---
title: 'Senior Partnerships Officer (Education Sector, Africa) at Prevail Fund'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-partnerships-officer-education-sector-africa-prevail-fund-africa-c49y405g3e63'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Senior Partnerships Officer (Education Sector, Africa) at Prevail Fund

- **Company:** Prevail Fund
- **Location:** Africa
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-05-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/prevail-fund/f9832add-7365-4413-9775-4a590d40d149

## Job description

Senior Partnerships Officer (Education Sector, Africa) Prevail partners with ambitious organizations and governments in Africa and South Asia to help catalyze reforms that can transform millions of lives. As an Ecosystems Partnerships Officer, you will lead a portfolio of 2 to 4 government-facing foundational learning reform opportunities in Africa. Your job is to identify where Prevail can play a catalytic role, build the relationships needed to move opportunities forward, shape strong funding proposals, and support partners and governments to deliver results at scale. This is a hands-on role for someone who can turn promising reform opportunities into real progress. You build strong relationships, work well across governments, partners and funders, and know how to get things done.

## About Prevail

Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to catalyzing large-scale social change by supporting private philanthropists and field implementers to pursue more ambitious and impactful goals. We work with private philanthropists to fund specific initiatives for 10-12 years. Rather than diversifying across multiple causes, we prioritize deep, strategic investments in proven solutions with the potential to reshape global norms. For example, our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million children across 11 national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Prevail provides patient capital to implementers – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organizations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail also offers a suite of systems and talent development services designed to address common growth barriers and prepare partner organizations for accelerated scale. In our first three years, we've:

- Made significant progress against our ambitious fundraising targets
- Partnered with 30+ organizations across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
- Hired 35+ mission-driven team members globally
- Run dozens of execution projects to strengthen key functions for our partners

You can find a bit more information about Prevail Fund and what to expect from our recruitment process [here](https://www.canva.com/design/DAGetQfrr9U/JDu6A0CR7Y_-xZ9CvYAnww/view?utm_content=DAGetQfrr9U&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h57b65ef349).

## About this role

In this role, you will work across governments and the broader education ecosystem to understand where large-scale foundational learning reforms are gaining momentum, where they are getting stuck, and what support could help them succeed. Most of your work will focus on reforms involving structured pedagogy, targeted instruction, and/or personalized, adaptive learning. You will assess political and implementation realities, identify bottlenecks and opportunities, coordinate funding and technical support, and help partners move from promising ideas to sustained impact at scale.

- Ecosystem engagement: You will identify and develop promising government-facing reform support opportunities.
- Proactively develop promising funding opportunities by building relationships, spotting openings, shaping early ideas, and aligning with government and other ecosystem actors. This may be in support to other Partnership Officers leading engagement in key geographies.
- Identify potential partners who could support government-led reforms, including groups of partners with complementary roles such as goal-setting, design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
- Stay closely connected to key actors such as the Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank, bilateral funding agencies, other foundations, and support organizations where their priorities, financing, or influence could materially affect funding opportunities and/or the cost-effective impact and scale of supported reforms.
- Funding and investment decisions: You will manage the funding decisions for your portfolio.
- Develop clear funding proposals for government-led reforms. This includes defining the support needed, any phased funding milestones, partner roles, and opportunities to coordinate financing with other donors or initiatives
- As needed, secure government approvals – including memoranda of understanding when required – and other funder sign-off for Prevail funding
- Facilitate and integrate Prevail team review of funding proposals to strengthen plans and in preparation for Investment Committee approval
- Develop clear recommendations for funding continuation, scale-ups, or exits
- Identify any ecosystem enabling investments that could meaningfully increase the likelihood of reform success.
- Actively support funded reform efforts: You will support partners to solve problems, act on opportunities, and improve the chances of sustained cost-effective impact at scale.
- Track performance data of reform efforts and progress against agreed milestones to see whether the work is on course.
- Where needed, manage in-country colleagues, consultants, or advisors so Prevail has the local context, relationships, and follow-through needed to support reform efforts well.
- Hold regular meetings with funded partner teams – and, where needed, directly with government and other ecosystem actors – to surface risks and opportunities early, and work jointly on solutions and pivots
- Conduct field visits to understand delivery on the ground and identify any support needs to boost achievement of key milestones
- Scope and deliver targeted support projects to address specific problems or opportunities that come up during implementation, and coordinate support from Prevail’s technical team or external experts when useful.
- Broader team contribution: You will contribute to learning and collaboration across the Prevail team.
- Support Prevail’s learning about ecosystem engagement and government-facing funding approaches, helping to identify key learning questions and efficient ways of answering and sharing learning internally and potentially externally
- Partner with other partnerships officers at Prevail on initiatives that go beyond individual countries - for example, bringing together ecosystem actors or partner leaders to share learning or co-design a shared project.
- Feed learnings back into our broader fund strategy, including what it takes to effectively support government-led reform efforts to achieve cost-effective impact and sustainability at scale, where bottlenecks and opportunities emerge, and which models are working best.

