About Mastercard foundation
Mastercard Foundation seeks a world where everyone has the opportunity to learn and prosper. Through its Young Africa Works strategy and Canadian EleV program, the Foundation works with partners to ensure that millions of young people, especially young women, access quality education, financial services, and dignified work. Mastercard Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. The Foundation is independent with its own Board of Directors and CEO.

The work at the foundation
We are currently in an exciting period at the Mastercard Foundation as we intensify the implementation of the Young Africa Works strategy, aiming to empower 30 million young people throughout Africa to access dignified and fulfilling employment.
To ensure the Foundation’s accessibility to our partners and program participants, we have established offices in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Uganda. These offices provide strong in-country support for the implementation of Young Africa Works. We collaborate with governments, the private sector, educators, and other funders to enhance the quality of education and vocational training, equip young individuals with the necessary skills for the workforce, expand access to financial services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, and facilitate connections between job seekers and meaningful employment opportunities.
Our values serve as our guiding principles, transcending and surpassing all other considerations. We wholeheartedly encourage you to bring your bold ideas, curiosity, and expertise to your work.
If you are an experienced Program Operations professional looking to increase your impact, read on!

The opportunity
Reporting to the Country Director, the Lead, Program Operation will support the Country Programs Team by partnering with Country Directors and integrated teams for program planning and pipeline management. You will oversee program management processes, policies, and guidelines, process excellence, and capacity enhancement across the Country and other programmatic platforms and accelerating program execution and delivery through active monitoring and tracking.


Ways you can contribute
• Manage the country’s program-wide annual 24-month rolling calendar of priorities and activities.
• Collaborate with the Country Director, Program Leads, and Program Finance to perform all-programs forecast planning and budgeting, including managing the annual planning cycle.
• Support portfolio planning, tracking, and collation of implementation plans, progress, and status reporting.
• Maintain and report on Turnaround Time Trackers (TAT) for partnership development to measure and improve efficiencies.
• Oversee program proposal reviews and approval processes for pipeline acceleration through TAT tracking and reporting.
• Develop and implement programming guidelines, tools, policies, and processes to ensure quality assurance, coherence, standardization, and efficiencies.
• Govern and manage revisions to programmatic processes, policies, and guidelines within the Country Integrated Team.
• Enhance program delivery through capacity building, training, workshops, and coordination with Research and Knowledge teams.
• Accelerate program execution and delivery through active monitoring and tracking.
• Lead the coordination of program activities, ensuring effective prioritization and managing the calendar of priorities and activities.
• Implement country review and planning retreats, producing operational delivery plans and trackers linked to budgets, and organizing bi-weekly Leads meetings to address bottlenecks.
• Work with Country Directors to ensure strategic cohesion, program operations coordination, and knowledge sharing within the Integrated Team.
• Deliver complex country initiatives, projects, and operationalization of enterprise initiatives, involving team members and external stakeholders as needed.
• Develop and manage integrated plans, tracking progress and milestones through regular status reviews.

Who you are
• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, development studies, social sciences, economics, statistics, or related fields; a master’s or postgraduate degree is an added advantage.
• Relevant professional qualifications in program management and planning; certifications in Project Management, Change Management, and Process Management are an advantage.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in project and program management across private and public sectors.
• Proven expertise in program planning, management, and operational excellence, including developing and operationalizing tools for planning and monitoring performance indicators.
• Experience creating strategic, portfolio, and operational plans to track the implementation of roadmaps, partnerships, outcomes, deliverables, timelines, and responsibilities.
• Demonstrated ability to develop, update, and deliver training on project and program management tools.
• Familiarity with planning frameworks emphasizing inclusion of youth, marginalized groups, and women.
• Experience in capacity building to enhance stakeholders’ skills and competencies.
• Strong knowledge of process design and improvement methodologies, including Lean Six Sigma.
• Detail-oriented, methodical, and process-driven, consistently producing high-quality, timely results under pressure.
• Demonstrated structured problem-solving skills to address challenges effectively.
• Skilled collaborator and relationship builder, fostering trust, respect, and credibility to co-create solutions across stakeholders.
• Service-oriented mindset with responsiveness to requests, focused on fostering partnerships to achieve common goals.
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills for communicating with diverse audiences and supporting change initiatives.
• Commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.