Company Info
Mastercard Foundation is a global foundation based across four hubs in Kigali, Rwanda, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana and Toronto, Canada.
Mastercard Foundation is a global foundation based across four hubs in Kigali, Rwanda, Nairobi, Kenya, Accra, Ghana and Toronto, Canada. Our programs promote financial inclusion and advance education and learning in Africa, primarily for young people, and in Canada for Indigenous youth. The Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. From inception, the Foundation was designed to be a separate entity and independent from Mastercard. Our policies, operations, and funding decisions are made by our President and Board of Directors.
1). Head of Impact Labs
Job Requisition ID: JR-0000000271
Location: Nigeria
Employment type: Full-time
Contract Duration: 1 Year.
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.
- 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.
Requirements
- Candidates should possess an 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.
Application Closing Date
4th July, 2025.
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2). Head, Program Finance, Pan African Programs – Entrepreneurship Development & Agriculture
Job Requisition ID: JR-0000000212
Location: Lagos
Job type: Full-time
The Opportunity
- The role reports to the Director, Program Finance – Pan African Programs
- The Finance Head, Program Finance – is a critical leader responsible for providing strategic and tactical financial leadership closely supporting their Finance Director across the PANA program portfolios.
- This role serves as the primary business partner to the Program Heads and the program team, ensuring full alignment of financial strategy with programmatic outcomes.
- The Finance Head is also responsible for the financial risk management initiatives related to their area of operation and will ensure robust compliance frameworks and foster a culture of accountability and informed decision-making across the platform of operation.
Responsibilities
Ways you can contribute:
- Act as a trusted advisor to the Program Heads of the PANA platforms, providing insights to drive impact and long-term sustainability.
- Partner with all Leads reporting to the Program Head to ensure financial plans and operations are aligned with strategic objectives.
- Represent Program Finance at Thematic meetings, helping shape strategic direction and operational priorities from a financial lens.
- Implement and execute Program Finance strategy, ensuring financial sustainability and operational excellence in the PANA Platform in the thematic space of operation.
- Embed Thematic Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) processes for programs and serve as a key contributor to risk identification and mitigation strategies.
- Proactively identify financial and operational risks, working with cross-functional teams to design appropriate mitigation plans.
- Execute all financial aspects of PANA programs including planning, budgeting, financial controls, disbursement, compliance, and monitoring for the thematic areas of responsibility.
- Assess and present funding sufficiency and financial viability for achieving strategic objectives across PANA thematic areas of responsibility.
- Assess financial implications of new programs and partnerships to inform decision-making.
- Drive the annual due diligence and work planning processes with program and partner teams.
- Implementation of financial systems, policies, templates, and processes that enable scalable, efficient operations with feedback loop for continuous improvement.
- Implementation of financial controls and compliance with internal and external regulatory requirements in thematic areas of responsibility.
- Provide timely, accurate, and insightful financial reports and analyses to inform programmatic decisions.
- Collaborate closely with the central accounting team to support external audits, regulatory requirements, and tax matters.
- Build, lead, and develop high-performing finance teams.
- Foster a performance-oriented culture, provide coaching and professional development, and support change management initiatives across finance teams.
- Create an inclusive and collaborative work environment and foster positive relationships and trust to build a unified team and drive impact.
- Maintain strong relationships with PANA program partners finance teams to enable effective financial governance.
- Work with assurance, compliance, audit, and risk teams to create a holistic and unified risk and compliance strategy across the thematic area of responsibility.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Finance, Commerce, or a related field; an MBA or Master’s degree is an added advantage.
- Professional certification (e.g., ACCA, FCCA, CIMA, CPA, CA) is required.
- Membership/Fellowship in a recognized professional accounting body.
- Minimum 10 years of progressive financial experience, with at least 5 years in senior leadership.
- Experience in managing cross-functional and cross-border teams.
- Strong background in program finance, financial planning, risk management, and strategic advisory roles.
- Demonstrated ability to effective business partnering and leadership.
- Strong command of financial systems, accounting operations, and internal controls.
- Expertise in financial and non-financial data analysis for strategic decision-making.
- Proven ability in financial forecasting, budgeting, and scenario planning.
- Deep understanding of enterprise risk and compliance frameworks.
- Enterprise mindset with demonstrated capability to lead beyond functional silos.
- Strategic thinker with a bias for action and innovation.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills across cultures and stakeholder levels.
- Strong ethical grounding, integrity, and sound judgment.
- Ability to build alignment and influence across diverse teams and leadership structures.
- Flexible, adaptable, and able to execute a range of job duties and changing priorities.
- Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills with the ability to articulate information to a variety of constituents across cultures.
- Possess professional maturity, sensitivity with different cultures, and impeccable integrity.
Requirememts
Our Perfect Candidates:
- Good knowledge of accounting procedures, policies, rules, and practices affecting the development, maintenance, and control of fiscal record keeping systems.
- Good knowledge of methods and techniques for coding, verifying, balancing, and reconciling accounting records.
Application Closing Date
26th June, 2025.
How to Apply: Interested and qualified candidates should use the links below to apply:
