Head, Innovation Labs NGO Job Mastercard Foundation

NGO Jobs, Mastercard Foundation Jobs.

Responsibilities

As a Consultant, Head, Innovation Labs, you will strengthen the Innovation Labs’ offer and the Foundation’s innovation agenda by:

• Leading Innovation Initiatives: Manage projects across the Innovation Labs experimentation cycle, ensuring disciplined execution, real-world relevance, and timely delivery.
• Facilitating Collaboration and Co-Creation: Design and lead collaborative processes with Foundation teams and partners, ensuring that solutions are customer-centric, adopted, and scalable.
• Developing and Scaling Solutions: Oversee the incubation, rollout, and scaling of solutions aligned with the Foundation’s Young Africa Works and EleV strategies.
• Standardizing and Operationalizing Delivery: Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of the Labs’ service delivery model, ensuring solutions and processes are replicable, scalable, and sustainable.
• Surfacing Opportunities: Drive discovery work to identify innovation opportunities that are responsive to the needs of youth, partners, and the ecosystem.
• Leading Technical Areas: Act as thematic lead on selected innovation domains and products, shaping protocols, methods, and user-centric approaches.
• Strengthening Relationships: Build and sustain trusted relationships across the Foundation and partner networks to foster a strong community of practice.
• Representing and Positioning the Innovation Labs: Contribute to thought leadership and represent the Labs in internal and external forums to strengthen strategic partnerships.
• Managing and Developing Talent: Manage direct reports as required, supporting performance, growth, and alignment with the Foundation’s mission and culture.
• Supporting Cross-Foundation Initiatives: Contribute to cross-functional initiatives across the Impact, Research & Learning function and the broader Foundation.

Qualifications

• An advanced degree or equivalent experience is required, preferably in innovation-related disciplines.
• Additional training in International Development, Economics, Evaluation, Research Methods, or Social Sciences is an asset.
• Extensive experience in international development and/or market-based initiatives, aligned with the Foundation’s priorities in Africa.
• Extensive experience in leading impact-driven innovation initiatives (projects/programs/ products, etc.), with a deep understanding of what it means to drive innovation that scales.
• Proven track record leading complex, multi-stakeholder, impact-driven projects, including operational and financial management.
• Experience with youth-led, community-based, or participatory approaches to design and knowledge generation.
• Strong understanding of innovation, technology, and science trends, particularly in African contexts.
• A foundational understanding of impact evidence and insights related to various domains, with deep expertise in one or more areas, is an asset.
• Skilled in group facilitation and participant-centred design methods.
• Competence in budget development and financial management.
• Fluency in English required. French desirable.
• 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. 

How to Apply

Click here to apply