Senior Innovation Associate

About the role

Senior Innovation Associate will work closely with the Chief Innovation Officer and the Innovation team to advance community‑driven development across Africa. The role involves research, partnership development, project management and strategic communications to bring resources and decision‑making to the village level.

Key responsibilities

• Research emerging opportunities, partnerships, funding mechanisms and approaches that can strengthen community‑driven development.
• Develop research evidence, concept notes, briefs and other decision‑support materials.
• Identify and analyse opportunities to expand resources and decision‑making to the village level.
• Build and maintain systems for tracking relationships and engagements with multilateral institutions, development partners, governments and other stakeholders.
• Prepare stakeholder background materials and support strategic engagements with senior partners.
• Own projects and workstreams from idea to completion, including planning, coordination, tracking and follow‑up.
• Identify bottlenecks and proactively develop solutions to improve project delivery and team effectiveness.
• Support the development of tools, frameworks, processes and approaches that strengthen the Innovation team’s work.
• Lead or support internal and external communications such as presentations, briefs, forums, roundtables and learning exchanges.
• Contribute to evidence generation and thought leadership related to community‑driven development and locally led development.