Education Program Manager - Rwanda

Building Tomorrow, an international nonprofit organization working to provide literacy and numeracy for all children, is seeking an experienced Education Program Manager (PM) to supervise our frontline workers, propelling our signature foundational learning program, Roots to Rise (R2R), in the communities we serve in Rwanda. As a PM, you will play a pivotal role in adopting R2R to the Rwandan context, and you will oversee Regional Coordinators across multiple districts, ensuring effective program delivery and impact. Beyond a manager, you will serve as a coach to field staff, a developer of high-quality learning materials, a builder of strategic partnerships, and a pioneer in establishing Building Tomorrow’s footprint in Rwanda.

THE ORGANIZATION

Started in 2006, Building Tomorrow supports community-powered learning in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda and Rwanda). Through 650 Building Tomorrow Fellows, 5,230 government teachers, and over 20,000 Community Education Volunteers. Building Tomorrow has enrolled over 216,000 out-of-school children and reached more than 950,000 learners with our signature Roots to Rise (R2R) literacy and numeracy camps. Between offices in the USA, Uganda, and Rwanda, Building Tomorrow has a full-time staff of over 350, just eight of whom work outside East Africa. Building Tomorrow has received funding and recognition for its innovative work from Echoing Green, Big Bang Philanthropy, Clinton Global Initiative, US Library of Congress, and Forbes Magazine. More information can be found online at: www.buildingtomorrow.org.

POSITION HIGHLIGHTS

The PM supports Rwanda-country leadership in implementing the strategic program priorities, responsible for ensuring that the Fellows program interventions are effectively and efficiently executed and that R2R is optimized for learning outcomes. The PM is a member of the cross-office Program and Pedagogy team but will also interact with other relevant teams including Monitoring and Evaluation (MEL), Innovations, and Strategic Partnerships (SP). The position is full-time and based in Kigali. The position reports directly to the Country Director or their designate.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Program Strategy, Design, and Adaptation
• Translate organizational strategy into clear, actionable program plans for the Fellows, including annual workplans, implementation roadmaps, and KPIs.
• In partnership with the Pedagogy Team, adapt and continuously refine the Roots to Rise (R2R) model for the Rwandan context, ensuring alignment with national education priorities and global best practices in foundational learning (e.g., TaRL, UDL).
• Drive ongoing program improvement through structured reflection, field insights, and integration of research, evaluation findings, and internal learning.
• Collaborate across offices with Programs, Pedagogy, MEL, Innovations, and Strategic Partnerships teams to ensure coherence between design and delivery.

Program Implementation and Management
• Oversee end-to-end implementation of BT programs across multiple districts, ensuring high-quality, timely, and cost-effective delivery through clear processes, timelines, and accountability structures.
• Contribute to annual budgeting and ensure effective, compliant, and cost-efficient use of program resources.
• Identify and manage programmatic risks, ensuring mitigation strategies are in place and escalated as needed.
• Uphold the compliance of organizational policies, donor requirements, and government regulations.
• With support from the Pedagogy and Programs team, oversee the training design, delivery, and post-training evaluation of fellows and Community Education Volunteers (CEVs).
• Ensure all field-based staff practice appropriate security and safety protocols for themselves and the organization's property.

Team Leadership and Capacity Building
• Supervise Regional Coordinators and conduct regular visits to districts to provide guidance to maximize their effectiveness in the field and to ensure alignment between program design and on-the-ground realities.
• Provide ongoing mentorship and structured performance management, including goal-setting, regular feedback, and formal evaluations.
• Identify capacity gaps and partner with internal teams to design and deliver effective training, coaching, and professional development.
• Build leadership capacity within the team to support scale and long-term sustainability.
• Conduct performance reviews and appraisals of Regional Coordinators.

Program Reporting, Communication, and Representation
• Provide regular feedback to Rwanda Leadership and different departments (Pedagogy, Programs, MEL, Strategic Partnership) on field learnings, opportunities, and threats.
• Overseeing reporting on Fellows activities, supporting RCs in report submissions, and providing feedback to departments.
• Partner with the MEL team to ensure robust data collection, quality assurance, and real-time use of data for decision-making.
• Translate data and insights into concrete program improvements, strengthening impact on literacy and numeracy outcomes.
• Ensure data-driven accountability across the program team and with external stakeholders.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with government counterparts, school leaders, community stakeholders, and partners in the communities we serve.

MUST HAVES
• Ability to link your experience and skills directly with the Building Tomorrow behaviors (listed below) and skills Building Tomorrow is seeking in the ideal candidate.
• A Bachelor’s degree in Education from an accredited institution.
• A flexible, enterprising mindset that thrives in a start-up environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with an uncompromising attention to detail.
• Experience and proficiency using Microsoft and Google workplace products.
• Fluency in Kinyarwanda and English.
• Well‑versed in pedagogy for English foundational literacy and numeracy.
• Experience managing projects.
• Experience working with NGOs.

WE WANT YOU TO APPLY IF…
• You have an unshakeable passion for education equality, believing access to an inclusive, quality education is a basic human right.
• You possess creative ingenuity, being progressive in your thinking and approaching challenges old and new. You are intrapreneurial and unafraid to pilot new ideas.
• You are relentlessly determined, refusing to accept the status quo, persistently striving to create new opportunities to reach more children, allowing them to reach their maximum potential.
• You believe in collaborative engagement. You believe more can be achieved together than alone, believe in the power of cultivating relationships, and see everyone as an equal partner.

WHAT WE OFFER

Compensation will be commensurate with experience.

TO APPLY

Visit www.buildingtomorrow.org/careers to apply.

If someone referred you to apply for this position, please provide his or her name in your cover letter. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Building Tomorrow maintains a dedication to promoting gender equity, diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion, and recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of protected characteristics. Building Tomorrow will not tolerate illegal discrimination or harassment under an applicable law in any jurisdiction where it operates.

Building Tomorrow will not tolerate illegal discrimination or harassment under an applicable law in any jurisdiction where it operates.