Regional Manager at Bridge International Academies

Bridge International Academies is the world’s largest and fastest-growing chain of primary and pre-primary schools with more than 400 academies and 120,000 pupils in Kenya and Uganda. We democratize the right to succeed by giving families living in poverty access to the high-quality education that will allow their children to live a very different life.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Position: Regional Manager
Job Location: Lagos

About the Role

• Bridge ensures efficient management of its schools through a schools organizational structure that divides schools into regions and territories and assigns management oversight of each region to one supervisor
• An Area Manager is responsible for the management of a group of schools and Area Managers report to a Regional Manager who in turn is responsible for the success of that school region or territory
• The schools are situated in various communities across the state in Nigeria to which you are assigned

What You Will Do

• Work closely with a large group of schools and area managers in your territory to ensure that they are operating at the highest levels.
• Provide management oversight to area managers in your region or territory and ensure operating performance, and instructional targets are met.
• Provide coaching and mentoring to area managers in your region to help develop their management skills and support achievement of their academy goals.
• Regional Managers completely own (and therefore, are accountable for) the performance metrics of all of the schools in their territory, as measured by financial, operational and  instructional benchmarks
• This role requires a constant presence at the schools and close interaction with each School Head to ensure that there is continuous bi-directional communication and coaching.
• In addition to interactions with schools, the Regional Manager is expected to build close relationships with the local and state level government officials, the traditional and local community leaders, and Parents of the children in the school to promote the importance of education, garner support for the school and education ministry’s activities as it relates to their children and to keep a constant monitor on their feedback.
• Must be ready to travel on a daily basis to schools in your region. The schools are situated in various communities across the state in Nigeria to which you are assigned.

Professional Requirements

• Must be dynamic, articulate, organized with an attention to detail
• Must have demonstrated capacity to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time to meet goals in a high pressure environment
• Must be passionate about following processes and procedures and be extremely data-driven
• Must be passionate about education and schooling in general
• Must be comfortable working in low income communities
• Must have respect and sensitivity towards cultural, gender, ethnicity and religious diversity
• Must have maturity and confidence in dealing with high ranking official of government institutions, international institutions and non- government institutions
• Willingness to have tough conversations when circumstances require it and to take a “no nonsense” approach to driving business results.
• High level of energy and enthusiasm so as to be effective in a fast paced environment with multiple demands.

Desired Qualifications and Skills

• This role would suit someone who has extensive experience doing community based work, field management expertise and strong people management and program management skills.
• Degree qualified with at least 5 years of professional work experience
• Prior team leadership experience using a hands-on role model approach to management and the ability to coach and motivate others to achieve results
• Proven ability to drive results
• Passion for providing outstanding customer service
• Excellent practical problem solving skills with the ability to multi-task and prioritize effectively
• Previous experience building relationships with government and community officials
• A passion for what we do is essential and experience in low cost education environments or in the public schooling environment is an advantage. 
• This is a demanding but extremely rewarding role and we welcome applications from committed and driven individuals who will thrive on a leadership challenge and achieve business results while changing the lives of underserved children. 

You Are Also

• Proactive – You don’t always need supervision and you are a self-starter. Your personal drive to succeed and deliver keeps you working when you may not have a supervisor with you.
• 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.
• A creative problem-solver- Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges.  On top of that, Bridge works in volatile, low-resource communities and runs on fees averaging around $7 a month per pupil.  You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand. 
• A customer advocate- Our customers – these families living on less than $2 a day per person – 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 customer 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.