Bridge International Academies is the world’s largest education innovation company serving the 700 million families who live on less than $2 USD per day. We strive to provide the highest quality education product to the more than 100,000 students who attend Bridge’s more than 400 nursery and primary schools across emerging markets in Africa and (soon to ...

About the Role

The Academy Manager is responsible for managing and overseeing the operations of the Bridge Academy in all respects. The role holder is ultimately responsible for the smooth running of the Bridge school, the academic achievement of its pupils and the management of its staff. This job requires a strong presence around the academy and the local community.

What You Will Do

• Academy management – ensure that the academy’s financial, operational, and instructional goals are met leveraging smartphone and computer tablet technologies to manage operations and track oversight; escalate any problems immediately.
• Implement and enforce approved education and administrative policies as directed.
• Community relations – develop and maintain strong relationships with local leaders and organisations to advocate for higher-quality education and promote Bridge.
• Parent outreach – conduct various forms of customer outreach ranging from door-to-door canvassing to academy-hosted events in order to attract new pupils to Bridge.
• Customer relations – maintain positive relationships with existing families to ensure their loyalty, timely fees payments, and word-of-mouth recommendations; be accountable and ensure all parent queries are responded to in a timely manner.
• Academic oversight – Supervise and mentor teachers to ensure pupils are receiving a world class education; recruit new teachers as needed.
• Supplies and facility maintenance – ensure the academy has all of the resources needed to teach pupils, and that its environment is clean, safe, and conducive for learning; manage academy cook and person responsible for keeping academy clean.
• Financial sustainability – ensure the academy is able to grow and pay all staff salaries and vendors on time by ensuring all pupils’ fees are paid on time and academy spending is on budget.
• And any other related duties that are in line with your training and competencies.

What You Should Have

• A KCSE mean grade of C plain and above for P1 trained teachers and D+ and above for ECD trained teachers.
• Bachelor of Education as an added advantage.
• A well liked teacher (or youth leader) with at least 2 years of teaching experience.
• At least 2 years of experience in managing a team of 5 to 10 people as an added advantage.
• Experience in fee management and enrolment and oversight of other teachers as an added advantage.
• Motivated in doing something for the development of the community.
• Ability to address the parents with utmost respect and solve the problems with right solutions.
• Ability to handle a team and face challenges on day to day operations.
• Ability to assess a team of teachers in respect to their deliverables.
• Innovative with an appetite for trying out new things.
• Should not be too comfortable in delegating and therefore comes with expectations of support staff.
• Respected in the community with a strong connection with the community.
• Should not have a criminal history.
• Should be from the dominant cultural group of the community.
• Positive and never-say-die attitude, extroverted and sunny.

You’re also

• A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
• A networking mastermind – You excel at meeting new people and turning them into advocates. You communicate in a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech. You can influence strangers in the course of a single conversation. Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas. You have an existing network from prior experience in the country, preferably in the regulatory, education, or business sectors.
• A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
• A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
• A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
• A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
• A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.

• Ensure the academy’s financial, operational, and instructional goals are met using smartphone and computer tablet technologies; escalate problems immediately.
• Implement and enforce approved education and administrative policies.
• Develop and maintain relationships with local leaders and organisations to advocate for higher-quality education and promote Bridge.
• Conduct parent outreach to attract new pupils.
• Maintain positive relationships with existing families, support timely fee payments, and respond to parent queries in a timely manner.
• Supervise and mentor teachers and recruit new teachers as needed.
• Ensure the academy has the resources needed to teach pupils and maintain a clean, safe, and conducive learning environment.
• Manage the academy cook and the person responsible for keeping the academy clean.
• Ensure pupils’ fees are paid on time and academy spending is on budget so staff salaries and vendors can be paid on time.

• Team management and leadership
• Parent and customer relations
• Community relations and networking
• Teacher supervision, mentoring, and assessment
• Financial and fee management
• Enrolment and outreach
• Problem-solving and flexibility
• Data-driven decision-making
• Organisation, responsiveness, and multitasking
• Clear written and oral communication

• A KCSE mean grade of C plain and above for P1 trained teachers and D+ and above for ECD trained teachers.
• Bachelor of Education as an added advantage.
• A well liked teacher (or youth leader).
• At least 2 years of teaching experience.
• At least 2 years of experience in managing a team of 5 to 10 people as an added advantage.
• Experience in fee management and enrolment and oversight of other teachers as an added advantage.
• Should not have a criminal history.
• Should be from the dominant cultural group of the community.