Chief of Staff

SmartStart; Johannesburg; Presencial; ZAR 1 200 000 - 1 800 000; Tempo integral

Resumo da oferta

SmartStart invites an exceptional Chief of Staff to partner with our CEO, strengthening strategic leverage and governance across the organisation. You will lead the Office of the CEO, oversee legal, governance and enterprise operations, and drive readiness for international expansion.

You will translate strategic intent into structured options, coordinate cross-functional work, and safeguard organisational integrity while maintaining close alignment with the CEO and Board.

Qualificações

• Significant sen ior leadership experience in strategy, governance and public interest
• Experience advising CEOs and working with boards
• Ability to manage multi-stakeholder environments
• Strong understanding of risk and regulatory frameworks

Responsabilidades

• Increase CEO leverage and strategic effectiveness
• Translate CEO thinking into options and organizational implications
• Lead Office of the CEO and governance functions
• Oversee Legal, Governance, and Enterprise Operations
• Coordinate Board agenda and materials
• Lead global expansion readiness and governance

Conhecimentos

Executive leadership

Strategic thinking

Governance

Risk management

Board liaison

Legal oversight

Stakeholder management

Formação académica

Postgraduate qualification

Descrição da oferta de emprego

Johannesburg, South Africa | Posted on 09/25/2026

SmartStart is a successful national network of NGOs and partners that is realising quality, affordable early learning for all children aged three to five. We are achieving this by scaling a network of and building a platform for providers, achieving specific ecosystem transformations with governments and partners, and promoting early learning as a priority societal cause.

Job Description

The Opportunity

As a key member of SmartStart’s executive leadership team, the Chiefof Staff will serve as a senior strategic extension of the CEO - increasing theCEO’s effectiveness, leverage and capacity while providing accountableleadership for institutional capabilities that protect, enable and extendSmartStart.

The role will enable the CEO to focus increasingly on vision,strategic direction, major strategic bets, Board leadership, highest-levelgovernment and funder relationships, external influence and SmartStart’s futurepositioning, while ensuring the CEO’s strategic agenda is structured,supported, translated and followed through.

The Chief of Staff will lead the Office of the CEO and provideexecutive oversight of CEO leverage and strategic agenda; Legal and Governance;Enterprise Operations and Administration; and Global Expansion exploration andreadiness. The role creates leverage rather than dependency and must not becomea parallel centre of execution.

For a high-judgement, low-ego executive leader, this is anopportunity to work at the centre of a mission-led organisation navigatingsignificant growth and transformation - helping turn complexity into claritywhile protecting the space for others to lead.

Chief of Staff - JobSpecification

Purpose

To serve as a senior strategic extension of the CEO, increasing theCEO’s effectiveness, leverage and capacity while providing accountableleadership for the institutional capabilities that protect, enable and extendSmartStart. The Chief of Staff will strengthen the CEO’s ability to lead fromher distinctive strengths in vision, systems leadership, external influence,relationships and strategic direction by bringing exceptional internalstructure, synthesis, prioritisation, decision discipline and follow-through.

What You Will Help UsAchieve As part ofSmartStart’s executive leadership team, you will:

• Increase CEO leverage and strategic effectiveness - helping the CEO focus attention on the work only the CEO can dowhile translating emerging thinking into structured options and organisationalimplications.
• Create disciplined strategic follow-through - ensuring CEO decisions and commitments translate into clearownership, routing, sequencing and closure without absorbing accountabilitythat belongs elsewhere.
  
• Strengthen executive governance and institutional integrity - improving clarity on decision authorities, delegated authority,reserved matters, escalation and executive forum effectiveness.
  
• Steward Legal, Governance and Enterprise Operations - ensuring fit-for-purpose institutional capability, strong riskescalation and efficient, well-governed corporate support.
  
• Enable the Board and executive agenda - ensuringdecision-ready preparation, strong coordination and clear connection betweenBoard priorities and accountable executives.
  
• Explore future growth responsibly - leadingglobal expansion exploration and readiness while ensuring major market-entrydecisions remain with the CEO and Board.
  
• Protect organisational accountability - workingclosely with the MD, CFO, People & Organisational Capability and functionalleaders without becoming a gatekeeper, proxy CEO or catch-all owner ofunassigned work.

