Job Vacancies at Bridge International Academies

The Bridge Approach

Education is in crisis in many countries around the world. It is estimated that 264 million children and young people are out of school, and 330 million children are in school but not learning. In addition, an extra 69 million teachers are needed to achieve the 2030 UN education goals.

Many education systems are plagued with inadequate materials and poor management systems, all leading to chronic teacher absenteeism and a lack of learning. Education reform is challenging but it is urgently required if we are to prevent another generation of children missing out. So, we work in partnership with governments, NGOs and non-state actors to address the huge education imbalance between what is available and what is needed right now — we work to bridge the gap.

We believe parents have the right to choose a school for their children and we enable families to enjoy seeing their children learn, improve and flourish at Bridge schools. We locate our schools in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the world. Families in our communities can be earning just $1.90 per person a day; a level the World Bank notes is at extreme poverty. By putting learning at the centre of all we do, Bridge has become an extremely popular choice for underserved families and low-income communities.

With plans to enroll ten million students ten years from now, Bridge offers a tremendous opportunity to grow with one of the world’s most exciting and ambitious social enterprises, with leadership roles available across a number of competencies and geographies.

[Operations/Revenue Assurance]
As an Associate for Bridge, you join a fast-scaling global start up and will shape the organization by working closely with other departments such as People, Finance, Schools, and Technology to operationalize initiatives aimed at strengthening our Academy Operations. The challenge is not only to operate at scale, but to ensure effective delivery of a complex education service in some of the world’s most difficult operating environments.

About the Role
With over 60 academies spread across Nigeria, Bridge must ensure revenue from all sources – monthly or termly fees, uniforms, etc. – is accounted for in a transparent, efficient, and fraud-proof manner. Moreover, we must excel in clearly communicating fees to our parents and in making sure all of our customers are fully aware of how, where, and when to pay.
What You Will Do

• Data analysis to detect and prevent fraud from happening.
• Investigations whenever cases of fraud are suspected or detected.
• Fieldwork to verify the existence, extent and severity of fraud cases.
• Assist with establishing policies, guidelines, processes and controls to help detect and prevent fraud in relation to uniforms and bills;
• Support and troubleshooting with Academy Managers in day to day billing related activities.
• Performing surveys, analysing data and compiling reports to assess effectiveness of our services
• Traveling to academies across Nigeria to meet with staff, parents and community members with the goal of increasing support for Bridge.
• Assist with implementing product changes/ programme improvements from the office and in the field.
• Problem solving with Technology team members when technology interruptions occur and with Academy Management team members when policies are not adhered to at the academy level.
• Active involvement in policy noncompliance and fraud-related investigations.
• Creating and maintaining organized databases of programs in relation to revenue collection.
• Other duties as assigned for the overall functioning of academy operations in Nigeria.

What You Should Have

• Bachelor’s degree from a top academic institution with top marks
• Superb Microsoft Office skills (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• At least two years’ experience working in audit/fraud detection or control related roles

You’re also

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 startup or social enterprise.

A creative problem-solver – Growing any enterprise from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often challenging, low-resource communities and runs on fees averaging just $6 a month per pupil. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand. Every dollar you spend is a dollar our customers, who live on less than $2 a day, will have to pay for.

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). Every decision you make considers their customer benefit, experience, and value.

A life-long 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.

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The Bridge Approach

Education is in crisis in many countries around the world. It is estimated that 264 million children and young people are out of school, and 330 million children are in school but not learning. In addition, an extra 69 million teachers are needed to achieve the 2030 UN education goals.

Many education systems are plagued with inadequate materials and poor management systems, all leading to chronic teacher absenteeism and a lack of learning. Education reform is challenging but it is urgently required if we are to prevent another generation of children missing out. So, we work in partnership with governments, NGOs and non-state actors to address the huge education imbalance between what is available and what is needed right now — we work to bridge the gap.

