Acumen is seeking a detail-oriented and analytical Senior Associate: Reporting, Data and Analytics with at least 5 years of experience, to support data management, analysis, dashboarding, reporting, and MEL systems for Green RISE (Resilient Impact through Sustainable Entrepreneurship) Africa.
About Acumen
Acumen is a global nonprofit changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders, and ideas. Acumen builds markets and supports entrepreneurs whose work creates meaningful impact for low-income and underserved communities.
Acumen has worked across Africa and other regions to invest in transformational businesses, develop leaders, and support solutions that help build a more just, inclusive, and sustainable world.
About Green Rise Africa
Green Rise Africa is a five-year programme delivered in partnership by Acumen and the Mastercard Foundation. The programme supports green enterprises and ecosystem actors to create dignified and fulfilling work opportunities for young people in green sectors across East and West Africa.
By 2030, Green Rise Africa aims to reach 443,200 young people, including 308,000 young women, in dignified and fulfilling green work. The programme operates across East and West Africa, with activities planned across 15 countries.
Green Rise Africa works across multiple programme pillars, supporting enterprises, intermediaries, fellows, ecosystem actors, and partners to strengthen green livelihoods, business growth, and youth employment outcomes.
About the Role
As the Senior Associate: Reporting, Data and Analytics, you will support the Impact Manager in strengthening how Green Rise Africa collects, manages, analyses, visualises, and reports programme data across all pillars.
The role will serve as a link between the Impact/MEL team, programme teams, partners, and systems and technology functions. It will be central to ensuring that Green Rise Africa can track progress toward its ambitious 2030 targets, including reaching 443,200 young people, in dignified and fulfilling green work.
The Senior Associate will play a hands-on role in maintaining MEL data systems, supporting partner reporting, producing routine reports and dashboards, strengthening data quality assurance processes, and generating insights to inform programme decision-making.
The ideal candidate will have at least five years of experience in data analysis and MEL data systems within an international development context. They will bring strong technical skills across data management and visualisation platforms, practical MEL experience, the ability to translate programme data into insights for different audiences, and a growing interest in AI-powered solutions.
Responsibilities
MEL Reporting and Dash boarding
- Support the development and implementation of quarterly, biannual, and annual reporting processes across Green Rise Africa pillars.
- Produce routine reports against programme indicators, KPIs, targets, and disaggregations, including actuals versus targets.
- Build and maintain dashboards in Salesforce, Power BI, or equivalent platforms to provide up-to-date performance views for programme and leadership teams.
- Develop clear infographics and data visualisations to communicate programme results to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Respond to ad hoc data requests from internal teams, partners, and external stakeholders, including the Mastercard Foundation.
- Work closely with Finance to support the integration and quality assurance of financial and impact data, including for Impact Linked Finance reporting.
Data Collection, Consolidation and Indicator Tracking
- Oversee programme indicator data flows, ensuring data submissions are complete, accurate, and received on time across reporting periods.
- Manage partner data submissions through mobile and online collection tools such as KoBoToolbox, Airtable, Salesforce, or equivalent platforms.
- Consolidate data from multiple partners, countries, and programme pillars into master datasets and reporting tools on a routine basis.
- Maintain and update indicator tracking sheets and reporting templates in line with programme targets.
Data Analysis and Insight Generation
- Conduct quantitative analysis of programme datasets to identify trends, gaps, risks, performance issues, and areas of strong progress.
- Run descriptive and diagnostic analyses disaggregated by gender, age, geography, country, sector, pillar, and partner.
- Support the Impact Manager to translate data into insights that inform programme learning, adaptation, and decision-making.
- Prepare clean, well-documented datasets for internal reviews, external evaluations, and donor reporting.
- Contribute to Value for Money, benefit-cost, SROI, or Impact Linked Finance analyses as required.
MEL Data Systems and Technology
- Support the implementation, configuration, and maintenance of MEL data systems, including Salesforce, Power BI, Airtable, KoBoToolbox, or equivalent tools.