## About you

We’re looking for someone who has successfully moved complex reforms or large scale initiatives forward, and can point to concrete results. This could be inside the government, a delivery organization, a funder, an advisory role, or a mix of these. What’s most important is that you demonstrably changed outcomes: policies implemented, systems shifted, children reached. You’ve worked across institutions, solved difficult implementation problems, and helped turn ambitious goals into practical action.

- Government and ecosystem experience: You have at least 10 years of experience working in roles that required you to engage governments, funders, implementing organizations, or other system actors to drive progress on complex initiatives, and you can point to initiatives that actually moved as a result. Experience in education and working in or with government systems is strongly preferred.
- Consistent track record of results: You have a strong track record of directly achieving big goals. You’re comfortable leading projects independently, making decisions, and moving quickly.
- Problem solving: You know how to diagnose where progress is getting stuck and help shape practical solutions. You are comfortable working across strategy, implementation, stakeholder dynamics, and execution. You follow through until the problem is actually solved.
- Advising and influencing: You have experience influencing senior decision makers without formal authority. You can bring clarity to ambiguous situations, exercise strong judgment, and help leaders translate ideas into action.
- Coordination and relationship building: You are strong at building trusted relationships and bringing together actors with different priorities to move toward shared goals. Experience working across governments, funders, multilaterals, and implementing organizations, along with an established network in the impact ecosystem, is a strong plus.
- Hands on: This role involves travel and on-the-ground support. You are drawn to the heart of the action and motivated by working alongside our partners to achieve shared goals.
- Fluency in French: Nice to have!

## What we offer

- Full time, permanent contract.
- Flexibility: Fully remote position within Africa, with opportunity to travel 4-6 times per year.
- Competitive salary based on experience, skills and location. We share salary bands with candidates during the informational call; final offers are based on interview performance.
- Meaningful benefits. Health insurance and wellness benefits, home workspace or co-working stipend, plus a generous learning and development budget.
- Growth opportunities. We deeply care about investing in our team’s professional development. You’ll receive strong manager support, targeted feedback, performance support, clear pay progression, upwards or lateral mobility.
- Flexible leave policy. Including 25 days PTO, plus public holidays.

Location: This position is fully remote with approximately 30% travel, and a preference for someone based in Africa. We are not normally able to sponsor visas.

Career growth & development: We care about investing in our team’s professional development. You will have regular check-ins with your manager and career feedback sessions. You will also have regular access to senior leadership, both internally and with partner organizations, through your work.

Start date: As soon as possible – applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Application process Our hiring process is thorough but efficient. Successful candidates will go through:

- Initial conversation with the people team (30-45 minutes)
- Hiring Manager interview (45-60 minutes)
- Live exercise with a Partnerships Officer (90 minutes)
- Paid take-home exercise (~5hrs)
- Panel interview (90 minutes) and 1:1 conversations with others in the team

Through the process, we’ll share feedback on the assessments, and invite candidates to incorporate it. This mirrors how we work day to day: collaboratively, with openness to feedback and iteration.

Ready to join us? If you’re excited to help us scale, apply using the link below. We review every application and aim to invite successful candidates for an informational call within 3 weeks.

For more information, feel free to check out the job [FAQ](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xwnTU_czoRhzRgA6SGpzUishkAgpMn9E16g73qeuhE8/edit?tab=t.0). We encourage you to read this in advance of the first informational call! You can find a bit more information about Prevail Fund and what to expect from our recruitment process [here](https://www.canva.com/design/DAGetQfrr9U/JDu6A0CR7Y_-xZ9CvYAnww/view?utm_content=DAGetQfrr9U&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h57b65ef349).

*Note: If you currently work for one of Prevail’s partner organizations, we’d love to consider you for this role as long as you speak with them first, to note your intention to explore new opportunities. Thank you!

## About Prevail Fund

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Prevail Fund is a philanthropic organization that helps field organizations and givers pursue ambitious, large-scale global goals by acting as a field implementer, fund manager, and strategic partner, focusing on high-leverage programs like improving literacy for millions of children.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Nonprofit 501(c)(3))
- **Headquarters**: Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Founded by a board of social entrepreneurs including Andrew Youn (One Acre Fund), Fred Swaniker (African Leadership Group), Safeena Husain (Educate Girls), Dr. Neil Buddy Shah (former CEO of the Clinton Health Access Initiative), and Dr. Angela Gichaga (Financing Alliance for Health).

