously refine and scale its foundational learning solution.

Imagine- TZ has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), the President's Office - Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) in Zanzibar to implement a program known as MsingiTek. This program will be rolled out in five regions of mainland (Morogoro, Manyara, Shinyanga, Tabora, and Ruvuma) as well as across 11 districts of Zanzibar. The first phase of the program, launched in May 2025, will reach 533 public primary schools (500 in mainland Tanzania and 33 in Zanzibar) over the course of 15 months. If MsingTek demonstrates improvements in literacy and numeracy outcomes, it will be scaled nationwide in close collaboration with the government. This initiative has the potential to transform the learning journey for millions of children across Tanzania.

About The Role

The Executive Associate will play a supporting role in carrying out Imagine's mission, to design, test, and scale tablet-based learning solutions that enable children to become literate and numerate. The position offers an international, flexible, learning environment to enhance individual career development and growth. The Executive Associate will join a highly committed and collaborative team that is working together to empower every child, everywhere to achieve their full potential. They will work directly with the Executive Director of Imagine Tanzania, to support Imagine's growth in our scale countries.

Over the next six years, Imagine's goal is to serve more than 10 million children in at least four countries, ultimately achieving three times the typical level of literacy and numeracy outcomes of national education systems in Africa (60% fluency by the age of 10, as opposed to 20%). This all while delivering the program at less than $7 per child per year.

Key Responsibilities

The Executive Associate will work closely with the Executive Director, focusing not only on providing administrative and operational support but also on driving key organizational initiatives in Tanzania. This role involves co-ordinating the country office and supporting operational excellence, conducting research for problem or root-cause analysis, preparing impactful presentations, and managing strategic projects to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Imagine Worldwide's mission delivery. The ideal candidate must be a strong operator with relationship-building skills. The Executive Associate's responsibilities will include - but will not be limited to - the following:

Administrative Support

• Work directly with the Executive Director to support key aspects of their work;
• Act as the point of contact for the Executive Director in engagements with Imagine Worldwide, the Government and other external partners. This includes receiving calls and visitors, answering a variety of questions with tact and diplomacy, taking messages, and directing calls appropriately for resolution.
• Prepare impactful presentations for meetings, including gathering documents, drafting documents or presentations, and attending to the logistics of meetings;
• Consolidate notes from meetings and discussions, share action steps, and follow up to resolve issues.
• Draft, review, and send communications on behalf of the Executive Director. Coordinate work with other staff as needed and play a key role in the coordination of organizational efforts both within and outside Imagine Tanzania;
• Collect and consolidate weekly updates across functions for sharing with Executive Director and the entire organization, and proactively identify and flag areas requiring support or improvement:
• Share weekly updates and monitor engagement and questions.
• Assist with meeting scheduling and manage calendars in line with the Executive Director preferences:
• Conduct weekly detailed review of their calendar and make adjustments as required to facilitate travel and optimize productivity
• Ensure PTO days are loaded and visible on relevant team calendars to protect their breaks;

Country Board Support

• Schedule country-level board meetings well in advance; coordinate with executive directors and attend to logistics of meetings.
• Lead in the preparation and review board packs for board meetings, including gathering documents, drafting documents or presentations and/or formatting documents to deliver highly professional output.
• Take minutes during board meetings, share action steps and follow up to resolve issues.

Organizational Management

• Consolidate requests and inputs to prepare weekly agenda for management meetings with support from the Executive Director;
• Manage invitations and communications with management team on meeting changes;
• Support the Executive to manage information flow across the organization and all digital channels, in a timely and accurate manner;
• Update project management boards and tasks with follow-up to resolve issues.
• Drive rigorous follow-up structures to monitor performance vs targets;
• Lead project co-ordination activities and processes including project planning, intake, prioritization, initiation, execution, and training; while fostering collaboration amongst team members;
• Prepare concise monthly country reports summarizing key metrics and updates from country teams;
• Adopt a data-driven approach to challenges, delving into analytics to identify key areas for improvement and driving initiative;
• Spearhead interdepartmental strategic initiatives, including the rollout of new systems and processes, or process optimizations;
• Keep the Executive Director advised of time-sensitive and priority issues, ensuring appropriate follow-up.

Travel and Logistics Support

• Co-ordination of all travel and logistics for the Executive Director;
• Manage all flight bookings directly or through a travel agent as required, as well as road trips, transfers, and accommodation;
• Complete pre-flight check-ins, flight, and all travel changes that may arise;
• Lead in planning, organization, and execution of in-person retreats and meetings, including, senior leadership retreats, and organization-wide team retreats.
• Assist with travel bookings and logistics for the senior leadership team, donors, and consultants as required.

Knowledge Management & Productivity Tools Support

• Contribute to maintaining the Imagine 'Playbook' where we codify the 'Imagine way' for team members and partners to leverage;
• Support strategies to drive utilization and adoption of online collaboration and productivity tools for project management and stakeholder management, to enable as much asynchronous work as possible and maximize team productivity;
• Become a super-user of internal tools and coach team members.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree
• A minimum of 5 years' experience in operations management, project management, or a similar field.
• Strong digital literacy skills using a variety of no-code, artificial intelligence tools, other productivity and collaboration tools.
• Additional work experience is welcome.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Exceptional project management skills and proven experience that includes:

• Strong communication skills and ability to write clear and concise reports and synthesise information into compelling presentations in English.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to work effectively in multicultural environments and teams.
• Familiarity with productivity and collaboration tools for task and project management.
• Excellent working knowledge of G Suite, MS Office, Slack etc.
• Exceptional with the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, GoPilot, Google AI etc.
• Strong aptitude for data analysis and data-driven decision-making
• Strong organizational skills and superior attention to detail
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Ability to prioritize and display a high level of adaptability/flexibility

Qualities

• Passion for Imagine's mission and vision
• Demonstrated commitment to equity in educational access and outcomes
• Passion for project management
• Demonstrated ability to think independently and solve problems
• Collaborative team player; clear and proactive communicator
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to work in a fast-paced, changing environment
  

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience.

Location

• The Executive Associate must be based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and will travel frequently within the country.

Imagine Worldwide is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.