Director of Marketing and Communications

African Leadership Academy

  • South Africa
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 4 months ago
has emerged as one of the most innovative educational institutions in the world - and our network of young leaders is . As Africa battles the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, our mission becomes ever more profoundly important: we will enable lasting peace and shared prosperity in Africa by identifying, developing and connecting the continent's future leaders. To bring this mission to life, we seek a forward-thinking, results oriented Director of Marketing and Communications to join our executive team. The Director of Marketing and Communications will solidify our positioning as the continent's pre-eminent leadership development institution and will extend the impact of our work across Africa and around the world.

Our Leadership Development Model

WE IDENTIFY POTENTIAL We comb Africa for youth who have shown the spark of initiative, who see what can be and strive to make it so.

WE DEVELOP THROUGH PRACTICE Young leaders complete an intensive program of intellectual growth and hands-on leadership development.

WE CONNECT TO OPPORTUNITIES Young leaders are guided by a powerful network along their path to transformative impact in Africa.

Director of Marketing and Communications

ALA's first decade proved our founding thesis: that deliberate and deep investment in high potential youth can unleash transformational change on the continent. Our young leaders have demonstrated the ability to imagine and implement solutions to pressing challenges across a range of sectors and disciplines - from the provision of education, to the delivery of healthcare, to the creation of jobs.

Our stresses the delivery of three strategic priorities:

We will win in the marketplace, building our brand and market demand for our leadership development programs as a model social enterprise;

We will invest in learning and innovation in our diploma program, such that we improve our outcomes and share our learning with the broader sector; and

We will unleash our network, engaging our alumni as partners in our mission and catalyzing their impact across diverse sector pathways.

Our Director of Marketing and Communications will enable all of these priorities. The Director will join our executive team and be central to fulfilling the win in the marketplace objective of ALA 2023, building a brand that resonates across our programs and networks.

Leading and working with a high performing team, the Director of Marketing and Communications will bring expertise across communications, technical and strategic marketing, and a track record of delivery that has elevated brands, fostered passionate customers, and delivered sustainable revenue growth. The Director of Marketing and Communications reports into the CEO.

The Role & Responsibilities

While driving our win in the marketplace objective, the Director of Marketing and Communications will support strategic priorities that serve the needs of the entire organization. The Director will be responsible for ownership of our organizational communications strategy, building organizational capability, and shaping the impact of our work on individuals and organisations across Africa.

This leader will be deeply focused on customer understanding and dialogue with youth, their parents, and other educational institutions across Africa and globally. Primary responsibilities to enable such focus and engagement will include:

Program recruitment strategy and implementation
  • Collaboration with the Head of Program Recruitment and Partnerships (direct report) and their team of five associates to evaluate markets and develop our approach to recruitment strategies in each market.
  • Enhance our operational excellence and monitoring processes through the evaluation of tools and systems to support recruitment; currently, the team uses Pipedrive, Toky, Trello, and Google dashboards to monitor and track progress.
  • Co-lead the planning and design for signature recruitment and marketing events, such as conferences and speaking engagements.
Marketing strategy and implementation
  • Collaboration with the Head of Marketing (direct report) and their team of three associates to plan, improve, implement and manage our marketing strategy via rigorous analysis to make evidence-based decisions, as well as through stakeholder engagement and team enablement.
  • Define, develop, and test appropriate messages for all marketing platforms, including organic content and advertisements.
  • Evaluate use of tools and systems to ensure optimal performance of marketing messages.
  • Ensure quality control on content creation and distribution across website, social media, newsletter, and print distribution, ensuring frequency, appropriateness and quality control.
  • Monitor external environment to provide perspective on internal and external messaging.
Communication and campaign development
  • Define the ALA communications strategy, brand book, and internal training and development programs.
  • Oversee the production (content brainstorming, editing and quality control) of key external collateral and scope and deliver new campaigns - such as the recent
campaign - including content planning, travel, interviewing, storyboarding, editing, production and distribution. * Define quality control processes that ensure that all departments deliver work internally and externally that reflects a vision for the brand.

Contribute to executive team
  • Contribute to monthly and quarterly Exco meetings with perspective from department and external environment, such as market trends and potential leads and growth opportunities.
  • Contribute to general executive decision making as required.
Reporting to the CEO of the academy, the director will receive continuous feedback to enable their personal and professional growth. At ALA, we promote a culture of feedback from both managers and peers to enhance our staffulty's self-awareness in regard to strengths and development areas. Through guidance and coaching the Director will be self-empowered to reduce the distance between their current performance and desired performance to realize their potential.

Profile of an Ideal Candidate

A visionary leader who will elevate our public position to reflect the quality of our programs and leaders, as well as who will initiate a global conversation about leadership development and Africa.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following behaviours:
  • Commitment to ALA's mission and passion for the African continent, its people and its future.
  • Track record of ownership
  • Commitment to excellence
  • Strategic mindset
  • Entrepreneurial
  • Proactive
  • Professional demeanour and presentation
The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following competencies:
  • Communication skills (writing, presenting, editing, packaging, distribution)
  • Leadership skills, including emotional intelligence (self-awareness and empathy)
  • Project management (planning, design, communication, execution, reporting and assessment)
  • Brand management
  • Data driven decision making that involves collecting data based on measurable goals or KPIs, analyzing patterns and facts from these insights, and utilizing them to develop strategies that will benefit the organization.
  • Collaborative skills (across cultures, departments and organizations, fostering win-win partnerships).
  • Relationship management (internal and external stakeholders)
  • Coaching and developing people
  • Conflict resolution
  • Budgeting and financial management
The ideal candidate will have the following experience and qualifications:
  • A demonstrated track record of managerial skill and communications excellence.
  • Experience leading teams to achieve exceptional results.
  • Undergraduate degree expected. Graduate degree in any management/communications discipline may be helpful.
  • Relevant industry and function experience may include:
  • Product and/or brand management
  • Marketing (especially digital)
  • Copywriting and Editing
  • Media and Communications
  • Sales
Reporting: This role reports to the CEO of the Academy. A team of approximately 12 professionals reports into the Director of Marketing and Communications.

Start Date: November or December 2020 (remote start possible)

African Leadership Academy