Data & Technology Manager, Acumen East & West Africa

About Green RISE Africa

Green RISE Africa is a collaborative program by Acumen and the MasterCard Foundation aimed at creating 443,000 meaningful jobs for youth in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 70% targeted for young women. It operates across four main pillars:

• GROW: Collaborates with Entrepreneurship Support Organisations in 7 countries to train and mentor nano and micro entrepreneurs.
• BUILD: Provides training and mentoring to 320 young climate leaders through a Green Entrepreneurship Fellowship.
• ACCELERATE: Supports early-stage entrepreneurs via readiness and scale programs.
• SCALE: Identifies and scales over 35 high-impact enterprises on the continent.

About Acumen

Acumen is a global network of entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and social innovators aiming to break poverty cycles through investments in transformational businesses and leadership development. Since 2001, it has impacted more than half a billion lives in underserved communities.

Role Overview

The Data and Technology Manager will spearhead the design, development, and upkeep of technology and data systems supporting Green RISE Africa's Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) activities. This role exclusively focuses on technological enabling of MEL processes, including data collection, management, quality assurance, and reporting.

This position is based in Nairobi or Lagos with a requirement to be physically present in office three days weekly. Occasional regional travel is expected.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead management and enhancement of the Green RISE Africa technology platforms linked to the program's MEL framework.
• Translate MEL team requirements into effective technological systems and processes, ensuring operationalization of data collection, management, and quality assurance protocols.
• Configure and maintain data collection and reporting tools for compliance with donor requirements.
• Develop quarterly automated reports, infographics, and dashboards in collaboration with MEL and Finance teams to communicate key metrics and financial indicators.
• Ensure up-to-date data management within grants management systems, adhering to data security, consent, and governance best practices in liaison with Compliance and Legal units.
• Integrate multiple data sources to align with MEL reporting needs.
• Establish and maintain internal knowledge management systems and workflows supporting lesson capture and data management.
• Support programmatic evaluations by ensuring comprehensive data availability as required by donors.
• Deliver capacity building activities to both internal teams and partners on technology use for MEL, including training material development and site visits for partner system assessments.
• Provide regular reporting on partner data quality and support development of partner reporting systems in line with program goals.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software/Data Engineering or related fields; advanced degrees or equivalent hands-on expertise are advantageous.
• Salesforce certification mandatory (e.g. Administrator); advanced certifications in Salesforce or Data Cloud are a plus.
• Minimum 8 years professional experience with at least 3 years managing data systems, MEL databases, and reporting platforms.
• Practical knowledge of MEL, grant management, and donor reporting requirements with capacity to design corresponding technological solutions.
• Proficient in Salesforce configuration including custom object and field creation, automation flows, validation rules, permissions, and dashboard reporting.
• Experienced in integrating data from various systems and tools via APIs and form builders.
• Proven ability to maintain, document, troubleshoot and improve live systems, including vendor management.
• Experienced in working within complex, multi-country matrix environments and programs focusing on gender and youth.
• Familiarity with Power BI, Airtable, Claude, or comparable platforms.
• Eligibility to work permanently in Kenya or Nigeria.

Additional Information

Acumen commits to equal opportunity employment and encourages applications from all backgrounds without discrimination on gender, age, ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, or other factors. Applications will be reviewed and shortlisted on a continuous basis.