Regional Director, Africa (Sub-Saharan)

International Youth Foundation; South Africa; Remote; ZAR 1,805,000 - 2,625,000; Full time

Job summary

IYF is seeking a Regional Director to lead its Africa portfolio from a remote base in Sub-Saharan Africa. You will drive strategy, growth, and partnerships across the continent, serving as the senior programmatic representative and executive sponsor for the regional portfolio.

You will own the regional funder relationship, guide country teams, and ensure delivery against the Program Performance and Accountability Framework (PPAF).

Qualifications

• Minimum 12+ years in senior leadership roles managing large programs or portfolios.
• Proven ability to engage institutional funders and secure partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Strong strategic planning, risk management, and governance experience.
• Excellent written and verbal communication across cultures and languages.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic direction for IYF’s Africa programs and partnerships.
• Lead high-level funder engagement, sourcing leads to closed partnerships.
• Ensure program quality, compliance, and donor stewardship across the region.
• Represent IYF at major conferences and with consortium partners.

Skills

Leadership

Fundraising

Strategic thinking

Donor relations

Communication

Program management

African affairs

Education

Master’s degree in Economics, Education, Social Sciences, Business

Bachelor’s degree + relevant experience

Tools

Salesforce

CRM systems

MS Office

Job description

Responsible for the strategic direction, growth, and leadership of IYF in Africa. The Regional Director carries a dual mandate: expanding IYF’s business and partnership base across the continent, and serving as IYF’s senior programmatic representative and executive sponsor for the regional portfolio. This includes developing country leadership talent and staff skills, exploring and pursuing strategic opportunities for growth, building institutional relationships, mitigating operational and programmatic risks, and advancing IYF’s reputation for excellence.

The Regional Director owns the senior funder relationship and acts as executive sponsor for the portfolio, while Project Leads manage day-to-day delivery and day-to-day funder contact.

IYF manages and measures its programs through the Program Performance and Accountability Framework (PPAF), an internal framework built on three commitments. The Regional Director is accountable for delivering on it by:

• Delighting funders and partners through high-quality program delivery and relationship management,
• Stewarding resources and compliance with rigor and transparency, and
• Growing IYF’s regional presence and funding base through innovation and business development.

Responsibilities

• Organizational Strategy
  Lead the region to develop, promote, and deliver innovative, multi-sectoral programs consistent with IYF’s strategic plan and PPAF priorities. Define and own IYF’s growth strategy for Africa, including the operating model, country presence, and portfolio mix. Ensure strategies are designed to Delight funders through quality and impact, Steward institutional resources responsibly, and Grow IYF’s presence and partnerships in the region.
• Business Development & Funder Stewardship
  Provide senior-level leadership for funder engagement across Africa, owning the full pre-award cycle from sourcing leads to closed partnerships. The Regional Director is accountable for advancing IYF’s Program Performance and Accountability Framework, ensuring that funder partnerships are consistently stewarded with excellence, retained through value delivery, and expanded for future growth. This includes:
• Building a net-new pipeline and go-to-market strategy for the region across corporate, foundation, public, and social impact funders, and driving top-of-funnel prospecting in partnership with IYF’s global Business Development team.
• Managing all active opportunities through the pipeline, leading qualification, discovery, proposal, and negotiation to close, and acting as proposal director or senior technical lead on strategic opportunities.
• Serving as the primary regional lead for funder stewardship (“Delight”), ensuring donor satisfaction through high-quality delivery, compliance, and learning that result in renewals, extensions, and expansions of current programs.
• Developing deep understanding of funder priorities, decision processes, and business models to position IYF with precision, and building innovative funding models and cross-sector initiatives that blend social impact with business or policy outcomes.
• Representing IYF in high-level negotiations with donors and partners, with authority to influence award terms and secure favorable positioning for IYF.
• Forecasting opportunities and maintaining accurate pipeline data in Salesforce, leading with transparency and accountability, and contributing to quarterly business reviews and cross-team learning.
• Driving regional accountability for business development results (“Steward”), by setting BD priorities and accountabilities for country and program teams, embedding funder retention and growth goals into country strategies, and monitoring progress against targets.
• Program Leadership and Executive Sponsorship
  Serve as IYF’s senior programmatic face in the region and as executive sponsor for the regional portfolio, owning the strategic relationship with funders and consortium partners. Provide strategic direction to ensure successful implementation of IYF programs in Africa to achieve outputs and outcomes in compliance with donor expectations, award agreements, and budgets. Consistently deliver with excellence to Delight funders and partners, ensure robust compliance and operational discipline to Steward resources, and apply adaptive learning to Grow program models and innovations across contexts.
• Program Quality and Operational Excellence
  Ensure country teams have rigorous systems and strong technical, financial, and managerial capacity for program delivery. Drive regional processes for learning, accountability, and risk management that demonstrate IYF’s commitment to Steward resources, Delight stakeholders with evidence of impact, and Grow IYF’s reputation for thought leadership and programmatic innovation.
• Representation
  Represent IYF externally in line with the PPAF, including at key events, conferences, and roundtables, ensuring visibility reinforces Delight (through showcasing results and impact), Steward (by highlighting accountability and trust), and Grow (positioning IYF for new partnerships and influence).
• Supervision
  Supervise program leads and country-level teams, ensuring performance management systems integrate the PPAF framework. Guide teams to Delight funders through quality delivery, Steward resources responsibly, and Grow professional skills and organizational capacity.
• Senior Leadership Team Role
  As a member of the SLT, contribute to institutional direction-setting with a lens of Delight, Steward, and Grow, ensuring regional insights inform global strategy and vice versa. Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Required Skills/Experience

