CFO / Global Director of Finance

About Educate!

Educate! is East Africa's largest youth employment and skills provider, transforming lives across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania. With over 500,000 youth meaningfully impacted and a team of 300+ African staff, we're leveraging iterative learning to build scalable youth employment solutions that unlock potential on the world's youngest continent.

Africa has the world's youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent will contribute more young people to the global workforce annually than the rest of the world combined. Educate! prepares youth to learn, earn, and thrive by introducing employment-focused curricula into secondary schools and delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with particular focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

Our Impact & Recognition

Educate! has earned backing from top global foundations including Imaginable Futures, Livelihood Impact Fund, Jack Dorsey's #startsmall, CIFF, and Echidna Giving. We've won the 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and 2015 WISE Award, and been featured by the World Bank's S4YE Impact Portfolio, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Brookings Institution, and the Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Accelerator.

Our organization prioritizes building an engaging, fulfilling, and growth-oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have launched their own organizations, and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows.

The Role: CFO / Global Director of Finance

We seek an experienced CFO / Global Director of Finance to lead financial strategy and operations across our expanding East African footprint. This is a pivotal leadership position for a mission-driven professional passionate about youth development and sustainable organizational growth.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute comprehensive financial strategy aligned with organizational impact goals
• Oversee financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting across multiple country operations
• Lead finance team and build financial management capacity across the organization
• Ensure financial compliance, audit readiness, and donor reporting requirements
• Drive financial systems optimization and process improvements
• Partner with Executive Leadership on strategic decision-making and resource allocation

Ideal Candidate:

• 10+ years financial leadership experience in nonprofit, NGO, or social impact sector
• Proven track record managing multi-country operations and complex organizational finances
• Strong understanding of donor requirements, grant compliance, and nonprofit accounting
• Strategic mindset with ability to translate mission into financial sustainability
• Experience building and leading high-performing finance teams
• Comfort with emerging markets and African business contexts

💰 Compensation not publicly listed. Market estimate for similar roles: from $90K, varying by experience and location.