Managing Director

SmartStart; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 2,400,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Job summary

SmartStart, a national NGO network, seeks a Managing Director to own enterprise execution, integration, and performance. You will translate strategy into priorities, align functions, and drive the execution engine to deliver impact across the organisation and ecosystem.

You will lead through senior leaders, establish clear accountability, and accelerate the shift to a scalable operating model while safeguarding delivery, quality and learning across programs.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate qualification or equivalent executive experience in business, strategy, operations, public management, development, organisational leadership or related field.

Responsibilities

• Translate CEO/Board-approved strategy into enterprise priorities and plans.
• Own the enterprise performance rhythm and Balanced Scorecard for ongoing delivery.
• Integrate cross-functional dependencies and resolve ownership gaps.
• Evolve operating model for scale, governance and ways of working.
• Drive continuous improvement and escalation pathways for execution.

Skills

Enterprise leadership

Execution discipline

Strategic translation

Cross-functional collaboration

Stakeholder management

Education

Postgraduate qualification or executive leadership experience

Job description

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 C‑Suite, the Managing Director willbe the owner of enterprise execution, integration and organisationalperformance - translating approved strategy into clear priorities, integratedplans, accountabilities, operating rhythms and measurable outcomes.

The role will make the enterprise system work: aligning functions,resolving cross‑functional dependencies and trade‑offs, strengtheningperformance discipline and ensuring that evidence, people, resources,technology, programme, network and ecosystem capabilities come together toexecute strategy.

As SmartStart shifts from primarily implementing and scalingprogrammes itself toward enabling a wider network and ecosystem to deliverquality ECD at scale, the Managing Director will ensure that this shift becomesoperationally real while protecting delivery, quality, learning and legitimacy.

For an accomplished enterprise leader, this is an opportunity tolead through leaders, shape a more integrated and adaptive operating model, andhelp SmartStart convert bold strategic ambition into sustained organisationaland ecosystem outcomes.

Managing Director - JobSpecification

Purpose

To serve as SmartStart’s C‑Suite owner of enterprise execution,integration and organisational performance. The Managing Director turnsCEO/Board-approved strategy into coherent, sustained delivery across theorganisation, ensuring SmartStart operates as one enterprise rather than acollection of strong but disconnected functions. The role creates clarity,integration, accountability and execution without becoming a second CEO ortaking specialist decisions away from functional leaders.

What You Will Help UsAchieve

As part ofSmartStart’s C‑Suite, you will:

• Translate strategy into execution - convertingapproved strategic direction into focused enterprise priorities, integratedplans, measurable outcomes and clear accountabilities.
  
• Build a reliable performance system - makingdelivery visible, surfacing risks early and ensuring evidence drives timelycorrective action and organisational learning.
  
• Integrate the enterprise - resolvingcross‑functional dependencies, ownership gaps and competing priorities sofunctions collectively deliver SmartStart’s strategy.
  
• Evolve the operating model for scale - translatingthe shift from implementer to enabler and field catalyst into concrete changesin structures, capabilities, governance and ways of working.
• delivery while building the future - aligning programme, network, platform, evidence and ecosystemcommitments while maintaining quality and safeguarding.
  
• Direct resources toward strategic value - integrating people, money, technology and organisational capacityaround explicit priorities, trade‑offs and opportunity cost.
  
• Lead through leaders - creating ahigh‑accountability, high‑trust leadership system in which Directors havegenuine delegated authority and act as enterprise leaders first.

The Leader We Are LookingFor

• We are looking for anenterprise integrator - a leader who sees the whole system, connects functionsand resolves dependencies without taking over specialist work.
  
• You will bring strong executionjudgement: knowing what must be driven, sequenced, stopped, escalated ordelegated to keep strategy moving within organisational capacity.
  
• You will be comfortable leadingthrough senior leaders, setting clear expectations and holding outcomes whilegiving functional leaders genuine room to lead.
  
• You will combine performanceorientation with learning agility - creating visibility and accountabilitywithout reducing performance to compliance, activity tracking or bureaucracy.
  
• Most importantly, you willbring an enterprise-first mindset, constructive challenge and relationalauthority - making the whole SmartStart system execute better without becomingthe system.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy Translation & Enterprise Performance

• Translate CEO/Board-approvedstrategy into enterprise priorities, annual and multi‑year operating plans,measurable outcomes and clear accountabilities.
  
• Own the enterprise planningarchitecture and ensure functional plans collectively add up to the strategyrather than optimise separate portfolios.
  
• Sequence priorities andstrategic initiatives against organisational capacity, dependencies andavailable resources, maintaining line of sight from strategy to functional andteam outcomes.
  
• Ensure strategic choices areconverted into explicit implications for the operating model, capabilities,resources and ways of working.
  
• Own the enterprise performancerhythm, including the Balanced Scorecard, strategic priorities, executionreviews and corrective‑action mechanisms.
  
• Hold Directors accountable foragreed functional and cross‑functional outcomes while preserving theirdelegated authority.
  
• Identify execution risks,bottlenecks and underperformance early and ensure accountable leaders resolvethem.
  
• Use evidence, data andorganisational learning to adapt execution without allowing constantreprioritisation to destabilise delivery.
• Lead the Directors and otherdesignated enterprise execution leaders as an integrated leadership team, inline with the emerging organisational structure.
  
• Create mechanisms forcross‑functional planning, decision‑making and delivery across functionalareas, including strategic integration with the CFO and Finance.
  
• Resolve competing priorities,ownership gaps and material cross‑functional dependencies that cannot beresolved at functional level.
  
