Chief Academics and Innovation Officer

The context:

Across the developing world, more children than ever are in school – but they are not learning. A recent study estimated that less than 1% of school children in Sub-Saharan Africa attend a school where the teaching meets basic standards of quality. At Rising Academies, we’re changing that, and we want your help. Our mission is to create the best schools and the most powerful teaching and learning tools for the people that need it most. We’re one of the fastest-growing quality-focused education companies in Africa, and a Certified B Corp®.

About us:

Founded in Sierra Leone in 2014, we’ve spent over a decade developing a unique blend of high-tech and low-tech solutions that dramatically improve learning outcomes and strengthen teaching quality at scale. Across seven rigorous randomized controlled trials, students in Rising-supported schools have learned, on average, 2.4x faster each year than their peers in comparable schools.

Today, we support more than 400,000 students across 1,400 public schools in West and East Africa, working alongside governments to strengthen teaching and learning at scale. Our approach combines structured curriculum, ongoing coaching for teachers and school leaders, and real-time data to drive consistent improvements in classrooms and across every level of public education systems.

Our model is designed to be practical and scalable. We work with and through government systems, adapting our level of support to each context - from hands-on implementation to system-level quality assurance - ensuring that improvements are sustainable and cost-effective over time.

Technology and AI play an important role in this work, not as standalone products, but as tools that strengthen delivery, lower the cost of implementation, and help systems continuously improve at scale. You can learn more about our solutions here: https://www.risingacademies.com/oursolutions

About the role:

We seek an exceptional and seasoned leader to join our senior leadership team as Chief Academics and Innovation Officer (CAIO). As Chief Academics and Innovation Officer, you are the chief architect and steward of Rising's portfolio of offerings. You will be accountable for the vision, design, quality, standards, and evolution, ensuring our offerings can deliver measurable improvements in learning at scale across diverse partnerships while remaining coherent, evidence-based, scalable and affordable. You decide what scales, what stays experimental, and what stops.

The ideal candidate will build and lead an integrated team of academics, digital and data specialists who design, build and test the systems that help governments deliver better learning at scale.

The Chief Academics and Innovation Officer will:

• Own and shape Rising's partnerships into a coherent portfolio of high-quality offerings, with clear standards and guidance for contextual adaptation.
• Drive evidence-based product R&D by running a structured, transparent decision-making process, working closely with implementation teams, prioritizing impact, scalability and affordability. Decide what is ready to scale, what stays experimental and what stops.
• Ensure AI and emerging third-party solutions are rigorously evaluated and integrated only where they genuinely improve the quality and/or affordability of Rising’s offerings while strengthening human capability.
• Equip teachers, school leaders and system leaders with the digitally-enabled tools they need to drive continuous learning and improvement.
• Oversee the design and adoption of a simple, cost-effective impact measurement framework that informs decision-making by senior leaders, country teams, and program leads across stages of scale.
• Ensure Rising has the capabilities and structured approach needed to co-design and test third party solutions with governments, in order to evidence what works in classrooms and public education systems.
• Build research collaborations that strengthen Rising as a thoughtful learning organization contributing meaningful real evidence on government-led reform.
• Find, mentor, and manage an integrated, high-performing team spanning academics, digital technology and innovation, data, and impact, that can deliver great results against ambitious targets.
• Build the systems, structures, and ways of working to ensure the functions work in connected, collaborative, and complementary ways.
• Strengthen strategic decision-making by bringing the right evidence into leadership discussions, supporting new opportunities, and representing Rising as a thought leader externally.

Location and reporting:

This is a full-time position within our Senior Leadership team, preferably based within one of our operating countries, with the possibility of being based elsewhere in Africa. The Chief Academics and Innovation Officer reports directly to Rising’s CEO.

Application deadline:

The target start-date for this role will be November 2026.

Requirements

Qualifications and Experience:

• 10+ years in education, edtech or product leadership , including significant senior leadership experience.
• A track record of designing, developing and scaling products or programs that measurably improved outcomes, ideally in Africa.
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams.
• Direct experience working with or within government systems, and working with global funders, preferably in Africa.
• Strong grounding in learning science, with the ability to make research- and data-informed decisions.
• Ability to assess AI and digital tools, with sound judgment on how they can add value.
• An advanced degree in education, economics, product design, learning sciences, or a related field is an asset, but we care most about what you have built and proven.

About You:

• An inspiring leader. You have a proven track record of success in C-suite or senior leadership roles in Africa, leading through periods of rapid growth and change.
• A great team builder. You have led large, multi-disciplinary teams, ideally spanning academics, product and data, and you know how to align them behind a shared roadmap. You’ve hired, fired, and developed people to achieve the culture and level of performance you want to see.
• A brilliant systems thinker and academic leader. You understand how school systems actually change, and you design for the mechanisms that drive it, not just the materials that describe it. You have successfully delivered large-scale, complex, multi-year projects and programs on time and budget.
• An innovator. You are skilled working with technology, and have experience of using iterative design and testing processes to improve the outcomes of programs and projects. You are at the forefront of AI and technological advances and potential benefits, comfortable making decisions about digital products, data systems and AI, and you can tell the difference between genuine improvement and hype.
• An evidence obsessive. You know the global literature, you know its limits, and you know how to combine research with practical experience to make good decisions fast.
• A data-informed decision maker. You can make the hard calls with the right information about what scales, what gets integrated, and what gets stopped, and you can explain those calls clearly to teams and partners.
• A credible external voice. You can hold your own with ministers, funders and researchers, and you make Rising stand out as a thoughtful learning organization.
• A responsible budget owner. You’ve had budget responsibility for an organisation or large business unit and can be counted on to set, manage and report on budgets effectively.

Benefits

Why Join Us?

• Compensation: We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. We regularly benchmark our compensation against comparable businesses, social ventures and non-profits. Rising’s goal is to be transparent about salaries at all levels of the organisation and have a standard, global pay scale for all positions that is non-negotiable.
• Continuous Development and Growth: Rising is a Certified B Corp and twice named in its “Best for the World” list. We are committed to continuous development, which is grounded in our values and a vital part of how we bring the ‘Rising Way’ to life. We provide a nurturing environment where our staff are supported with the right ongoing conversations with their managers, among teams and as an organization, to support their career growth and help us reach our goals.
• Impact: Our students achieve learning gains 2-4 times faster than their peers in comparable schools, positioning our impact in the top 10% of global education interventions. This role offers an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to this proven success.

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Rising is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to providing a work environment that is inclusive and free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, national origin, family or parental status, veteran or disability status.

Rising is committed to creating a culture within the organisation, and its schools, that recognizes the importance of safeguarding children and prioritizing their rights and needs. We strive to uphold international safeguarding standards, and keep the safety and well-being of our students at the heart of what we do. All Rising employees are expected to abide by the Child Protection Policy, and to have the same level of commitment to protect children from harm. Safeguarding questions are part of every interview process and all Rising employees undergo reference checks before joining the organisation.