The Leader We Are LookingFor

• We are looking for anexceptional executive partner with the judgement, discretion and organisationalmaturity to operate in close proximity to the CEO without making that proximitya source of status or power.
  
• You will be a structuredthinker who can turn ambiguity and complexity into clear choices, sequencingand ownership - bringing analysis, options and recommendations rather thanrepeatedly escalating unprocessed problems.
  
• You will have the constructivecourage to challenge privately when required, the discipline to align behinddecisions once made, and the relational intelligence to retain credibilityacross EXCO, the Board and the wider organisation.
  
• You will be comfortableoperating across strategy, governance, legal and institutional operations, withenough range to connect disciplines while respecting specialist judgement andclear role boundaries.
  
• Most importantly, you willbring high agency, low ego, non-defensiveness and a deep commitment toSmartStart’s mission - creating calm, structure and closure when pace,complexity or tension increases.

CEO Leverage &Strategic Agenda

• Act as a trusted strategicpartner, adviser and extension of the CEO, helping prioritise strategicattention, engagements, interventions and decisions.
  
• Translate emerging CEO thinkinginto structured options and test strategic ideas for operational implications,dependencies, sequencing and organisational readiness without taking overexecution.
  
• Surface competing priorities,alternative perspectives, material risks and inconvenient information in aclear, evidence-based and solution-oriented form.
  
• Create disciplined feedbackloops so the CEO can see whether strategic decisions have landed as intended,including when the pace or volume of change risks exceeding absorptivecapacity.
  
• Lead a highly effective Officeof the CEO and coordinate the CEO’s strategic agenda, including high-qualitypreparation for critical internal, Board and external engagements.
  
• Translate CEO decisions andcommitments into clear ownership, routing and follow-through, ensuring mattersare appropriately triaged between CEO, MD, CFO and functional leadership.
  
• Coordinate a small number ofCEO-sponsored, time-bound strategic initiatives and transition sustainedexecution to the appropriate owner.
  
• Help institutionalise CEOinsight and relationships into organisational systems and capability ratherthan allowing SmartStart to rely excessively on individual leadership.
  

Executive Governance,Legal & Institutional Integrity

• Support the design andeffectiveness of SmartStart’s executive governance architecture, includingclarity on decision authorities, delegated authority, reserved matters andescalation.
  
• Ensure executive forums areappropriately constituted, focused on the right level of questions anddisciplined in tracking material decisions and commitments to closure.
  
• Maintain clear boundariesbetween CEO, MD, CFO, Chief of Staff and functional leadershipaccountabilities.
  
• Provide executive stewardshipof SmartStart’s legal, regulatory and corporate governance capability, ensuringaccess to appropriate specialist legal advice and protecting independentprofessional judgement.
  
• Oversee the organisationalapproach to legal risk, material contracts, regulatory compliance andgovernance frameworks, ensuring significant risks are identified, escalated andmanaged.
  
• Coordinate Legal with People& Organisational Capability on employment-law and people-policy interfaces,and with Finance on commercial, procurement and financial-risk interfaces.

Enterprise Operations,Board Enablement & Future Readiness

• Provide executive ownership ofcore institutional administration and corporate operational support, settingfit-for-purpose standards, systems and service expectations.
• Ensure corporate operationalprocesses are efficient, appropriately governed, simplified and fit for scale,with relevant procurement governance coordinated while financial controlsremain with Finance.
  
• Coordinate the CEO’s Boardagenda and decision-ready preparation of strategic Board materials, connectingBoard priorities, decisions and actions to accountable executives.
  
• Coordinate with the CFO onfinancial, Audit & Risk and funder-assurance matters and help ensure Boardengagement remains appropriately strategic rather than unnecessarilyoperational.
  
• Lead exploration andinstitutional readiness for potential expansion beyond South Africa, includingearly market, institutional, legal, governance and operating-model assessments.
  
• Coordinate cross-functionalexpertise and produce decision-quality information for CEO and Boardconsideration, developing appropriate replication, partnership and market-entryguardrails.
  
• Own exploration and readinessrather than unilateral market entry; major entry decisions remain CEO/Boardreserved decisions and sustained execution transfers to appropriate operatingleadership.
  
