CEO Office Operations Manager

Place of Work: Kifiya HQ

Department: CEO Office Delivery

Reports To: Chief of Staff to the Founder & Group CEO

Role Context

Kifiya is at an inflection point. The CEO Office is the nerve center of a high-growth financial infrastructure company operating across multiple business units, actively raising institutional capital, and building toward the Horn of Africa’s first tech unicorn. The Chief of Staff is the CEO’s primary execution partner, but the CEO Office lacks the operational infrastructure to match the organization’s strategic ambitions.

This role exists to fix that.

The CEO Office Operations Manager owns everything that keeps the CEO Office running with precision: engagements, commitments, travel, logistics, office management, and coordination systems. This is a senior operations function that requires judgment, discretion, and the ability to run a complex executive office independently, without supervision, and without execution failures.

Role Objective

To build and operate a high-performing CEO Office, managing executive engagements, travel and logistics, leadership commitments, office operations, and cross-functional coordination. The measure of success is not tasks completed. It is whether the CEO Office runs like a tight ship: predictable, precise, and never reactive.

Core Responsibilities

CEO Engagement and Calendar Management

• Own the CEO’s calendar end-to-end: priorities, sequencing, and protection of strategic time
• Manage all inbound engagement requests with independent judgment on what reaches the CEO
• Support in preparing the CEO for every engagement: briefing notes, objectives, context, follow-up actions
• Track all CEO-led commitments and ensure follow-through in collaboration with the CoS
• Manage external stakeholder coordination: investors, partners, government, and institutional contacts
• Ensure no engagement falls through the cracks; maintain a live, reliable engagement tracker at all times

Organizational Capability and Leadership Enablement

• Coordinate end-to-end logistics for senior leadership hiring processes: scheduling panels, managing candidate communications, preparing interview coordination packs, and ensuring a seamless candidate experience from first contact to offer
• Maintain the leadership hiringtracker: open roles, interview stage,pending actions, and timelines
• Prepare and distribute pre-interview briefing materials for panelists: candidate profiles, role context, and structured interview guides, ensuring every interviewer is prepared before entering the room

• Coordinate onboarding logistics for incoming senior leaders: workspace readiness, system access, induction scheduling, introductory meeting sequencing, and first-90-days coordination support
• Manage logistics for all leadership development and training programmes: scheduling, venue coordination, materials preparation, attendance tracking, and post-session documentation
• Maintain the leadership training calendar: upcoming programmes, enrolled participants, and completion records: managed proactively, not reactively
• Liaise with external training providers, facilitators, and development partners to coordinate logistics, confirm requirements, and ensure smooth delivery
• Track leadership team development commitments and follow up on participation and completion without requiring CoS involvement in day-to-day coordination
• Support the CoS in preparing materials for organizational design reviews, role clarity exercises, and capability assessments structuring inputs, coordinating contributor submissions, and managing document versions

CEO Office Systems and Operational Infrastructure

• Design and maintain the systems, trackers, and tools that give real-time visibility into CEO Office priorities and commitments
• Build and run a weekly CEO Office operational review: priorities, commitments, open items, travel, and risks.
• Manage all internal and external correspondence on behalf of the CEO Office with accuracy and discretion
• Maintain document management systems for CEO Office materials: board packs, investor documents, strategic communications
• Act as the primary point of contact for administrative coordination across the Senior Leadership Team

Leadership Cadence Support

• Coordinate all leadership meetings: agendas prepared in advance, minutes documented, action items tracked
• Ensure all SLT commitments are logged and followed up through structured tracking rather than ad hoc chasing
• Prepare decision-ready briefing materials for leadership meetings: structured inputs that enable decisions, not summaries
• Maintain visibility into cross-functional workstreams and flag execution gaps to the CoS before they escalate

Investment and Stakeholder Coordination Support

• Coordinate logistics and documentation for investor engagements: scheduling, materials preparation, venue, hospitality, and follow-up tracking
• Manage end-to-end logistics for incoming DFI, IFC, AfDB, and institutional partner visits
• Maintain the investor and stakeholder contact database with accuracy and up-to-date status
• Support preparation of board and investor materials by managing document versions, deadlines, and distribution
• Ensure every investor-facing interaction is operationally flawless the quality of the experience reflects the quality of the institution

Travel, Visa, and Logistics Management

• Own all travel arrangements for the CEO Office and senior leadership, flights, hotels, ground transport, itineraries, end-to-end with zero execution failures in coordination with the EA and all admin team
• Oversee visa applications, travel documentation, and entry requirements for all leadership travel, including complex multi-country itineraries
• Coordinate logistics for incoming delegations, investors, and institutional visitors: accommodation, transport, meeting venues, and hospitality
• Anticipate travel needs in advance; proactively manage the calendar to identify upcoming travel and begin arrangements with sufficient lead time
• Maintain relationships with preferred travel vendors, hotels, and service providers to ensure quality and cost efficiency
• Build and maintain a travel and delegation tracker: all upcoming travel visible, documented, and in progress always

Office Operations and Physical Environment

• Run the CEO Office as a tight, well-organized physical and operational environment: nothing out of place, nothing outstanding, nothing reactive
• Manage office supplies, equipment, and facilities for the CEO Office with proactive restocking and maintenance in collaboration with the EA.
• Ensure meeting rooms used by the CEO Office are consistently prepared; materials ready, technology working, refreshments arranged
• Manage vendor and supplier relationships relevant to CEO Office operations
• Oversee physical document management: filing, archiving, and retrieval of CEO Office records with precision
• Ensure the CEO Office environment reflects the institutional standard Kifiya projects externally

Performance Standards

CEO Office elevation and reliability: The CEO is never late, unprepared, or missing context for any engagement. Every commitment is tracked and followed up without prompting.

Travel and logistics: No travel arrangement is ever made late, incorrect, or incomplete. Visas are secured ahead of time. Incoming delegations are received flawlessly.

Office standard: The CEO Office environment is consistently organized, well-resourced, and operationally sound. Nothing is reactive. Nothing is last-minute.

Cadence: Leadership meetings happen on schedule, with agendas prepared, decisions documented, and actions tracked without CoS involvement in the mechanics.

Required Experience

• 7+ years in senior operations, executive office management, or support in a complex organizational environment
  • Demonstrated experience managing C-suite travel logistics: multi-country itineraries, visa management, delegation coordination, with precision
  • Track record of running an executive office independently, not just supporting one
  • Experience managing multiple senior stakeholders simultaneously without dropping a thread
  • Exposure to investor relations or institutional stakeholder coordination is a strong advantage
  • Experience in fintech, banking, consulting, DFI, or high-growth startup environments preferred

Competencies

• Operational rigor: designs and runs reliable systems with no margin for execution failure
  • Anticipation: sees what is coming and prepares for it before being asked — never reactive
  • Independent judgment: makes decisions within scope confidently without escalating everything
  • Discretion: absolute trustworthiness with sensitive information across investors, executives, and strategic conversations
  • Logistics mastery: deeply comfortable with complex travel, visa, and event coordination across multiple geographies
  • Communication precision: written and verbal communication that is clear, concise, and audience-appropriate at all times

Character

This role requires someone who finds deep satisfaction in making complex systems run with precision; not in the visibility of their own contribution, but in the quality of the output. The right person is disciplined, discreet, proactive, and proud of operational excellence. They make sure everyone who needs to be in that room arrives prepared, on time, and with everything they need. Presence is everything and executive presence is not optional.