Senior Partnerships Officer (Education Sector, Africa)

Prevail Fund

24d • Remote

About The Position

Prevail partners with ambitious organizations and governments in Africa and South Asia to help catalyze reforms that can transform millions of lives. As an Ecosystems Partnerships Officer, you will lead a portfolio of 2 to 4 government-facing foundational learning reform opportunities in Africa. Your job is to identify where Prevail can play a catalytic role, build the relationships needed to move opportunities forward, shape strong funding proposals, and support partners and governments to deliver results at scale. This is a hands-on role for someone who can turn promising reform opportunities into real progress. You build strong relationships, work well across governments, partners and funders, and know how to get things done.

About Prevail
Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to catalyzing large-scale social change by supporting private philanthropists and field implementers to pursue more ambitious and impactful goals. We work with private philanthropists to fund specific initiatives for 10-12 years. Rather than diversifying across multiple causes, we prioritize deep, strategic investments in proven solutions with the potential to reshape global norms. For example, our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million children across 11 national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Prevail provides patient capital to implementers – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organizations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail also offers a suite of systems and talent development services designed to address common growth barriers and prepare partner organizations for accelerated scale.

In our first three years, we've:
Made significant progress against our ambitious fundraising targets
Partnered with 30+ organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Hired 35+ mission-driven team members globally
Run dozens of execution projects to strengthen key functions for our partners
You can find a bit more information about Prevail Fund and what to expect from our recruitment process here .

About this role
In this role, you will work across governments and the broader education ecosystem to understand where large-scale foundational learning reforms are gaining momentum, where they are getting stuck, and what support could help them succeed. Most of your work will focus on reforms involving structured pedagogy, targeted instruction, and/or personalized, adaptive learning. You will assess political and implementation realities, identify bottlenecks and opportunities, coordinate funding and technical support, and help partners move from promising ideas to sustained impact at scale.

Ecosystem engagement:
You will identify and develop promising government-facing reform support opportunities. Proactively develop promising funding opportunities by building relationships, spotting openings, shaping early ideas, and aligning with government and other ecosystem actors. This may be in support to other Partnership Officers leading engagement in key geographies. Identify potential partners who could support government-led reforms, including groups of partners with complementary roles such as goal-setting, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Stay closely connected to key actors such as the Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank, bilateral funding agencies, other foundations, and support organizations where their priorities, financing, or influence could materially affect funding opportunities and/or the cost-effective impact and scale of supported reforms.

Funding and investment decisions:
You will manage the funding decisions for your portfolio. Develop clear funding proposals for government-led reforms. This includes defining the support needed, any phased funding milestones, partner roles, and opportunities to coordinate financing with other donors or initiatives As needed, secure government approvals – including memoranda of understanding when required – and other funder sign-off for Prevail funding Facilitate and integrate Prevail team review of funding proposals to strengthen plans and in preparation for Investment Committee approval Develop clear recommendations for funding continuation, scale-ups, or exits Identify any ecosystem enabling investments that could meaningfully increase the likelihood of reform success.

Actively support funded reform efforts:
You will support partners to solve problems, act on opportunities, and improve the chances of sustained cost-effective impact at scale. Track performance data of reform efforts and progress against agreed milestones to see whether the work is on course. Where needed, manage in-country colleagues, consultants, or advisors so Prevail has the local context, relationships, and follow-through needed to support reform efforts well. Hold regular meetings with funded partner teams – and, where needed, directly with government and other ecosystem actors – to surface risks and opportunities early, and work jointly on solutions and pivots Conduct field visits to understand delivery on the ground and identify any support needs to boost achievement of key milestones Scope and deliver targeted support projects to address specific problems or opportunities that come up during implementation, and coordinate support from Prevail’s technical team or external experts when useful.

Broader team contribution:
You will contribute to learning and collaboration across the Prevail team. Support Prevail’s learning about ecosystem engagement and government-facing funding approaches, helping to identify key learning questions and efficient ways of answering and sharing learning internally and potentially externally Partner with other partnerships officers at Prevail on initiatives that go beyond individual countries - for example, bringing together ecosystem actors or partner leaders to share learning or co-design a shared project. Feed learnings back into our broader fund strategy, including what it takes to effectively support government-led reform efforts to achieve cost-effective impact and sustainability at scale, where bottlenecks and opportunities emerge, and which models are working best.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of experience working in roles that required engaging governments, funders, implementing organizations, or other system actors to drive progress on complex initiatives.
• Demonstrable track record of directly achieving big goals.
• Comfortable leading projects independently, making decisions, and moving quickly.
• Ability to diagnose where progress is getting stuck and help shape practical solutions.
• Comfortable working across strategy, implementation, stakeholder dynamics, and execution.
• Ability to follow through until the problem is actually solved.
• Experience influencing senior decision makers without formal authority.
• Ability to bring clarity to ambiguous situations, exercise strong judgment, and help leaders translate ideas into action.
• Strong ability to build trusted relationships and bring together actors with different priorities to move toward shared goals.
• Hands-on approach, drawn to the heart of the action and motivated by working alongside partners to achieve shared goals.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in education.
• Experience working in or with government systems.
• Experience working across governments, funders, multilaterals, and implementing organizations.
• Established network in the impact ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Lead a portfolio of 2 to 4 government-facing foundational learning reform opportunities in Africa.
• Identify where Prevail can play a catalytic role, build relationships, shape funding proposals, and support partners and governments to deliver results at scale.
• Assess political and implementation realities, identify bottlenecks and opportunities, coordinate funding and technical support, and help partners move from promising ideas to sustained impact at scale.
• Identify and develop promising government-facing reform support opportunities.
• Proactively develop promising funding opportunities by building relationships, spotting openings, shaping early ideas, and aligning with government and other ecosystem actors.
• Identify potential partners who could support government-led reforms, including groups of partners with complementary roles such as goal-setting, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Stay closely connected to key actors such as the Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank, bilateral funding agencies, other foundations, and support organizations.
• Manage the funding decisions for your portfolio.
• Develop clear funding proposals for government-led reforms, including defining support needed, phased funding milestones, partner roles, and opportunities to coordinate financing.
• Secure government approvals and other funder sign-off for Prevail funding.
• Facilitate and integrate Prevail team review of funding proposals.
• Develop clear recommendations for funding continuation, scale-ups, or exits.
• Identify any ecosystem enabling investments that could meaningfully increase the likelihood of reform success.
• Support partners to solve problems, act on opportunities, and improve the chances of sustained cost-effective impact at scale.
• Track performance data of reform efforts and progress against agreed milestones.
• Manage in-country colleagues, consultants, or advisors.
• Hold regular meetings with funded partner teams and ecosystem actors to surface risks and opportunities.
• Conduct field visits to understand delivery on the ground and identify support needs.
• Scope and deliver targeted support projects to address specific problems or opportunities.
• Coordinate support from Prevail’s technical team or external experts.
• Contribute to learning and collaboration across the Prevail team.
• Support Prevail’s learning about ecosystem engagement and government-facing funding approaches.
• Partner with other partnerships officers at Prevail on initiatives that go beyond individual countries.
• Feed learnings back into our broader fund strategy.

Benefits

• Full time, permanent contract.
• Fully remote position within Africa.
• Competitive salary based on experience, skills and location.
• Health insurance and wellness benefits.
• Home workspace or co-working stipend.
• Generous learning and development budget.
• Strong manager support, targeted feedback, performance support, clear pay progression, upwards or lateral mobility.
• Flexible leave policy, including 25 days PTO, plus public holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed