Head of Impact Labs

Location: Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria

Deadline: July 4, 2025

Job Description

THE OPPORTUNITY

Reporting to the Director of Innovation & Impact Labs, the Consultant, Head of Impact Labs joins at a pivotal time to strengthen project execution and ensure alignment, consistency, quality, and speed in delivering high-priority work.

The Consultant will lead project implementation across the Impact Labs innovation cycle, from early-stage intake to full adoption and scaling. This includes driving operational discipline and delivery excellence to ensure practical, integrated, and widely usable solutions across the Foundation and its partners.

The role will also support the evolution of the Labs’ service delivery model, building structures for consistent, scalable implementation. Additionally, the Consultant will contribute flexibly to strategic initiatives, people management, and operational improvements as needed.

 

Contract Duration: 1 Year.

The successful candidate will be based in one of our listed offices in Africa (Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria).

 

WAYS YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE

As Head of Impact Labs (Consultant), you will advance the Foundation’s impact-driven innovation agenda by:

• Leading Innovation Initiatives: Manage projects across the Impact Labs innovation cycle, from opportunity discovery to solution scaling, ensuring disciplined execution, relevance, and timely delivery.
• Driving Co-Creation and Adoption: Design and lead collaborative processes with Foundation teams and partners to ensure solutions are user-centred, adopted, and scalable.
• Developing and Scaling Solutions: Oversee the incubation, roll-out, and scale-up of innovations aligned with the Foundation’s Young Africa Works and EleV strategies.
• Strengthening Operational Models: Contribute to the evolution of the Labs’ service delivery model to ensure solutions and processes are standardized, scalable, and sustainable.
• Leading Thematic and Technical Work: Serve as lead in selected innovation domains, shaping methodologies and applying user-centred approaches.
• Fostering Strategic Relationships: Build trusted relationships across the Foundation and with partners to cultivate a strong innovation community of practice.
• Representing the Labs: Contribute to thought leadership and represent Impact Labs in internal and external forums to enhance visibility and strategic alignment.
• Managing and Developing Talent: Lead and support team members, fostering alignment with the Foundation’s mission, culture, and growth objectives.
• Contributing Across the Foundation: Engage in cross-functional initiatives that strengthen the broader Impact, Research & Learning function and organization-wide priorities.

 

WHO YOU ARE

• Advanced degree or equivalent experience, preferably in innovation-related fields. Additional background in International Development, Economics, Research, or Social Sciences is an asset.
• Deep experience in international development and/or market-based initiatives relevant to African contexts.
• Proven ability to lead complex, multi-stakeholder, impact-driven projects, including operational and financial oversight.
• Skilled in participatory design, youth-led and community-based approaches, and knowledge generation.
• Strong grasp of innovation, technology, and science trends, particularly within Africa.
• Foundational knowledge of impact measurement and learning, with deep expertise in one or more related domains considered a plus.
• Proficient in facilitation, project and product management, and team leadership in innovation-driven environments.
• Experienced in budget development and financial management.
• Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in French is desirable.
• Able to frame, adapt, and execute plans creatively and pragmatically.
• Thrives amid change, emergence, and evolving priorities, balancing action and structure.
• Curious, humble, willing to interrogate conventional wisdom and bridge diverse fields of knowledge.
• Thrives in feedback-driven, co-creative environments with a strong growth mindset.
• Builds lasting, impactful partnerships based on fairness, respect, and trust.
• Demystifies complex ideas and inspires diverse audiences to act.
• Professional maturity and sensitivity to working within different cultures.
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
• Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity that exemplify the Foundation’s values.
• You have a commitment to Mastercard Foundation’s values and vision.

________________________________

INNOVATION & IMPACT LABS: OUR FOCUS ON IMPACT-DRIVEN INNOVATION

At the Mastercard Foundation, innovation is a lever for accelerating scalable, lasting impact. As we expand our ambition to enable dignified and fulfilling work for 30 million young women and men in Africa and meaningful livelihoods for 100,000 Indigenous youth in Canada, the role of innovation has never been more critical.

The Mastercard Foundation Innovation & Impact Labs department—Impact Labs for short—is the flagship innovation initiative of the Impact, Research & Learning function. Impact Labs aim to drive innovation in understanding, measuring, and accelerating impact toward our 2030 Goals. We call this impact-driven innovation. In practice, Impact Labs operate as a full-spectrum innovation agency, delivering services—strategic advisory, design, and incubation—to the Foundation and its partners.

Impact-driven innovation requires a disciplined process: fast, agile, and financially sustainable, while ensuring that solutions generate observable, scalable outcomes aligned with our Young Africa Works and EleV strategies. Impact Labs exist to bridge the gap between innovation and impact, making innovation a force for inclusive and scalable system-level change.

The Mastercard Foundation values the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the organization and we are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone.

Completion of satisfactory business references and background checks are essential conditions of employment.

 

CLICK HERE TO APPLY>>>