Program Manager, Leadership Xcelerator

Are you exceptional at bringing order to complexity, aligning many moving parts and ensuring that high-stakes learning experiences land with quality?

Do you thrive at the intersection of leadership development, client service and operational rigour - translating ambitious programme designs into calm, reliable execution?

Can you hold facilitators, sponsors, participants, logistics, diagnostics and follow-through together across multiple cohorts, countries and time zones without losing the human experience?

If so, this may be the role for you.

About ALX Africa

ALX Africa, a non-profit organisation under the ALX Foundation, is dedicated to unlocking the potential of Africa's digital future. Formerly part of Sand Tech Holdings, we've embarked on an independent journey to provide world-class tech skills training and career acceleration programmes. Our mission is to bridge the digital divide, upskill and reskill talent, and create a generation of innovative leaders. By 2030, we aim to empower 2 million Africans to secure sustainable tech careers.

With hubs in 8 cities across Africa and counting, we provide safe access to quality learning and a dedicated network of expert instructors. Our innovative programmes equip learners with the practical skills and knowledge needed to succeed in today's rapidly evolving tech industry. Through a combination of rigorous coursework, industry partnerships, and hands-on projects, we prepare our students for in-demand roles in software engineering, data science, and cybersecurity.

We achieve this by:

• Providing young professionals with access to the most in-demand tech skills that will power the future.
• Empowering the next generation of technology innovators, entrepreneurs, and business leaders through challenging, real-world coursework.
• Building a lifelong, impactful community of tech professionals that supports them at all stages of their career journey. 

Our impact thus far:

• 347k+ graduates since 2020
• 257k youth in work
• 31k youth starting own ventures    
• 60k youth in jobs created by entrepreneurs

Visit our website www.alxafrica.com to learn more about our digital revolution.

Role Summary

The Program Manager, Leadership Xcelerator owns the day-to-day operating system for ALX's flagship leadership development journeys. This includes open regional cohorts and dedicated corporate cohorts running simultaneously across multiple countries and time zones.

The programme typically runs over six months, with monthly two-day intensives supported by reinforcing activities between modules such as diagnostics, structured reflection, coaching conversations, goal reviews, work-based application and sponsor touchpoints. 

This role ensures that the programme lands with developmental integrity, operational excellence and enterprise-grade client confidence. It is responsible for translating sold scope and programme design into a predictable, high-quality learner and sponsor experience - without allowing delivery to become unnecessarily bespoke or operationally heavy.

This role is the trusted orchestrator of the full journey - participant onboarding, faculty readiness, sponsor governance, between-module momentum, issue resolution, reporting and continuous improvement.

Specific Responsibilities

Programme Architecture & Cohort Planning

• Translate programme scope, participant profile, outcomes and commercial commitments into a detailed delivery plan for each cohort.
• Build and maintain master calendars across multiple Leadership Xcelerator cohorts, regions and client contexts, ensuring dates, milestones, deadlines and dependencies stay aligned.
• Define what is standard to the Leadership Xcelerator model versus what is tailored for a specific client, cohort or region, and make those choices visible to internal teams and sponsors.
• Coordinate cohort set-up, participant confirmation, onboarding timelines, baseline assessments, diagnostics, group allocations and graduation criteria.
• Ensure the right facilitators, coaches, operations support, venues, platforms, materials and communications are in place well ahead of each programme milestone.

Cohort Operations & Participant Journey

• Own the end-to-end participant experience across the full learning journey: onboarding, reminders, logistics, pre-work, post-work, deadline management, escalation and completion tracking.
• Coordinate reinforcing activities between monthly intensives, including structured reflection, goal reviews, manager touchpoints, coaching conversations, diagnostics, work-based project milestones and accountability rhythms.
• Monitor attendance, participation, submission patterns and engagement signals, and coordinate timely interventions for at-risk participants or cohorts losing momentum.
• Ensure participants always have clarity on what is expected before, during and after each intensive - including reading packs, joining links, venue details, learning assets and follow-through actions.
• Protect the quality of the learner experience across both open and dedicated corporate cohorts, ensuring it feels premium, intentional and well-supported.

Intensive Readiness, Faculty Orchestration & Delivery Quality

• Run a disciplined readiness process for every monthly two-day intensive, including run-of-show, facilitator briefs, participant lists, material readiness, venue or platform checks and contingency planning.
• Coordinate facilitators, coaches, adjunct faculty and support teams so that everyone is aligned on objectives, learner context, session flow, timing, hand-offs and escalation paths.
• Ensure learning assets, diagnostics, exercises, print materials, digital tools and work-based application tasks are operationally ready for use.
• Support smooth on-the-day execution of in-person and virtual elements, solving issues quickly while maintaining calm, professionalism and participant confidence.
• Capture delivery notes, improvement opportunities and decisions after each intensive, then feed those back into the next cycle. 

