Product Director, SIFA

About this role

Educate!, East Africa's largest youth employment and skills provider, is recruiting a Product Director for SIFA, its AI-powered digital business coaching product for out-of-school youth micro-entrepreneurs. The role will set strategic direction for SIFA as it moves from an MVP to a portfolio-wide digital backbone, leading a team of designers, engineers, coaching experts, product leads, and product associates across East Africa. The director will own the investment case, stage-gate decisions, cost-per-youth model, learning agenda, and data architecture, and will be accountable for outcomes including reaching 20,000 enrolled users by 2027 and 2 million youth by 2028, supported by an external randomized controlled trial. Day-to-day work includes weighing research, evaluation findings, and experimental results; leading planning cycles and OKRs; overseeing product builds across WhatsApp, web app, and field materials; managing quality control; and resolving cross-product and cross-functional trade-offs.

The director will also represent SIFA to leadership, funders, and external partners, and maintain alignment with the business unit leader. Candidates should have 10+ years of product management or product leadership experience, a record of shaping strategy across complex or multi-product portfolios, end-to-end ownership of product development, and deep familiarity with lean startup, design thinking, and agile methods. The posting values senior product team management, analytical synthesis, excellent communication, empathy, and a user-centred approach to serving low-income and out-of-school youth. Experience or strong interest in AI-powered coaching, behaviour change design, livelihoods programming, RCTs, and mobile-first channels such as WhatsApp and SMS is desirable, along with understanding of East African micro-entrepreneurship.

Educate! has impacted over 500,000 youth across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania and is backed by major foundations. The role is a full-time fixed-term contract with possible extension, fully remote or hybrid, with East Africa preferred. Compensation includes a competitive salary based on experience and location-based benefits.

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis with interviews happening soon.