- Ensure data collection, management, analysis, and reporting systems are aligned with the programme MEL framework and indicator requirements.
- Support the development and maintenance of technology-enabled tools that improve data collection, reporting, analysis, and learning.
- Advise on technology and AI-enabled solutions that can improve MEL workflows, reporting efficiency, data quality, and learning.
Data Quality Assurance and Compliance
- Develop and apply standardised data validation rules, quality checklists, and data cleaning protocols.
- Review incoming datasets to identify duplicates, outliers, missing values, logical inconsistencies, and other data quality concerns.
- Maintain clear documentation and audit trails for data cleaning, validation, and changes to source data.
- Liaise with partners and programme teams to resolve data gaps, discrepancies, and quality issues, including coordinating resubmission of corrected records where needed.
- Conduct quarterly data quality reviews across partner organisations.
- Work with Compliance and Legal teams to ensure data is collected, stored, used, retained, and protected in line with programme standards and relevant data protection requirements.
Partner and Team Capacity Building
- Support partners to use programme reporting systems and submit high-quality data on time.
- Develop simple guidance materials, templates, and training resources for partner data collection and reporting.
- Build the capacity of internal team members to use MEL technology platforms, dashboards, and reporting tools.
- Support lower-capacity partner organisations to strengthen their internal data management and reporting systems.
- Conduct site visits to review partner data systems, data quality processes, and reporting readiness.
- Contribute to quarterly reporting on partner data quality and system strengthening needs.
Knowledge Management and Learning
- Support the set-up and maintenance of internal knowledge management systems for Green Rise Africa.
- Work with the Programme Insights team to ensure qualitative data, lessons, and learning products are organised and accessible.
- Support the documentation of learning from programme implementation, partner performance, and data trends.
- Ensure data and evidence are available in a timely manner for learning reviews, evaluations, and programme adaptation discussions.
Requirements
Essential Criteria
Candidates must demonstrate at least five years of relevant experience, including:
- Practical, hands-on experience in monitoring, evaluation, learning, data management, and reporting in an international development context.
- Experience managing programme data flows across multiple partners, countries, or programme workstreams, including partner submissions, data cleaning, consolidation, validation, and reporting.
- Experience producing routine MEL reports, including reporting against indicators, KPIs, targets, and actuals versus targets.
- Strong skills in data cleaning, data quality assurance, validation, documentation, and audit trail management.
- Experience analysing programme data and producing insights for decision-making.
- Strong proficiency in data analysis and visualisation tools such as Excel, Power BI, SPSS, Stata, R, Python, or equivalent.
- Experience working with MEL databases and digital data collection systems such as Salesforce, Airtable, KoBoToolbox, CommCare, SurveyCTO, or equivalent.
- Experience building or maintaining dashboards, reporting tools, databases, or other technology products that support MEL.
- Experience advising teams or partner organisations on data management, reporting, and data quality best practices.
- Working knowledge of data consent, use, retention, protection, and security requirements.
- Proven attention to detail and a systematic approach to managing complex datasets.
- Ability to communicate data clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Ability to work across teams in a matrix-managed, multi-country programme environment.
Desirable Criteria
- Formal training in monitoring and evaluation, data analysis, statistics, information systems, project evaluation, or a related field.
- Experience working on youth employment, gender inclusion, climate, green growth, enterprise development, or private sector development programmes.
- Experience with Impact Linked Finance, Value for Money, SROI, cost-benefit analysis, or similar approaches.
- Familiarity with AI tools, agents, or automation solutions that can support MEL, reporting, data cleaning, analysis, or knowledge management.
- Experience supporting programme evaluations and preparing datasets for external evaluators.
- Project management qualification or experience coordinating multi-stakeholder reporting processes.
- Experience working in East and/or West Africa.
Location: This role is based in Nairobi, Kenya or Lagos, Nigeria. Occasional travel within the East and West Africa region is expected.
Acumen is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, age, differential ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, or background.
Applications will be reviewed and interviews scheduled on a rolling basis.
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