Program / Department Summary
Youth Impact Labs is a partnership between Mercy Corps and Google.org launched in 2017 to catalyze the creation of new work opportunities for young people by leveraging technology. Impact Labs operates from Amman and Nairobi as strategic regional hubs for the Middle East and East Africa. Impact Labs aims to think big, take risks, and test bold solutions by approaching underemployment and unemployment through a business-oriented innovation lens. We seek to build a strong regional pipeline of innovators ready to create high- impact, scalable employment opportunities across various markets – for today’s youth and generations to come. We are focusing on digital marketplaces and platforms that offer services to micro and small businesses; agricultural supply chain management; and digital work.
General Position Summary
The Post Investment Manager will be responsible for providing comprehensive post investment support to the impact labs portfolio of companies. This will include working with partners to provide robust growth models, job creation strategies and investment strategies to support business growth. S/he will link partner companies to tailored technical assistance including technology business support. In addition, s/he will also have a key role of tracking progress of companies against milestones developed during the contracting process.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Partnership Engagement Support
Work closely with the investment analyst to evaluate partnership milestones and budget as part of the contracting process
Work creatively with target partners to design job creation strategies that are in line with the partners’ business models
Post Investment Support
Support investees in developing a robust job creation roadmap
Provide innovators with ongoing business support through some of the following activities; market analysis, product innovation and business modelling support
Support partners to build strategies ad models for job creation
Facilitate linkage to technical assistance providers as needed
Design and share business support tools with partners
Take an adaptive management approach to develop and innovate new processes, activities or services to business support efforts
Results Management
Design systems/dashboards to track portfolio and innovator progress toward partnership milestones and prepare monthly progress reports
Work closely with the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning team to ensure that impact data is captured
Participate in, and generate insights, for thought leadership events on innovation and business solutions to youth employment
Ensure that post investment support is delivered on time, on scope and on budget
Identify key learnings and potential risks/gaps for corrective action to improve the investment and job creation processes
Other
Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission
Other duties as assigned.
Organizational Learning
As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.
Accountability to Beneficiaries
Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
Supervisory Responsibility
None
AccountabilityReports
Directly To: Partnerships Manager
Works Directly With: Partnerships Manager, Investment Analyst, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning team, Innovation partners and technical assistance providers
Knowledge and Experience
Minimum of 5 years experience working for management /development consulting firms or business incubators/accelerators
Strong business modelling and strategy development skills
Previous experience providing post investment support to early – growth stage businesses
Strong hands on management skills including with tracking progress and providing feedback to clients
Previous entrepreneurial experience is an added advantage;
Prior exposure working on a youth employment program or designing job creation roadmaps
Success Factors
The successful candidate should be willing to innovate and improve processes. S/he should possess the ability work and engage with a diverse teams and stakeholders. Ability to thrive and adapt quickly to change is crucial for the position.
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