About this role
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Sport-for-Development Programming & Kibera FCs
- Set and drive the strategic direction of YDN's sport-for-development work, overseeing soccer and multi-sport leagues, coaching, and youth participation across slum communities, with a focus on inclusion of girls and young women.
- Oversee CFK Africa's Kibera FCs — including team management, coaching standards, and competitive performance — building on the momentum of the 2025 women's national championship win and ensuring high standards of player welfare and safeguarding.
The Slum Sports Digital Platform
- Lead the design, launch, and continuous improvement of the youth-named and youth-branded digital platform, delivering league coordination, verified athlete profiles, health-behavior messaging, education and economic linkages, and a parent/guardian support network. Partnerships & Resource Mobilization
- Build and steward partnerships with sporting federations, clubs, scouts, schools, universities, and scholarship providers, negotiating placement and scholarship arrangements that connect verified athletes to opportunity.
- Work with the YDN Director to develop compelling proposals and sustainability pathways — including sponsorship and platform-based models — that reduce long-term grant dependency.
Team Leadership, Financial Management & Impact
- Lead, motivate, and develop a high-performing, multidisciplinary team of program officers, coaches, coordinators, and volunteers.
- Hold overall accountability for sports-for-development budgets and donor compliance, and work with the MEAL team to define indicators capturing participation, retention, health, education, and talent-progression outcomes.
SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES
Required & Essential:
- A master's degree in a relevant field (e.g. sports management, development studies, public health, education, or social sciences); a bachelor's degree with exceptional relevant experience may be considered.
- At least 7 years' progressive experience in sport for development, youth programming, or a related field, including significant senior leadership responsibility.
- Demonstrated success leading, growing, or transforming a program, ideally in informal settlement or resource-constrained contexts.
- Proven track record managing multi-donor budgets and delivering against ambitious targets in compliance with donor regulations.
- Experience building partnerships with sporting, academic, or institutional stakeholders and mobilizing resources or winning funding.
- Experience commissioning or managing a digital product or platform, or working closely with a technical delivery team.
- Knowledge of Kenya's sporting ecosystem — federations, clubs, scouting, and scholarship pathways.
Skills
Leadership