Partnership Manager at Malala Fund

About the position

• As a core member of the Nigeria team, the Partnership Manager will lead grantmaking and drive high-level advocacy initiatives related to girls’ education in Nigeria. They will manage a portfolio of grants focused on policy change and implementation, overseeing the full grant lifecycle, from partner identification and selection to relationship management, reporting, and renewal or closeout.
• Serving as the primary point of contact for their grantees, the Partnership Manager will cultivate strong, trust-based relationships that support partners’ growth and advocacy goals while aligning with Malala Fund’s strategic priorities. In collaboration with other team members, the Partnership Manager will also design and implement advocacy efforts at both federal and state levels to advance girls’ education policy and its effective implementation.
• The ideal candidate is a seasoned, highly organised professional with deep experience in grant management, policy engagement, and strategic advocacy. They bring strong connections to civil society and international networks in Nigeria and are deeply committed to Malala Fund’s mission of ensuring all girls can access and complete 12 years of education.

Responsibilities

Selection and Scoping

• Maintain a deep understanding of Nigeria’s girls’ education landscape, including policy development and implementation, civil society ecosystems, and federal/state education financing and budget cycles.
• Conduct regular learning visits, meetings, and calls to stay attuned to local contexts, civil society capacity, and community needs.
• Lead landscape scans and sector research to identify high-potential grassroots and national organizations aligned with Malala Fund’s country priorities.
• Cultivate advisory relationships to support the identification of new partners and the strengthening of existing ones.
• Build and maintain relationships with education stakeholders to track emerging initiatives and surface underrepresented actors, maintaining a dynamic and inclusive pipeline of prospective grantees.

Grantmaking and Grantee Support

• Oversee the full grant lifecycle — from proposal solicitation and review to structuring, contracting, disbursement, monitoring, and closeout.
• Prepare grant approval recommendations for senior leadership.
• Support applicants in refining proposals, budgets, and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plans.
• Collaborate with the Grants team to ensure a strong onboarding process for new grantees, including orientation to Malala Fund’s policies, touchpoints, expectations, and available opportunities.
• Identify grantee technical needs and connect them with relevant internal or external resources, funders, or networks.

Grantee Relationship Management and Oversight

• Conduct regular site visits to current grantees to strengthen relationships, deepen contextual understanding, and provide ongoing support.
• Monitor grant implementation through regular check-ins, financial reviews, and narrative reports.
• Ensure reporting requirements are right-sized, strategic, and mutually beneficial — tracking impact data, highlighting grantee wins, and documenting success stories.
• Identify and troubleshoot implementation challenges, recommending grant amendments, extensions, or renewals as needed.
• Ensure compliance with Malala Fund policies, including safeguarding, travel, and communications protocols.
• Work with the MEL team to design and implement effective evaluation frameworks, track outcomes, and capture learning across the Nigeria portfolio.

Internal Collaboration and Cross-Team Coordination

• Serve as the primary point of contact within Malala Fund for all grantees in your portfolio.
• Coordinate closely with External Affairs, Development, and other departments to support advocacy, communications, and donor engagement.
• Collaborate with the Communications Manager to elevate grantee impact stories across media, campaigns, and reports.
• Coordinate with the global Grants team to offer peer learning opportunities and other forms of non-monetary support to grantees.
• Ensure accurate, complete records for all grants in your portfolio with the support of a Grants Officer, including due diligence, compliance, reporting, and payments.

Strategy Development and Collaboration

• Work closely with the Director, Grants and the Chief Executive, Nigeria, and other team members to design and deliver grantmaking in-country that aligns with Malala Fund’s Strategic Plan and Priorities, funder identity and value system.  
• Contribute to the development and implementation of Country-Level Strategic Frameworks to identify the key access and completion barriers for girls’ secondary education to ensure contextually relevant grantmaking.  
• Coordinate with Partnership Managers across Malala Fund to ensure alignment in grants management practices and to share learnings.
• Build networks and cultivate relationships with potential grantee partners at the country level. 
• Represent Malala Fund at country and global level education networks, with peer funders and other external stakeholders to share best practice and increase knowledge of the girls’ education space.  

Advocacy and Policy Engagement

• Work closely with the Chief Executive, Nigeria, the Communications Manager, and other team members to design, deliver and participate in advocacy initiatives and activities (including but not limited to high-level meetings, advocacy events, campaigns, and policy dialogues) with national and subnational stakeholders, that center grantee voices and advance Malala Fund country priorities.
• Convene and foster collaboration among Nigerian partners, while creating opportunities for peer learning and cross-collaboration with global partners.
• Develop advocacy materials, including policy briefs and campaign messaging.
• Proactively solicit and engage with partners to identify and curate advocacy engagements that advance their work, and ensure Malala Fund participation and support during partner-initiated advocacy events/engagements.
• Establish and maintain relationships with senior policymakers, government agencies, and international institutions to drive policy change.
• Establish and maintain relationships with non-policy stakeholders, including but not limited to traditional and religious leaders, and related institutions. 
• Maintain current understanding of relevant national and subnational developments and advocacy opportunities.
• Identify and elevate key themes, data, insights and stories from grantees that can inform the Nigeria country office advocacy priorities and facilitate connection between grantees and Chief Executive, Nigeria to advance them through relevant platforms.
• Facilitate connections between grantees and relevant policy platforms, coalitions and decision-makers.
• Coordinate with the Chief Executive, Nigeria and the Global Advocacy  team to ensure that global advocacy engagements include and/or drive grantee work where relevant.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Essential

• At least 7 to 10 years of experience in grantmaking, grants management or programme design. 
• Degree in social/political science, international development, human rights, gender studies, education or a related field. 
• Extensive experience in leading on grant proposal reviews, grantee project monitoring, relationship management and troubleshooting, particularly focused on policy-related change and implementation.
• Prior advocacy experience, with particular focus on policy-related change and implementation at Federal and/or State level.
• Understanding of civil society space in Nigeria and ability to support grantees with programme management and capacity issues.  
• Experience with coalition-building and management.
• Deep understanding of federal and state level policy and legislative processes, particularly in education.
• Proven track record in engaging senior-level stakeholders, including government agencies, multilateral institutions, and donors.
• Financial management experience including reviewing budgets and financial reports.
• Prior grantmaking and/or relevant lived experience in Nigeria.
• Strong interpersonal skills to liaise and communicate effectively with grantees and build trust-based relationships.
• Excellent written and verbal communication abilities and skilled at synthesising large amounts of information clearly and concisely. 
• Strong project management skills, managing multiple complex projects with high levels of interdependency and tight timelines. 
• Ability to think creatively and respond to rapidly changing country operating environments. 
• Solid judgement and problem-solving skills with the ability to think critically.
• Ability to travel at least 5 times a year for site visits, new partner scoping, and/or advocacy engagements.    
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Travel 10%.

Desirable

• Masters degree or higher.
• Fluency in one or more languages spoken in Nigeria.
• Demonstrated success in high-impact policy advocacy campaigns.
• Experience with budget tracking/analysis and budget advocacy.
• Experience with development advocacy for debt relief.