• Minimum of 12 years of progressively responsible experience in the design and management of youth development, employment, education, or skills programs, or equivalent senior experience in the technology, education, philanthropy or impact sectors, with significant work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. Knowledge of / experience with programs that support youth employment and social services (e.g. education, health) is strongly preferred.
• Exceptional leadership, management, supervisory, analytic and representational skills; the ability to identify and establish priorities and attend to all details in a professional manner.
• Proven success taking opportunities from idea to signed agreement, including discovery, proposal design, negotiation, and relationship management, with multi-stakeholder funders in nonprofit or international settings.
• Experience working with institutional donors including multi-lateral, bilateral, corporate and foundation actors required. Significant experience developing new business from major institutional funders, as well as cross-sector partnerships to support programs, including through grant-making, technical assistance to grantees and engagement of multilateral and bilateral agencies, businesses and foundations.
• Demonstrated ability to build innovative funding models or cross-sector initiatives that blend social impact with business or policy outcomes.
• Skilled communicator with executive presence who can translate IYF’s mission and outcomes into compelling business cases and narratives across cultures.
• Technologically fluent and future-focused, using AI, CRM systems, and data tools to research, personalize outreach, and inform partnership strategy.
• A collegial management style that emphasizes both achieving results and working with a highly skilled, multi-cultural team of professional colleagues.
• Strong coaching, mentoring, and operational systems/process strengthening skills.
• Proven interpersonal skills and presentation skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English are required. Proficiency in French, Portuguese, or other regional languages is highly desirable.
• Deep personal commitment to social and economic development that recognizes youth as critical actors and beneficiaries.
• Excellent computer skills using MS Office products and other software platforms used by IYF.
• Ability to travel frequently within Africa and internationally as needed.
• A Master’s degree in Economics, Education, Social Sciences, Business, or a closely related field is strongly preferred; Bachelor’s degree plus commensurate experience is acceptable.

Job level

Director

LOCATION

Remote position based in Sub‑Saharan Africa. Candidates based in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, or South Africa are preferred; outstanding candidates based elsewhere in Sub‑Saharan Africa are encouraged to apply and will be considered. (Applicants must have the legal authority to work and reside in the country of hire. IYF will not provide work authorization to individuals applying to this position).