We believe parents have the right to choose a school for their children and we enable families to enjoy seeing their children learn, improve and flourish at Bridge schools. We locate our schools in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the world. Families in our communities can be earning just $1.90 per person a day; a level the World Bank notes is at extreme poverty. By putting learning at the centre of all we do, Bridge has become an extremely popular choice for underserved families and low-income communities.
With plans to enroll ten million students ten years from now, Bridge offers a tremendous opportunity to grow with one of the world’s most exciting and ambitious social enterprises, with leadership roles available across a number of competencies and geographies.

[Supply Chain/Supply Chain]

What You Will Do:

We are looking for an absolute rockstar to join our senior leadership team and take our Supply Chain group to the next level. It is an extraordinary, but highly challenging role. Supply Chain is responsible for inventory management, procurement, logistics, and warehousing to service the activities of each and every academy.

Supply Chain is at the forefront of building an incredibly lean organisation. You will lead the charge to ensure we are getting the best pricing, that our goods are transported efficiently and cleanly, and that our warehousing activities are highly organised and architected for growth and rapid change.

You will be building a world-class Supply Chain platform – and that requires you to be a hands-on leader who effectively manages a large, multi-functional team and proactively dives into the nitty gritty to improve processes and systems. You will need to be tough but fair to ensure that we build a zero-tolerance environment for any fraud and leakage. You will train, develop, and mentor your team, and provide clear, constructive feedback where necessary.

You must be a team player – Supply Chain is deeply integrated with our Development and Operations groups, and you will interact with other teams frequently. You are singularly focused on building a better Bridge, regardless your title or department designation.

What You Should Have

• Bachelor’s degree from a top university with top marks; MS/MBA a plus
• Strong background in Supply Chain management; deep knowledge of procurement, warehousing, logistics best practices
• Significant and meaningful leadership experience leading Supply Chain teams in fast-growth, multi-unit environments
• High integrity with zero tolerance for any unethical business practices

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.

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Operations at Bridge

The operations department is responsible for the critical performance of our entire network of academies in East Africa, including operations, marketing, personnel management, instructional delivery, expenses & payroll, parent and community relations, facilities, and more. 

About the role

The Programme Officer is responsible for supporting the Programme Manager in ensuring each academy has the proper number of teachers to teach all classes, creating and operationalizing academy personnel disciplinary policy, and coordinating teacher and Academy Manager (AM) recruiting at existing academies.

What You Will Do

• Ensure all teachers and Academy Managers have downloaded scripts for each day
• Ensure the Script Availability report is working (including conducting field tests)
• Ensure the stored procedure for mapping lessons to teachers has been programmed by the scheduler team and that schedules received are in-line with this
• Synching daily to check for availability and correctness of schedules on Smartphone and Teacher Computers
• Communicate with the scheduling team cases of missing or incorrect scripts noted or reported by academies via CRM tickets and communicate this information back to academies
• Ensure the Lesson Schedules v2 report is working (including conducting field tests)
• Ensure each teacher is fulfilling their mandate in delivering lessons every day of class
• Overseeing early KCPE preparation and collection of documents from parents
• Take disorganized data coming from multiple sources eg. phone call results, emails, surveys and organize that data into specific data repositories (Microsoft Excel; software systems) according to the appropriate format
• Create simple data tables in Microsoft Excel for further analysis
• Screen CRM for issues related to the above programmes and respond to those issues accordingly
• Create surveys to collect specific data

What You Should Have

• Bachelor’s degree in any business related field

• 2-3 years’ experience in a fast paced environment
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel
• Experience working with Navision is a plus
• Experience working with a culturally and socioeconomically diverse workforce
• Ability to handle multiple high demand projects
• Good organizational and persuasive skills.
• Keen eye for detail
• Efficient report writing skills.
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills

go to method of application »

The Bridge Approach

Education is in crisis in many countries around the world. It is estimated that 264 million children and young people are out of school, and 330 million children are in school but not learning. In addition, an extra 69 million teachers are needed to achieve the 2030 UN education goals.

Many education systems are plagued with inadequate materials and poor management systems, all leading to chronic teacher absenteeism and a lack of learning. Education reform is challenging but it is urgently required if we are to prevent another generation of children missing out. So, we work in partnership with governments, NGOs and non-state actors to address the huge education imbalance between what is available and what is needed right now — we work to bridge the gap.