Client Interface, Sponsor Governance & Stakeholder Management

• Act as the central day-to-day delivery contact for sponsors, HR/L&D partners, cohort champions and internal stakeholders.
• Establish clear client-facing interfaces such as shared trackers, dashboards, communication channels and governance rhythms that give sponsors confidence without creating unnecessary admin.
• Prepare and run predictable operational check-ins and sponsor governance moments, including weekly or biweekly updates, monthly reviews, decision logs and escalation management.
• Produce sponsor-ready reporting that is concise, useful and action-oriented: progress against plan, participation patterns, risk areas, learner insights, completion outlook and recommended next steps.
• Coordinate key moments that matter to the client experience, such as kick-offs, executive check-ins, midpoint reviews, showcase sessions, graduation and post-programme playbacks.

Diagnostics, Behaviour Change Support & Programme Evidence

• Coordinate the operational delivery of baseline and follow-up diagnostics, 360 feedback processes, surveys, reflection tools and manager inputs used within the programme.
• Track the evidence that matters: attendance, completion, engagement, intervention logs, application milestones, work-based project progress, participant sentiment and sponsor feedback.
• Surface patterns, risks and opportunities early, and work with facilitators and programme leads to strengthen participant follow-through and workplace application.
• Help maintain the behavioural architecture of the programme by ensuring that accountability mechanisms, reflection prompts, coaching rhythms and application activities happen when they should.
• Support executive and client playbacks on what shifted, what is stuck, where stronger support is needed and what should change for future cohorts.

Quality Systems, Documentation & Continuous Improvement

• Build and maintain lightweight, high-utility operating systems such as runbooks, readiness trackers, reporting templates, communication packs, issue logs and cohort dashboards.
• Lead retrospectives after key milestones and ensure lessons learned are converted into concrete improvements rather than repeated friction.
• Maintain clean programme documentation across cohorts so that delivery is repeatable, transparent and easier to scale.
• Look for smarter ways to improve quality, reduce coordination drag and help the broader corporate training team run more cohorts with consistency.
• Contribute to an operating culture that is calm, responsive, detail-oriented and relentlessly focused on delivering meaningful outcomes for participants and clients.

Skill Requirements - Essential

• 4+ years of relevant experience in programme management, executive education, leadership development, learning operations, client delivery, or similarly complex coordination roles.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple parallel workstreams, cohorts or client programmes without losing detail, pace or stakeholder confidence.
• Strong understanding of cohort-based leadership development or manager capability programmes, including the difference between a learning event and a developmental journey.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills; able to engage calmly and credibly with senior internal leaders, facilitators, sponsors and participants.
• Strong operational design instincts - able to build practical runbooks, trackers, templates, checklists and governance rhythms that teams actually use.
• High attention to detail, strong judgement and the ability to anticipate problems before they become delivery issues.
• Comfort using data to manage programme health, including attendance, engagement, completion, risk tracking, diagnostics and participant feedback.
• Confidence working across digital collaboration tools such as Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, Notion, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, survey tools and shared dashboards.
• Willingness to work flexibly across time zones and travel occasionally to support in-person intensives, kick-offs or client moments when required.

Skill Requirements - Preferred

• Experience supporting leadership development, management academies, executive education, coaching programmes or corporate capability academies.
• Experience delivering premium client experiences across multiple countries, regions or cultural contexts, including Africa and international corporate environments.
• Familiarity with programme elements such as 360 feedback, diagnostics, coaching operations, participant accountability mechanisms and work-based projects.
• Experience coordinating in-person intensives, offsites or blended learning journeys with external facilitators, adjunct faculty or coaching partners.
• Experience building sponsor-facing reporting packs and preparing governance sessions such as monthly reviews, steering committees or executive playbacks.
• Comfort working in fast-moving, entrepreneurial environments where not every process is fully formed and high ownership is required.
• Additional language capability such as French or Arabic would be an advantage, particularly for North and West African delivery contexts.

Person Specification/Attributes

• Courage: Willingness to speak up, challenge the status quo, and embrace new challenges.
• Humility: Openness to learning, seeking help when needed, and a focus on serving others.
• Adventure: A passion for setting ambitious goals, tackling difficult tasks, and finding joy in the journey.
• Initiative: Proactive problem-solving, a sense of ownership, and a willingness to go above and beyond.
• Resilience: The ability to bounce back from setbacks, persevere through challenges, and emerge stronger.

Employment Type

This role is a full-time position