Head of Development, East Africa

About the Role

Sanku is building technology that helps fortify staple grains in African mills and reaches more than 73 million people each day. This role sits at the heart of a mission-focused organization working to improve health outcomes across Africa. You will join a driven team that values high performance, professional growth, and employee wellbeing, within a culture designed to be energizing and rewarding.

Role Purpose

The Head of Development for East Africa will shape and run a strong development function across the region. The position carries full responsibility for fundraising, donor relationship management, communications, and team performance. It is intended to strengthen the systems, processes, and people needed to support the organization’s next stage of rapid growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Guide, mentor, and grow the East Africa Development Team, which currently includes 5 team members and is expanding, covering major donor fundraising, grants, and communications. Set priorities, keep delivery on schedule and at a high standard, and promote accountability, precision, and teamwork.
• Build and refine fundraising infrastructure, processes, and tools such as CRM platforms, reporting dashboards, and AI-supported workflows to improve consistency and team output.
• Work with the CEO and senior leaders to shape development strategy and turn it into practical plans with clear owners and deadlines.
• Help the team maintain and strengthen relationships across Sanku’s existing portfolio of more than $10M in strategic institutional and philanthropic funding, while spotting opportunities for renewals, upgrades, and pipeline growth aligned with strategy.
• Manage the complete grant and major donor journey, including prospect identification, proposal writing, budget preparation, submission, compliance, reporting, renewals, and visits or site trips in-country.
• Oversee donor communications and content creation, including impact reports, donor updates, presentations, website copy, social media, and other external-facing materials.
• Represent Sanku effectively at donor meetings, partner gatherings, and conferences, ensuring the right team members are assigned to the right opportunities and supported to make the most of each engagement.
• Track portfolio and team performance using KPIs and pipeline reviews, identify obstacles, and drive ongoing improvement.
• Support the CEO and senior leadership on select transformational funding opportunities of $10M+ when needed, while keeping the team’s core portfolio, systems, and execution on track.

Candidate Profile

We are looking for an experienced development leader who has managed fundraising, business development, or partnerships teams in the NGO, social enterprise, or international development space. The ideal person is comfortable in a fast-scaling environment and has helped build or professionalize a development function, not only managed an existing one. Strong leadership, coaching, and cross-functional collaboration skills are essential; fundraising success is helpful, but the ability to lead development operations and teams is the key requirement.

Requirements

• 5 to 8 years of experience leading development, business development, or partnerships teams in the NGO, social enterprise, or international development sector.
• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline.
• Experience managing teams of five or more people, including direct reports who supervise others or lead separate workstreams.
• Proven ability to operate in a fast-growing setting and strengthen a development function as it scales.
• Strong leadership, coaching, and collaboration skills across teams and functions.
• Experience in securing funding is preferred, though it is not the only measure of success for this role.

Additional Information

This position is based in Nairobi County, Kenya and is a full-time onsite role. The salary or stipend was not specified.