We believe parents have the right to choose a school for their children and we enable families to enjoy seeing their children learn, improve and flourish at Bridge schools. We locate our schools in some of the most disadvantaged communities in the world. Families in our communities can be earning just $1.90 per person a day; a level the World Bank notes is at extreme poverty. By putting learning at the centre of all we do, Bridge has become an extremely popular choice for underserved families and low-income communities.
With plans to enrol ten million students ten years from now, Bridge offers a tremendous opportunity to grow with one of the world’s most exciting and ambitious social enterprises, with leadership roles available across a number of competencies and geographies.

[People Operations/Program Officer]
People are at the core of what we do, from the teachers in our academies to software developers building our tech platform – and we do it at massive scale with rapid growth. The People Operations team is the key in unlocking “people potential” towards achieving our company’s goals. We believe in:

• Focusing on operational excellence and execution - we want to make our employees' and their managers' lives simpler, and give them the tools and support to be successful. We must excel first and foremost on service delivery.
• Using analytics/data to drive key decisions and continuous improvement - across core HR competencies like compensation, performance, talent, we believe that an analytical approach will enable us to attract, reward, and retain top performers.
• Aligning with the company's strategic objectives - we are all playing for the same team. The human resources function, along with finance, operations, legal, and other functional areas, should be fully in sync.

About the Role
The Officer, People Operations role is a generalist position that operates at the front lines of Human Resources at Bridge.

The ideal candidate should exceptionally possess high attention to detail, a strong work ethic, and ability to manage multiple workflows and projects simultaneously. You are level-headed, disciplined, and thoroughly understand that HR must protect the Company’s interests and policies and guide employees through their career life-cycles at Bridge at the same time. 

You have a very good understanding of HR best practices and employment/labour law frameworks in Nigeria and are certified by the CIPM or its equivalent. Last but not least – you are a gritty, never-say-die doer who relishes challenges

What You Will Do:

• Separations Process: lead separations processes, including department, asset, and financial handovers - involves IT, Admin, and Payroll Accountant
• Onboarding Process: lead teams from IT, Admin, etc. in ensuring that staff are successfully on boarded
• Payroll Verification: work with Payroll Accountant to ensure that all contractors and employees are properly represented with the right deductions/additions, if any. Generate monthly report for managers on headcount
• Staff Benefits: supporting staff with questions about health coverage, managing additions to coverage, dealing with other health coverage issues
• Immigration/Work Permits/Expat Services: dealing with immigration issues/working with immigration consultants
• Asset Management: ensure that all staff have the assets they need; deal with asset recovery processes and exchanges/one-off needs. Heavy interfacing with IT and Admin
• Leave Management: assist employees with leave, generate monthly report for managers on leave balances
• Disciplinary Procedures: work with the People Ops. Director on managing these procedures
• Appeals, Grievances, Investigations: lead these processes with some direction from the People Ops. Director
• Staff Documentation: ensuring that offer letters, contracts, probation confirmations, and change of status documents are appropriately handled

What You Should Have:

• Strong adherence to systems and process
• Experience working with a culturally and socioeconomically diverse workforce
• Minimum of four years of full-time work experience in Human Resources
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office; technologically competent/quick learner
• Work experience in fast-growth, rapid-scale contexts, particularly with large numbers of field staff
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
• High energy and enthusiasm level; willingness to do whatever necessary to get the job done
• Microsoft Dynamics NAV experience preferred
• Bachelor's Degree, preferably with Business Administration and/or Human Resources course specialization, with exemplary academic performance
• CIPM certified (or it's recognized equivalent)

You’re also

• 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 startup or social enterprise.
• A creative problem-solver – Growing any enterprise from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often challenging, low-resource communities and runs on fees averaging just $6 a month per pupil. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand. Every dollar you spend is a dollar our customers, who live on less than $2 a day, will have to pay for.
• 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). Every decision you make considers their customer benefit, experience, and value.
• A life-long 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.