Positions in: Anywhere in Africa
Do you want to help build real-life solutions that drive positive change across the African continent?
Code for Africa (CfA) has an immediate vacancy for a full-time Product Manager anywhere in Africa to join our civic technology lab to help build digital tools that strengthen our democracies and empower citizens.
The Tech Lab spearheads CfA’s design, development and maintenance of all digital services for the organisation, and its external human rights defending partner organisations.
Candidates must have demonstrable experience in managing the full product lifecycle, from ideation through to launch. The ideal candidate will have a solid technical understanding of the development process and/or experience in the civic tech space.
Candidates must be fluent in English and candidates who are fluent in an additional international language, such as French or Arabic, and/or at least one local language from their country of residence will have an advantage. The successful candidates will work as part of a multinational and multilingual team using digital collaboration tools to create content for a global audience and international media partners.
Required: minimum requirements include:
- 5+ years developing and managing products, candidate with experience in development organisations (NGOs/CSO/non-profit), technology/media organisations or high-growth startups will have an advantage
- Relentless resourcefulness, an ownership mindset, and a proven record of building from the ground up and translating products from the idea stage to launch
- A strong understanding of the software development processes
- Proven ability to create and maintain detailed technical specs and workplans that are feasible and realistic
- Able to proactively find innovative solutions to problems and challenges as they arise
- Strong organisational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities and tasks, and deliver results within deadlines.
- Proven ability to work and communicate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders,
Preferred: candidates who are able to demonstrate the following will have an advantage:
- Bachelor degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related technical discipline.
- Deep understanding of the technology and media ecosystem in Africa. Passion for media, data storytelling and technology. An interest in civic technology and digital journalism.
- Experience in working effectively as part of a geographically distributed multicultural teams
- Experience going through a full product lifecycle, integrating feedback into requirements, driving prioritisation and managing pre/post-launch execution
Language and Location Requirements:
- Location: CfA has labs located in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. However the role can be performed remotely, and applicants across Africa will therefore be considered.
- Languages: English
- Preferred but not required: Arabic, French, KiSwahili and/or any other major language spoken in Africa.
About the Role:
The successful candidate will join CfA’s Technology team. The Tech team is distributed across East/West Africa, and benchmarks itself on similar civic technology initiatives elsewhere in the world that build digital democracy solutions.
The candidate will work closely with the Chief Technology Officer to ensure that we build impactful digital products that meet the needs and expectations of our partners and other stakeholders. As a product manager, you will be responsible for managing the entire product lifecycle, from ideation through to implementation and launch. You will ensure that we are continuously building on our tech stack, creating products that are interoperable and continuously maintained.
You will act as our product champion, both within the organisation and externally, raising awareness about the tools/products we build. You will proactively seek out new opportunities for new projects as well as new opportunities to redeploy old products and projects.
Some of the products that you may work with us on include:
- Our public-facing web platforms (such as AfricanSpending, Afrileaks, FeedShield Grano, and PesaYetu)
- Our tools/widgets (such as BiscuitIndex, HURUmap and TaxClock)
- Our bots (such as DebunkBot)
- Our machine learning and natural language processing analysis tools (such as CivicSignal).
Responsibilities: Your core responsibilities will include:
- Develop and maintain product features, roadmap and timelines, including managing the product life cycle.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including tech, design, and engagement, to launch new products and solutions.
- Own and champion our products and tech stack, building awareness internally and externally
- Identify, track and analyse key product metrics to inform future product decisions and continuously improve our current product portfolio.
- Identify new product opportunities or new opportunities for older products
- Champion and implement best practices when it comes to development and product management within the organisation
- Maximise efficiency in a constantly evolving environment where the process is fluid and innovative solutions are the norm.
- Ensure technical/nontechnical documentation on all active projects/products is kept up to date
What We Offer:
- A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
- A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
- Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
- A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.
How to apply:
Please fill in this form: by 10 April 2024
About Us:
Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent’s largest network of indigenous African civic technology and investigative data journalism laboratories, with over 100 staff in 21 countries, who build digital democracy solutions that are intended to give citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them to make informed decisions and that strengthen civic engagement for improved public governance and accountability.
This includes building infrastructure such as the continent’s largest open data portal, open.AFRICA, and largest open source civic software portal, commons.AFRICA, as well as the largest repository of investigative document-based evidence, source.AFRICA, as well as incubating initiatives as diverse as the africanDRONE network that gives citizens their own ‘eyes in the sky’, the PesaCheck fact-checking initiative in 12 African countries, and the sensors.AFRICA remote-sensing citizen science initiative to combat air/water pollution.
CfA also incubates the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), as an association of the continent’s best investigative newsrooms, ranging from large traditional mainstream media to smaller specialist units. ANCIR member newsrooms investigate crooked politicians, organised crime and big business. The iLAB is ANCIR’s in-house digital forensic unit, with teams in east, south and west Africa. ANCIR uses its resources to strengthen newsrooms’ own internal capacity, by providing access to the world’s best whistleblower encryption and investigative semantic analysis technologies, as well as skills development, and seed grants for cross-border collaboration.
At CfA, we don’t just accept differences – we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. CfA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.