• Act as a strategic thoughtpartner to the CEO on SmartStart’s continued operating-model and institutionalevolution, surfacing structural barriers and supporting major changes requiringCEO sponsorship.
  
• Work closely with the MD andPeople & Organisational Capability leadership while respecting theirexecution and specialist accountabilities.
• Challenge the CEOconstructively when required, and align behind decisions once made.
  
• Bring analysis, options andrecommendations; maintain appropriate alignment without excessivepermission-seeking.
  
• Use proximity to the CEO as aresponsibility, not as organisational status or power, and maintain credibilityacross EXCO and the organisation.
  
• Exercise significant influencewithout becoming territorial, factional, bureaucratic or a gatekeeper.
  
• Lead portfolio resources andsenior professionals with clear accountability, discretion and strongjudgment.
  
• Create calm, structure andclosure when pace, complexity or tension increases
  
• Model high agency,simplification, adaptive pace and disciplined follow-through.
  
• Protect clear accountability:the MD owns enterprise execution; the CFO owns financial stewardship; People& Organisational Capability owns people strategy and organisationalcapability; functional leaders retain specialist mandates.

Requirements

Qualifications& Experience

• Relevant postgraduate qualification or equivalent seniorprofessional experience in strategy, business, law, governance, public policy,organisational leadership or a related field.
  
• Significant senior leadership experience in a complex, mission-led,public-interest or multi-stakeholder environment.
  
• Demonstrated experience advising and working closely with CEOs orsenior executives, with strong experience in strategy, executive decisionsupport and institutional governance.
  
• Demonstrated ability to lead across functions and disciplineswithout unnecessarily centralising authority, including experience working withBoards and/or senior governance structures.
  
• Strong understanding of organisational risk, governance andinstitutional accountability, with experience managing highly sensitive andconfidential matters at executive level.
  
• Experience leading senior professionals and/or specialistportfolios. Exposure to legal/regulatory environments, government,philanthropy, development, social-impact ecosystems, international expansion ornetworked operating models is highly advantageous.
  

SpecificKnowledge

• Strong understanding of executive governance, decision rights,delegated authority and institutional accountability.
  
• Strong strategic and organisational judgement, including the abilityto assess dependencies, sequencing, risk and organisational readiness.
  
• Sufficient legal and governance literacy to steward specialist legalcapability while respecting independent professional judgment.
  
• Understanding of Board governance, executive decision support andhigh-level stakeholder environments.
  
• Understanding of enterprise operations, administrativeinfrastructure and fit-for-scale institutional systems.
  
• Understanding of organisational transformation, operating-modelevolution and the dynamics of complex change.
  
• Knowledge of multi-stakeholder, partnership-based or networkedoperating environments.
  
• Exposure to international expansion, market entry or multi-countryorganisations is advantageous.
  
• Experience within ECD, education, public systems or anothersocial-impact environment is advantageous.

Skillsand Competencies

• Exceptional executive judgement, discretion and ability to handlesensitive information.
  
• High agency and structured thinking, with the ability to move fromissue to analysis to recommendation to action.
  
• Constructive courage and the ability to challenge senior leaderswhile retaining trust.
  
• Excellent communication, synthesis and interpersonal skills.
  
• Strong relational intelligence across CEO, EXCO, Board, partners andorganisational contexts.
  
• Low ego, low territoriality and strong organisational neutrality.
  
• Excellent execution discipline, prioritisation and follow-through.
  
• Ability to simplify complexity and create structure withoutunnecessary bureaucracy.
  
• Non-defensiveness, learning agility and willingness to changeposition when evidence requires it.
  
• Ability to influence without formal authority and route work to theright accountable owner.
• Adaptive pace - able to move quickly while recognising whensense-making, alignment or absorption time is needed.
• Deep commitment to SmartStart’s mission and toincreasing enterprise capacity.
  

Employment Equity

SmartStart is committed to employment equity, diversity andinclusion. Preference may be given to suitably qualified candidates fromdesignated groups, in line with SmartStart's Employment Equity commitments andapplicable legislation.

Total Cost to Company (Medical Aid, Provident Fund & Risk Benefits)