Job Vacancies at Founders Factory

The Impact and Research Director is a critical role in ensuring that FFA delivers on its commitment to make a meaningful and measurable impact across Africa. The successful candidate will work closely with other Heads of functions, the executive team, shareholders and corporate partners to develop an impact strategy and framework that is aligned to FFA’s mission and impact objectives and work across functions to ensure successful implementation.

This is a full-time position and will be required to work in Johannesburg, Kenya or Nigeria. We operate a hybrid model where you will be required to be in the office at least 3 days a week

Key responsibilities:

• Develop an impact strategy that articulates  the organisation’s impact objectives, ensuring that these are aligned with the organisation’s broader mission and strategy
• Design and deploy an end-to-end impact measurement and management approach embedded within the entire investment process (  deal sourcing, selection/investment decisions, post-investment support, and reporting), with consideration of industry best practices and standards
• Manage relationships with investors, corporate partners, portfolio companies, and other stakeholders to ensure alignment with FFA’s impact strategy
• Build and manage a solid team to deliver on the impact strategy and IMM approach. 
• Empower and build the capacity of the wider FFA team and Founders to implement/embed the impact strategy across the organisation, through technical guidance and support to management teams, training, and sharing of best practices
• Develop and execute the FFA impact, research, and learning agenda

Specific activities include:

• Identify, assess and evaluate impact potential and risks across the investments and grants process life-cycle; from pre-investment due diligence through to investment
• Participating in sourcing calls and analysing potential investments to understand their potential impact contribution and alignment with FFA impact themes (Impact due diligence)
• Monitoring the performance of FFA’s portfolio against selected KPIs and initial development/impact goals
• Provide support to  portfolio companies  to  define and measure impact
• Manage and coordinate the collection of impact data from other teams and FFA portfolio companies, providing support for timely, accurate, and consistent reporting
• Synthesise impact data/results into practical insights that inform decision making
• Produce impact reports for  FFA stakeholders including investors, exco, board of directors, and subcommittees of the board
• Coordinate with the Communications team within FFA to develop and disseminate impact stories and learning, using creative channels to reach different audiences/stakeholders
• Continuously monitor trends in the impact domain to ensure the company's recognition and visibility as a leader in designing, delivering, and capturing impact
• Regularly producing research and thought leadership on impact as it relates to the business and its portfolio companies
• Develop a fit-for-purpose data management strategy, and identify/design and deploy tools and technology required to facilitate data collection, analysis and visualisation

Candidates should meet the following minimum requirements:

• At least 10 years of relevant experience in impact and/or responsible investing, impact strategy, and implementation related to incubators, accelerators, and early-stage investments
• Undergraduate or honours graduate degree in a related discipline
• Knowledge and understanding of key frameworks and methodologies in impact measurement and management (i.e. IMM, GIIN, 5 Dimensions of Impact, UNPRI, etc.)
• Understanding of venture building, accelerators and investments in early-stage startups in Africa 
• Ability to deploy a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods and tools
• Appetite for collecting and analysing data to produce meaningful reports to various stakeholders
• Experience in data visualisation tools like Power BI, google studio, QlikView, or Tableau is a plus
• Adept in developing and implementing  cross-functional projects
• Strong collaboration and project management skills are a must.

go to method of application »

As a Venture Builder, you will constantly research trends and markets, teasing out problems, hypothesising solutions, testing and validating their appeal, and thinking about the commercial foundations for new businesses. This involves constant ideation and rapid experimentation, so we’re looking for individuals who are both creative and analytical with strong commercial acumen. You’ll be working with individuals across our organisation as well as with stakeholders from our partners, so you must be a natural collaborator and be adept at synthesising many different inputs into a set of actionable insights.

To succeed in this role, you must have a curious and creative mind, deep empathy for the people you’re designing for, and the ability to apply a commercial lens to everything you do. You should enjoy the messiness that is the design process and thrive in a fast-paced, constantly evolving startup environment, but be comfortable building processes and applying an analytical lens and lean methodologies to your work.

Responsibilities

• Identifying market trends and creating theses about what opportunities we should pursue
• Brainstorming, designing, and testing new business concepts
• Conducting qualitative research using methods such as qualitative interviews, experience mapping, service blueprints, and user journeys
• Conducting quantitative validation studies such as smoke tests
• Running workshops with the wider Factory team and entrepreneurs
• Collaborating with our corporate partners to leverage their expertise and assets as part of the Venture Design process
• Constantly experimenting with new technologies and tools to drive innovation and creativity
• Presenting new concepts to partners and other stakeholders
• Working with the rest of the design and product teams to act as thought leaders and to establish a POV for Venture Design at Founders Factory Africa

Requirements

• Have a deep understanding of what makes a great business and how to commercialise opportunities
• Have extensive experience developing new products, services, and businesses models
• Be able to identify opportunities by looking at user needs and broader market trends
• Have a proven track record of taking ideas and bringing them to life across a range of industries
• Have a sense of how to identify key risks and validate hypotheses
• Have exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal
• Have worked with a variety of products and industries in your career
• Thrive in uncertainty
• Be a self-starter and comfortable working with little direction or oversight.