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Philanthropy / International Development / Social Impact
- **Target Customers**: The organization serves two main groups: "givers" (high-net-worth philanthropists and foundations looking to fund bold, measurable initiatives) and "field organizations" (nonprofits working on the ground in developing countries).
- **Mission or Purpose Statement**: To help field organizations and givers pursue ambitious global goals together, making focused "big pushes" to achieve globally meaningful progress, such as improving educational outcomes for tens of millions of children.

## Products & Services
- **Philanthropic Advisory & Fund Management**: Prevail aggregates capital from a small team of givers and coordinates large-scale funding for specific initiatives, reducing risk for individual donors and providing option value to off-ramp.
- **Field Implementation Support**: The organization does not just write checks; its founding board members have built organizations with 10K+ full-time staff, and they offer hands-on capacity building to partner organizations in the field.
- **First Initiative: Global Education Program**: A 13-year, $1B philanthropic commitment to improve literacy and numeracy for at least 27.5 million children in 11 countries across Africa and South Asia, by working through existing government school systems.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not applicable (Nonprofit). Net assets reported as $11.9M in FY2024 [propublica.org](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/872372523).
- **Key Metric**: Revenue of **$8.67M** in FY2024 and total expenses of **$4.6M** (FY2023: Revenue of ~$4M) [propublica.org](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/872372523). Their public goal is to raise $1B for their flagship education initiative.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: The founding board includes leaders from some of the most respected global development organizations (One Acre Fund, Clinton Health Access Initiative, African Leadership Group, Educate Girls). Partners include various government education ministries in Africa and South Asia.
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount grew **87% year-over-year** (from ~10 to ~30 employees in the last year) [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevail-fund). They are expanding into South Africa (posting for a lead there in early 2025) and operating in 12 countries.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Founding Team Credibility**: The board has a track record of scaling organizations to massive budgets ($500M+/year collectively) and thousands of staff, giving them unmatched operational credibility in the philanthropy space.
- **Lean, Operational Approach**: Unlike many foundations that are purely grant-making, Prevail emphasizes "field implementation" and on-the-ground capacity building.
- **Leverage Model**: They claim a 20x leverage ratio, aiming to improve the effectiveness of $20B in existing government spending with $1B in philanthropy.
- **Innovative Risk Management for Donors**: The structure allows philanthropists to pursue bold goals without committing to the entire risk upfront, lowering the bar for large-scale giving.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale and Boldness**: The organization explicitly rejects incrementalism. Their primary focus is proving their "big push" model in global education, with the goal of generating proof-of-concept to apply the model to other global challenges.
- **High-Cost-Effectiveness Programs**: They prioritize interventions (like instructional quality improvements in schools) with strong RCT backing and the ability to be absorbed into national education budgets.
- **Government Partnership**: Their strategy revolves around working with and through host governments to achieve national-scale impact, rather than creating parallel systems.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Impact**: The work is directly focused on solving massive, measurable global problems (e.g., 9 out of 10 children in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot read by age 10). The culture is described as "results-driven" with a focus on "ambitious targets."
- **Growth Trajectory**: The organization is in a hyper-growth phase (87% headcount growth in the last year). This offers significant opportunity for role expansion and early-career impact.
- **Team Composition**: The team is highly international, with staff in the US, Kenya, Netherlands, India, and the UK. The team is relatively flat, with a high number of "Director" and "Specialist" roles [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevail-fund).
- **Work Style**: The organization emphasizes a "bias for informed action," humility, and ownership. They have posted for remote positions, though specific policy details are not publicly available.
- **Who Fits**: The ideal candidate is described as having a "bias for informed action," being humble and service-oriented, ready to learn and adapt, and willing to take ownership to deliver results [prevailfund.org](https://www.prevailfund.org/careers).

## Sources
1. [prevailfund.org](https://www.prevailfund.org/)
2. [prevailfund.org](https://www.prevailfund.org/careers)
3. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/prevail-fund)
4. [propublica.org](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/872372523)
5. [theorg.com](https://theorg.com/org/prevail-fund)

## Other roles at Prevail Fund

- [Chief of Staff](https://feeny.ai/job/chief-of-staff-prevail-fund-global-8cqj87mtdszf) — Global
- [Research Director](https://feeny.ai/job/research-director-prevail-fund-global-nk0kcj6y0cnh) — Global
- [Deputy to Co-Founder](https://feeny.ai/job/deputy-to-co-founder-prevail-fund-us-east-coast-8797zgpgw0zg) — US East Coast
- [Senior Partnerships Officer (Africa)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-partnerships-officer-africa-prevail-fund-africa-wezjmxn1yvmc) — Africa