Bridge Kenya

Bridge Kenya is a community school programme that partners with parents, communities and teachers to provide a life changing education and gateway to success.

Bridge Kenya transforms lives and opens the door to a successful future for its pupils. Together with its teachers, school leaders, families and communities, it creates schools that deliver academic excellence, build the essential skills for success, and provide a caring, nurturing community that supports growth.

In 2009, Bridge Kenya opened its first school in Nairobi’s Mukuru Kwa Njenga. Since then we have iterated and innovated, building a transformative community school programme that is data-driven and evidence-based and accountable to families. We have re-engineered every part of the education system, from teacher training and support, to lesson delivery and design, construction, and administration; making community schools as effective and transparent as possible. Our success in Kenya has enabled us to create other community school programmes in Africa and beyond.

Since 2015, Bridge Kenya’s national (KCPE) exam results have continued to prove academic excellence, significantly outperforming national averages. Every year, tens of pupils from some of the most underserved communities in the country score 400+ in their KCPE with 1000s’ more scoring over 300 marks. Our Community school graduates have gone to top secondary schools and universities; both within Kenya and the US. These graduates continue to excel in various top national secondary schools in Kenya including Maranda High, Starehe Boys, Alliance Girls, Pangani Girls and MPESA Foundation. In addition, some of our first cohort of pupils are now in top universities including Nairobi University, Kenya and Amherst College in the US.

Outside of the classroom, our pupils participate in extracurricular activities such as debates and sports to help them build confidence, teamwork skills and independence. They continue to prove their co-curricular prowess – with schools competing at the national level co-curricular competitions every year and participating in East Africa regional competitions.

We are not just a community school programme, every day we work to transform lives. We are nurturing children holistically, by empowering teachers and teaching pupils to be disciplined and confident using positive behavioural techniques and approaches. These traits empower pupils to lead and a successful future long after they graduate.

Our community school programme has a long legacy of success and has opened the door to opportunities that many of our pupils and their families could never have imagined.

A quality education has the power to transform the opportunities for Kenya’s children. In joining us, you will join a group of dynamic and passionate Kenyans taking concrete action to help ensure a better future for the children of Kenya.

Corporate Affairs

The Corporate Affairs group is the eyes, ears and public face of the organisation. It leads on strategy and is responsible for influencing and strengthening the internal and external landscapes that surround and impact our growing portfolio. The Corporate Affairs group is responsible for the public reputation of our portfolio, creating environments that support programmatic growth through engaging with stakeholders, influencing policy making and designing impactful communications.

The Corporate Affairs strategy is based upon a deep understanding, and awareness of, national and global trends, policies, regulatory changes and current affairs. It leads the overall strategic direction and implementation of initiatives and strategies across multiple channels, audiences and geographies.

The Corporate Affairs group always takes both a national and global perspective and is highly attuned to the nuances of frequently evolving politics and policy issues. Its work is based upon both an in-depth understanding of our organisation, its programmes and the broader global and national education landscapes in which it operates. Through this, it devises strategies that connects our programming with a diverse, and ever-expanding set of stakeholders.

Communications

The Communications team is housed in the Corporate Affairs group. It collaborates across departments and programmes to create and execute compelling strategies; locally and globally. Corporate Affairs has a wide portfolio of responsibilities including external and internal relations, advocacy, strategy, digital, reputation management and media relations. The communications team is focussed on ensuring that the exceptional achievements being made across a wide portfolio of programming are effectively and impactfully communicated. We lead, develop and support strategies in multiple programmes and continents simultaneously; shaping and influencing the external environments in which we work. We pride ourselves in being able to respond quickly and effectively at all times

About the Role

As Director, Communications, you will be assisting in the formulation and management of business wide reputation management strategy that safeguards organization’s integrity and image; you will assist with the formulation of business wide internal and external communication and engagement strategies; develop and sustain relationships with key advocates for the business and to leverage influence for the benefit of the organization. While supporting the organization’s chief spokesperson, you will also represent the organization and its partnerships. You will be responsible for developing platforms for critical stakeholder engagement /corporate communication and information dissemination. You will be at the forefront of expectation management whilst eliciting public support for the organization. You will develop corporate content and manage information for relevance and resonance.

What You Will Do

• Utilize cross functional approach to align corporate and marketing messaging and engagement.
• Influence organization’s brand positioning and engagement through cross functional coordination and cooperation.
• Allocate importance to organization’s business wide content from time to time and derive maximum exposure from finite internal and external media space/platforms.
• Be the go–to person for the media and develop strong relationships with key Technology, Education, Development and Business media.
• Lead conceptualization and production of digital, media and other relevant content.
• Assist with strategic direction, and oversight for internal and external communications planning, digital and media management, media advocacy, specific issue and crisis management
• Develop strong cross functional relationships and influence in all external facing Departments/Groups to ensure consistency of communication and information.
• Co-own internal /external communication and engagement with critical stakeholders across the organization.
• Proactively identify critical opportunities to direct/own organization’s narrative thereby averting public relations crises and building goodwill for the organization.
• Suggest alteration of strategy and tactical actions when relevant.
• Maximize efficiency of Corporate Communications budgets and media influence.
• Adapt Organization’s shared services Corporate Communications Strategy to work effectively within local context.
• Develop and implement territory specific Corporate Communications Strategy in conjunction with Organization’s Shared Services Corporate Communications Strategy.
• Provide local context and input to the Shared Services team’s development of the overall organization’s Corporate Communication Strategy.
• Analyze and measure results of communications initiatives.

What You Should Have

• Masters' degree with superior academic performance.
• Experience in East Africa of working at a senior level for political, campaigning, non-profit, or social enterprise. Experience with a multinational organization is a plus.
• Experience working within a matrixed global organization.
• Experience developing communication for a campaign or movement, rather than a product.
• Experience developing and delivering comprehensive media strategies and complex media campaigns across a range of platforms for a range of audiences.
• High profile crisis communications experience.
• Experience successfully developing and managing effective working relationships with internal and external senior stakeholders including senior journalists, broadcasters and editors.
• Highly developed and proven creative skills to lead a significant communications team with flair, innovation and new ideas.
• Able to present in person, as an organization spokesperson, to large audiences in a highly engaging way.
• Highly developed verbal, written, and oral skills to promote and represent the organization.
• Experience of offering media advice and guidance to colleagues at a senior level.
• Experience building relationships and managing external partnerships from a communications perspective.
• Knowledge of national government issues related to the provision of primary education.
• Broad grasp of Kenya and Uganda media and political context and full understanding of all media disciplines and external media environment and experience in crisis communications.
• Excellent project management and organisational skills in a communications context.
• Experience of successfully managing budgets.
• Prior experience within a fast-paced, metric driven consulting or educational organization is a bonus.

You’re also

• A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.

• A networking mastermind – You excel at meeting new people and turning them into advocates. You communicate in a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech. You can influence strangers in the course of a single conversation. Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas. You have an existing network from prior experience in the country, preferably in the regulatory, education, or business sectors.

• A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
• A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
• A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
• A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
• A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.