Wanted: Production Manager, Cape Town, South Africa

Do you want to help grow Africa’s largest network of digital democracy labs and data journalism initiatives?

Code for Africa (CfA) is looking for an experienced and mission-focused Production Manager to manage our digital content teams and processes, across a range of journalism and technology products, for newsrooms and other partners in several African countries. The Production Manager is a key member of senior management and will supervise a streamlined organisation-wide production system that synchronises our editorial, design and software engineering teams to ensure professional production standards.

The position requires a person with a proven track-record at managing multidisciplinary teams in the editorial, advertising or other creative industries, who is eager to help engineer a production process for dispersed teams across Africa, with a focus on our hubs in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa. The teams are involved in building a range of new civic technologies, and implementing new forms of journalism. The role includes managing project schedules, identifying risks and clearly communicating goals to project stakeholders. Projects often span offices, time zones and hemispheres, and your job will include keeping all the players coordinated on the project’s progress and deadlines.

We’re looking for someone who wants to help invent the new, and is excited by the challenge of getting the best out of our network of digital pioneers.

The position is full-time and is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The successful candidate will be available to start by no later than 1 April 2018.

Key Responsibilities

• Help develop and run a workflow system for managing editorial and technology production, that incorporates Agile and scrum-based methodologies, and that is designed to encourage efficiencies and creativity in team members in different countries and time zones.
• Coordinate a centralised production schedule to synchronise the output of specialist teams of content producers, designers, data wranglers, technologists and social media / audience engagement strategists, within agreed deadlines and project budgets.
• Manage a centralised quality control process, to ensure that CfA projects comply with production standards, which are benchmarked on the best of international digital media.
• Liaise with project owners across the full product development cycle, from inception to project specification, through prototyping to launch. There is a broad range of products, ranging from interactive journalism packages, to large technology projects and community events.
• Manage a small team of product managers and programme assistants who would work in support of the production process.
• Offer tactical input to CfA’s user / audience engagement strategies, to help maximise the impact of our work.

Qualifications

As a prerequisite, the successful candidate must believe in the core values of CfA and be driven by the mission. We are also seeking a candidate with a successful record for building and managing digital production teams, in a fast-moving creative environment, with world-class production standards. Additional requirements are:

• Excellent time management skills, with the ability to multitask and prioritise work.
• Expertise at using cloud-based workplace solutions, including Slack, Google Drive and Trello, as core management tools.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a track-record for building and nurturing robust teams.
• Attention to detail and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Non-South Africans must have a valid work permit.

Compensation

This is an outstanding opportunity for a highly motivated individual to assume a pivotal role in the evolution of a growing, mission-oriented organization. CfA is offers a competitive compensation package, including generous paid vacation and sick leave. CfA does not compensate relocation costs.

About CfA

CfA is registered as an NPO in South Africa and serves as coordinator for the continent’s largest federation of civic technology laboratories that help the media, civil society organisations, and governments digitise information and build tools to inform and empower citizens. CfA currently has active projects in 24 African countries, with affiliate labs, of varying size, capacity and maturity in: Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. Find more information.

CfA’s fiscal agent, based in the U.S.A, is the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). CfA is supported by donors that include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google NewsLab, Google Jigsaw, the Knight Foundation, Omidyar Networks, Open Society Foundations, the World Bank and a number of smaller philanthropies.

To apply: Applicants should submit a CV, a cover letter, and salary history to join@codeforafrica.org

Applications close at 12 noon on Monday 19th February.

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At CfA, we don’t just accept difference — 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. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

To all recruitment agencies: CfA tech team does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias, CfA employees or any other company location. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.