• Ensure leaders act asenterprise leaders first and functional leaders second, using time‑boundSteerCos where standing line structures are insufficient.
  
• Own enterprise‑leveloperating‑model coherence and hold Scale & Replication as an enterpriseaccountability rather than an isolated functional silo.
  
• Translate the shift fromimplementer toward enabler/field catalyst into concrete changes in effort,capabilities, governance and measures of success.
  

Balance currentprogramme/network delivery with the development of platform, partnership andecosystem models required for future scale.

• Hold enterprise accountabilityfor delivery performance without taking specialist programme/network decisionsaway from the relevant Director.
  
• Ensure alignment betweenprogramme design, network/field enablement, platform capability, evidence andecosystem commitments, with cross‑functional quality and safeguarding risksescalated and resolved.
  
• Ensure network governance andshared‑authority mechanisms are integrated with internal execution whereSmartStart cannot rely on line authority alone.
  
• Resource Priorities, Leadership& Organisational Effectiveness.
  
• Own enterpriseresource‑priority recommendations and integrate functional resource needs intocoherent choices.
  
• Partner with the CFO onaffordability, financial scenarios, resource allocation and major investmenttrade‑offs while respecting the CFO’s fiduciary and financial authority.
  
• Ensure resource decisionsreflect strategy, expected impact, delivery capacity and opportunity cost, andsurface what should stop, defer, simplify or be redesigned when capacity isexceeded.
  
• Hold management accountabilityfor the overall performance and effectiveness of the Director leadership layer.
  
• Partner with People &Organisational Capability so leadership, organisation design, talent, culture,performance and change interventions are connected to execution needs.

Continuous Improvement,Decision Architecture & C‑Suite Stewardship

• Drive removal of duplication,unclear ownership, unnecessary process and organisational friction that impedestrategy execution.
  
• Ensure learning from evidence,implementation, partners and performance is translated into changes in plans,operating model or priorities.
  
• Define and maintain enterprisedecision rights, delegated authorities and escalation pathways, ensuringdecisions are made at the right level by the right accountable leader.
  
• Ensure governance forums haveclear mandates, do not duplicate line accountability and produce named owners,implementation pathways and review points.
  
• Distinguish controllableexecution failure, system constraints, reasonable experimentation and externaldependencies so accountability supports rather than suppresses learning.
  
• Provide the CEO with a clear,unvarnished view of execution reality, organisational capacity, performance andemerging enterprise risks.
  
• Translate material CEO/Boardcommitments into accountable internal execution without becoming the owner ofexternal relationships that sit elsewhere.
  
• Maintain constructive,high‑trust partnerships with the CEO, CFO and Chief of Staff while protectingclear role boundaries and representing SmartStart externally where delegatedand execution credibility is material.

Requirements

Qualifications& Experience

• Relevant postgraduate qualification or equivalent executiveexperience in business, strategy, operations, public management, development,organisational leadership or a related field.
  
• Substantial senior executive experience leading a complex,multi‑functional organisation or major enterprise portfolio through strategyexecution, transformation and scale.
  
• Demonstrated accountability for organisational performance,enterprise planning, operating‑model execution and cross‑functionalintegration.
  
• Experience leading senior functional executives and creating strongdelegated accountability rather than centralising decisions.
  
• Strong experience in complex stakeholder, networked, public‑interest, development or social‑impact environments is highlyadvantageous.
  
• Demonstrated ability to work across programme/service delivery,technology/platform, evidence, partnerships, people/capability and financeinterfaces. Experience scaling through partners or moving from directimplementation toward enabling others is strongly advantageous.
  

SpecificKnowledge

• Strong understanding of enterprise strategy execution, integratedplanning and organisational performance management.
• Strong understanding of operating‑model design, cross‑functionalintegration and execution governance.
• Knowledge of performance systems, Balanced Scorecards, executionreviews and corrective‑action mechanisms.
• Understanding of resource prioritisation, organisational capacity,trade‑offs and opportunity‑cost decision‑making.
• Strong understanding of decision rights, delegated authority,escalation pathways and governance forum design.
• Understanding of leadership, organisation design, culture, talentand change as enablers of strategy execution.
• Strong systems and scale thinking, including network, platform,partnership and ecosystem enablement models.
• Understanding of shared‑authority environments in which relationalauthority matters alongside formal hierarchy.
• Credibility with Boards, funders, government, partners and senior external stakeholders while remaining primarily accountable for enterpriseexecution.
  

Skillsand Competencies

• Enterprise integration and systems thinking across multiplefunctions and stakeholder environments.
  
• Strong execution judgement, strategic translation and prioritisationdiscipline.
  
• Ability to lead through senior leaders, hold outcomes and preservegenuine delegated authority.
  
• Strong performance orientation balanced with learning agility andproductive challenge.
  
• Excellent decision‑making, problem‑solving and cross‑functionaldependency resolution.
  
• Constructive challenge and ability to provide an unvarnished view ofexecution reality.
  
• Relational authority and ability to lead effectively where formalline authority is limited.
  
• Ability to simplify complexity, reduce organisational friction andavoid unnecessary bureaucracy.
  
• Strong communication, stakeholder management and executive presence.
  
• Enterprise-first mindset with low territoriality and respect forspecialist role boundaries.
  
• Ability to adapt execution using evidence and feedback rather thandefend plans that are no longer working
• Deep commitment to SmartStart’s mission, Purple Practices and the shift toward enabling network and ecosystem scale.
  

Employment Equity

SmartStart is committed to employment equity, diversity and inclusion. Preference may be given to suitably qualified candidates from designated groups, in line with SmartStart's Employment Equity commitments and applicable legislation.

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