Senior Manager, Higher Education Inclusion

About the role

WUSC, a Canadian global development organization, is recruiting a Senior Manager, Higher Education Inclusion to lead its Phase II initiative (2026-2031) aimed at helping refugee, displaced and host community youth, especially young women, access education and work across Africa. Reporting to the Deputy Project Director, the role provides strategic and technical oversight of technical assistance for higher education inclusion, embeds a gender lens and strengthens access to secondary education and pathways into higher education. The preferred location is Nairobi, with others such as Abidjan, Kampala, Accra, Kigali or Addis Ababa also considered.

Key responsibilities

• Provide strategic and technical oversight of 40+ higher education inclusion partners and the project's higher education inclusion team.
• Embed a gender and intersectional inclusion lens across technical assistance, partner engagement, education pathways, retention supports and education-to-work transitions, supporting the 70% young women target.
• Lead technical components such as secondary-to-tertiary transitions, recognition of prior learning (RPL), inclusive admissions policy adaptation and cross-referral systems.
• Develop education-to-employment pathways, employer linkages and market integration, and peer-led, localized transition models including peer advisory networks and Refugee-Led Organization accompaniment.
• Coach and mentor a young, technically experienced team and build relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.

Required profile

• Seasoned leader in higher education with experience working with displaced youth.
• Demonstrated capacity to forge and cultivate relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• English required; French is a strong asset.
• Not an academic position; WUSC is not a university.