Job Title: Partnerships and Resource Mobilisation Lead
Location: Africa, remote, with continental and global travel as required.
Job Type: Contractor or Full Time Role (depending on location)
Compensation Range: $65,000 – $75,000 USD before tax per annum, depending on location, experience, and engagement type.
Benefits: Remote working set-up support
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and we encourage early submissions.
About Masakhane
Masakhane is a pan-African initiative aimed at tackling the underrepresentation of African languages in natural language processing (NLP) and AI. Our mission is to bring together researchers, technologists, linguists, and community members from across the continent to collaborate on AI that is inclusive and representative of Africa’s linguistic diversity. By working collectively, we are democratising access to cutting-edge AI research and contributing to the global growth of African NLP.
About Masakhane African Languages Hub
The Masakhane African Languages Hub (“the Hub”) is a new initiative addressing the critical underrepresentation and misrepresentation of African languages in artificial intelligence (AI). Anchored by the Masakhane Research Foundation (MRF), the Hub will develop community-centered open-source datasets, models, and use cases to catalyse innovation in sectors such as healthcare, education, and agriculture. With a vision to unlock the benefits of AI for over 1 billion Africans, the Hub fosters community-driven approaches and long-term, sustainable partnerships across the African NLP ecosystem.
Our goal is to empower one billion Africans by 2029 with locally relevant AI tools and resources, unlocking opportunities for economic development, local innovation, and the preservation of Africa’s linguistic heritage.
Position Overview
The Partnerships and Resource Mobilisation Lead is a senior strategist responsible for building and growing the Masakhane African Languages Hub’s partner network across public, private, and community organisations. The Hub is part of the Masakhane Research Foundation, which advances NLP research in African languages, for Africans, by Africans.
This role will drive culturally competent and ethically aligned collaboration that strengthens the Hub’s long-term financial and technical independence. Beyond traditional fundraising, the Partnerships and Resource Mobilisation Lead will cultivate trust-based, community-centered partnerships with shared ownership, positioning the Hub as a leading ethical steward and strategic architect of African NLP.
The role may include supervision of consultants, partnership support staff, or partner-facing workstreams as the Hub grows.
Key responsibilities
- Strategic partnership architecture and development:
- Lead the design and execution of a comprehensive partnership strategy aligned with the Masakhane Research Foundation and the Hub’s vision of achieving African linguistic sovereignty .
- Identify, cultivate, and manage high-level relationships with allies, supporters, and ecosystem stakeholders to ensure alignment with the Hubs relational principles.
- Proactively seek opportunities for non-extractive collaborations that embed cultural nuance and local control into the global technology stack.
- Lead negotiations on partnership agreements, ensuring that African languages are recognised and treated as Digital Public Goods.
- Ethical stewardship and value alignment:
- Uphold the Hub’s ethical principles, specifically regarding data collection, model evaluation, and community engagement, across all partnership activities.
- Serve as a key advocate for language justice, ensuring that partnerships prioritize under-resourced and vulnerable African languages, not solely ones favoured by the market.
- Ensure all collaborations uphold the Hub’s core values and principles, and contribute to closing gaps within the ecosystem.
- Lead internal capacity building for the team on ethical partnership practices and negotiation.
- Financial and technical independence:
- Lead the development and implementation of a diversified fundraising strategy that moves beyond project grants toward unrestricted, sovereign revenue models.
- Engage with regional and global philanthropists and impact investors to secure long-term, unrestricted funding that supports the Hub’s strategic objectives.
- Broker partnerships with localised African cloud providers and technical institutions to build technical sovereignty and reduce external dependencies.
- Identify and secure resources that directly contribute to the financial and operational sustainability of community sub-grantees, fostering a decentralized network of resilient local hubs.
Experience
- Minimum of 7 years of experience in developing and managing partnership pipelines, including prospect identification, cultivation, negotiation, and stewardship.
- Experience in business development or a related field, preferably within the African technology or related sectors.
- Proven track record of securing funding or strategic investment partnerships with diverse stakeholders (governments, NGOs, private-sector organisations, academic institutions, communities).
- Deep understanding of the African linguistic landscape and the challenges of digital marginalization.
- Demonstrated commitment to ethical principles, social justice, and community-led development.
- Excellent negotiation, communication, and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to balance high-level strategy with practical implementation.
- Strong cultural competency and sensitivity to diverse African contexts.
- Fluency in English is essential. Exceptional proficiency in a major African language (e.g., Swahili, Zulu, Hausa, Amharic, or Arabic) is highly desirable, while proficiency in French or Portuguese would be an advantage.
Skills – Essential
- Strong project and stakeholder management capabilities.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to coordinate across distributed teams and diverse institutional contexts.
- Experience managing budgets, payment schedules, and milestone tracking.
- High attention to detail with strong follow-through.
- Ability to balance strategic oversight with hands-on execution.
Skills – Desirable
- Strong networks within the African AI or research ecosystem.
- Familiarity with research grant lifecycles.
- Experience navigating cross-border payment and compliance challenges.
- Prior involvement in early-stage organizational development.
Values & Mindset
- Deep alignment with Masakhane’s mission of advancing African languages in AI.
- Strategic thinker capable of translating vision into operational structures.
- Highly organized, self-directed, and comfortable working remotely.
- Transparent, accountable, and process-oriented.
- Collaborative and culturally sensitive across diverse African contexts.
Why Join Us
- Play a central leadership role in operationalizing one of Africa’s most visible AI research initiatives.
- Shape the administrative foundations of a growing pan-African research organisation.
- Work alongside leading researchers and technologists across the continent.
- Contribute to high-impact work that advances linguistic equity and inclusive AI.
- Grow with an organisation entering its next phase of institutional maturity.
Reporting Line
This position reports to the Director of the Masakhane African Languages Hub.
Application Process
Please submit your CV and a brief cover letter outlining your experience in research administration or programme management, and how you would contribute to strengthening Masakhane’s operational structures.
Applications should be submitted via this link