Project Manager, - Nairobi - BFA Global

Description

About us 
BFA Global is an impact innovation firm that combines research, advisory, venture building, and investment expertise to build a more inclusive, equitable, and resilient future for underserved people and the planet. We partner with leading public, private, and philanthropic organizations, both global and local, to catalyze innovation ecosystems for impact across emerging markets.

About Livelihoods Fund (LIF)

Livelihoods Fund (LIF) supports scalable, results-driven programs that deliver at least 5x returns in future earnings per dollar spent. LIF provides unrestricted, multi-year funding guided by trust-based philanthropy and a willingness to take risks. While valuing qualitative insights, it prioritizes measurable outcomes like income growth.
We are currently developing entrepreneurship programming for LIF to support small and medium businesses that, in aggregate, can provide and enhance quality employment at scale. We aim to increase quality employment (typically in the formal sector) by 1% of the labour force over five years (e.g. 100,000 new jobs in Kenya).

About the Role

We seek a detail-oriented and strategically minded professional to serve as the Project Manager for a key program in the advisory livelihoods practice. This role sits at the intersection of program operations, stakeholder management, strategic design, and insight generation. The ideal candidate will ensure that program delivery runs smoothly while also contributing to the evolution of the program's strategic direction and learning agenda.

You will manage internal workflows, support collaboration across teams and partners, track program activities and budgets, and support the synthesis of insights into learning products. This position requires someone who can work efficiently with administrative tools, manage complex task structures with agility, and contribute meaningfully to higher-level program design, including the theory of change and expansion strategy.

This high-impact, cross-functional role is best suited for someone with a blend of operations, analytical, and stakeholder engagement skills and a strong desire to support mission-driven work. It is ideal for someone with a consulting / advisory background in the private and/or social sectors, but it could also be a fit for other backgrounds that include project management. 

If you have experience and like working on significant, ambiguous but impactful problems, being innovative and iterative in problem solving with a team, taking ownership, and developing new insights, you will enjoy and thrive in this role.

Requirement

1. Flexibility with Accountability

• Work with a flexible, adaptive mindset to shape evolving program needs.
• Establish clear structures and tools for evaluating program progress, team effectiveness, and delivery against goals.
• Integrate into ongoing processes and culture, and gradually tailor and improve processes for program success
  

2. Stakeholder Management & Collaboration

• Build strong relationships across varying levels of the organization and with external stakeholders.
• Work effectively across sectors, including government, social impact, and private sector partners.
• Anticipate and manage diverse expectations and communication styles. 
• Be a team player and thrive in collaborative co-creation contexts in virtual and in-person settings. 

3. Administration & Project Management

• Design and implement simple, agile tools (e.g., spreadsheets, Slack task lists, Polly polls) to manage workflows and project deliverables.
• Develop and refine internal processes to enhance team collaboration and performance.
• Tailor administrative and project tools to fit different task types, timelines, and stakeholder needs.
  

4. Sector Knowledge & Insight

• Demonstrate an understanding of the small and medium enterprise (SME) ecosystem in Africa, with an emphasis on non-tech ventures.
• Leverage working experience or familiarity with key markets and sectors aligned with BFA Global's focus.

5. Strategic Thinking and Impact Design

• Contribute to the design of theories of change and strategic frameworks.
• Translate theories into action by sourcing, vetting, and supporting the development of programs and intervention areas (e.g., identifying organizations or projects for donor funding and developing a program across multiple stakeholders to test the hypothesis in the theory of change)
• Apply creative thinking, research, and analysis to support program design and long-term planning.
  
  

Qualifications & Experience

Education & Background

• Bachelor's degree in Public Policy, Development Studies, Business Administration, Economics, or a related field; Master's degree preferred.
• 4–6 years of relevant experience in project management, operations, or program delivery roles within development, social impact, or research-oriented organizations.
• Prior experience working with grant-funded programs, donor reporting, or programmatic operations is highly desirable.
  

Skills & Competencies

• Strong administrative and project management skills: Proven ability to manage multiple moving parts, track deliverables, and ensure deadlines are met with attention to detail.
• Analytical mindset: Ability to track time/resource usage and generate insights for operational and strategic improvements.
• Solution-oriented: Ability to think critically about processes and problems and suggest actionable areas of improvement across both administration tasks as well as strategic program design
• Process improvement orientation: Comfortable refining tools (e.g., workplans, timesheets, reports) and introducing efficiency-enhancing practices.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills: Can work cross-functionally and communicate effectively with internal team members, grantees, and external consultants.
• Insight and learning synthesis: Experience in capturing learnings, tying them to strategic goals, and translating them into knowledge products or internal communications.
• Familiarity with financial tracking and forecasting: Basic understanding of invoicing, budget variances, and working with finance/admin teams.
• Strategic and systems thinking: Ability to engage in higher-level program design, such as cultivating a theory of change and identifying areas for program expansion.
• Adaptability: Flexible, solutions-oriented, and able to adjust to evolving program needs while maintaining task accountability.
  

Tools & Platforms

• Proficiency in project management and collaboration tools such as Excel/Google Sheets, Slack, and Trello/Asana/Polly.
• Experience with reporting tools, knowledge-sharing platforms, or CRM systems is an added advantage.
  
  

Anticipated Start Date: October/November 2025

Preferred location: Nairobi, Kenya

Contract Type: Full-time, Two-Year Fixed-Term

Candidates must have local work permits. Compensation will be commensurate with experience. 
Only shortlisted candidates who provide the required information will be contacted for follow-up.

At BFA, we are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation, and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military, and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

BFA believes that diversity and inclusion among our teammates are critical to our success as a global company. We seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool and to carry out the best inclusion work we undertake. 

*BFA will not sponsor work permits. 

**BFA will not pay for relocation expenses.