Executive Assistant at Future Africa
Future Africa backs exceptional entrepreneurs building African businesses that deliver outsized return and impact by solving the continent’s biggest challenges.
We are a team of operators who have experience building and investing in businesses going from zero to a billion dollars. We develop distinct thesis around key focus investment areas and work hand in hand with entrepreneurs from the earliest stages of company development till when they achieve product market fit and can attract growth capital.
Over the last six years across Fund I and Fund II we have invested >$10m in >100 companies which have delivered strong multiples and returned >$9m dollars to investors in cash.
In Fund III we are excited about investing in businesses accelerating Africa’s participation in the digital economy. The core thesis of Fund III is to fasttrack Africa’s role in the global digital economy.
As such our investment activity is focused on building a strong talent pool for the digital economy, building digital and data infrastructure, consolidating fragmented supply and demand markets and building an environmentally sustainable economy – in short TIME (talent, infrastructure, markets, environment).
Our teams are primarily based across Africa’s key startup hubs; Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Job type: Full time
Who are we looking for?
- You are highly motivated and at a stage in your life when you are ready and able to fully dedicate yourself to the mission of our organization
- You are a curious mind who is driven by insights and you are using every day as an opportunity to learn and grow
- You are super hands on in getting things done and no task is to small or too big for you
- You can thrive in an unstructured and sometimes unpredictable environment with a positive attitude and growth mindset
- You are disciplined, highly organized and a strong communicator
- You enjoy working with people and easily build relationships of trust, at the same time you have some experience managing others to performance, particularly service providers
- You have excelled in your academic and professional career so far and are known for your excellence and for being the person who gets stuff done
- You are inspired by Future Africa’s mission of backing bold and visionary leaders solving Africa’s biggest challenges and would like to be a part of it
- Previous experience in the Venture Capital and Startup space is a plus but not a must for the right candidate who can learn quickly
This role reports directly to our Founding Partner with an additional reporting line to our Head of Platform.
Job Responsibilities:
Executive Administrative Support: Take initiative and think ahead in your organization, planning, and administrative support
- Coordinate and prioritize executive commitments, conferences, speaking engagements, and meetings allowing for time on more strategic / deep work activities, ensuring optimal time management
- Highly effective email and calendar management, where you balance responsiveness, thoroughness and thoughtfulness in your work. The goal is to reduce or eliminate the amount of administrative decisions our executive needs to make
- Oversee administrative functions, including office management, travel arrangements, and expense reporting
- Coordinate team meetings, workshops, and events, handling logistics and documentation
- Organize logistics for events at Founder Partner’s house and other locations as needed
Project Management: Take on projects that stretch you and provide capacity to the team
- Manage projects and initiatives on behalf of the leadership team, ensuring timely completion (e.g. team retreat travel logistics and coordination of agendas)
- Collaborate with various teams to drive the execution of critical tasks and follow up on action items (e.g. monthly founder meetups or thematic dinners from an annual view)
- Track project progress, update stakeholders, and provide regular status reports
Communications and Relationship Management: Prioritize over-communication of information internally and development of relationships externally.
- Facilitate communication between the executives and internal/external stakeholder
- Play a role in developing the founder startup community in Nigeria, by thinking pragmatically about founder requests to speak to the Founding Partner, ways that those requests could become thematic dinners or events, then planning and executing on those activities
- Coordinate and prepare updates for the social media accounts in partnership with the Head of Platform, resulting from key conferences, meetings, or events that the Founding Partner or leadership team is participating in
Special Initiatives & Operational Support: Think constantly and obsessively about ways to optimize, automate, and improve the way we do our work.
- Continuously identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency and implement solutions.
- Take on ad-hoc special projects as assigned by the leadership team, which may include research, market analysis, or process improvement initiatives.
- Where necessary, take on personal administrative assignments
Qualifications
- At least 2 years of working experience in a fast paced environment in a high profile organization
- Ability to use sound judgment in communications and interactions within the wide ranging scale of activities, from highly administrative logistics (e.g. travel bookings) to correspondence with high ranking executives and government officials
- Strong project management skills and attention to detail
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Proficiency in office productivity tools (e.g., Microsoft Office, Google Workspace).
- Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion
- High degree of adaptability, resourcefulness, and a proactive attitude
- Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, or a related field is a plus
- Knowledge of the venture capital industry or a passion for technology and startups in Africa is a plus.
How is Success Measured?
Key KPIs for this role are as follows
- Efficiency and effectiveness in managing operational and administrative processes
- Timely and reliable communication
- Positive contribution to advisory and other mandates
The KPIs will be accompanied by detailed quarterly operational targets (OKRs) and an annual 360-degree performance evaluation process which, next to the Investment Builds, also reflects the contribution to building Future Africa as a firm.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Please send you CV and cover letter to [email protected]. We may not be able to reply to every submission, but if you are a fit for an initial interview, we will reach out by email over the coming weeks.