Partnership Manager, Frontier Technologies at Results for Development (R4D)

Context

• The Frontier Technologies Hub has a bold ambition to change the way technology is used in development. To meet this longer term objective we need to extend our work in two ways: expand the reach of our current portfolio of work and give ourselves a longer runway to make sustainable change. We’re looking for a Partnerships Manager to lead this charge.
• The Hub works with the FCDO at the intersection of tech, innovation, and international development, across three main areas: Livestreaming explores the use of frontier technology by working with partners all over the world to test and scale tech with the potential for positive social impact. Futures connects FCDO people with one another and the world of tech, equipping them to apply frontier technologies in their programmes. Hub Research gathers & shares what we learn and dives deeper into areas where tech has the greatest potential for doing good.
• The Hub is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and managed by three partners: Results for Development (R4D), IMC Worldwide, and Brink.
• Embedded within R4D’s Scaling Innovation Practice, the Partnership Manager will join a dynamic, global and multi-disciplinary team implementing the Frontier Technologies programme. The position will be based in Nigeria (Abuja or Lagos), a fast-growing and vibrant hub of entrepreneurship and a unique location from which to engage local, national and international actors as partners in designing and delivering different parts of this exciting program.
• The Partnership Manager role provides a great opportunity for an experienced and well-networked individual to identify and build collaborations that can support technological innovation to drive improved development outcomes for those most in need.
• If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.

About the Role
The Partnership Manager will serve as a critical member of the FT Hub team, leading the implementation, and continued iteration, of our overall Partnership Strategy and its key functional areas, which comprise:

• Landscaping - Identifying collaboration needs / opportunities across the programme, and scanning for potential local, national and international partners who we could work with to share new ideas, skillsets and experience in support of FT program and partner goals;
• Matchmaking - Supporting the co-creation of mutually beneficial partnerships between the FT Hub and external actors in order to build a strong and diverse partner portfolio addressing program capacity gaps and opportunities for deeper impact;
• Management - Providing general oversight across the FT partner portfolio to ensure effective lines of communication and feedback between the FT hub and its partners;
• Promotion - Supporting the design and implementation of events and public communications to profile the value of different partners and partnership models;
• Learning - work iteratively, testing propositions in a light-touch way in order to understand what resonates most with partners.

A key area of the Partnership Manager’s responsibility in the first year will be to refine and iteratively implement a strategy for partnership at every level of the programme, from core funding potential to exploring partnerships that might contribute to individual initiatives within the programme. Some examples of those initiatives include FT Livestreaming and COVIDaction.

About You

• You are dynamic and outgoing with a track record of working with groups of diverse actors to create impact.
• The role is focussed on partnership, but really it’s innovation - you’ll be the first person to undertake this role and shape it in line with a bold ambition for our future. To make this happen quickly and brilliantly, we would expect you to know how to set out strategies to pursue, and design, plan and run experiments to learn what works, Essentially, ‘growth hack’ the Frontier Technologies Hub. Familiarity with different emerging technologies (e.g. AI, internet of things, blockchain) as well as innovation methodologies is strongly desired.
• 7+ years of relevant professional experience in managing or working with diverse partners in the development innovation space at local, national and/or international levels, ideally including UKaid-funded programmes
• People person: Demonstrated ability to manage partner relationships and use a portfolio approach to building up strategic networks and supporters
• Flexibility: Experience in engaging senior-level leadership / partnership counterparts at different kinds of organizations
• Polished communicator: Experience in developing materials and events to engage diverse audiences
• Collegiate: work collaboratively with globally-dispersed colleagues in a fast-paced environment while managing competing time/resource demands.