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Chief Portfolio Officer (CPO) – Nairobi

Gatsby Africa is seeking an experienced, strategic, and highly motivated Chief Portfolio Officer (CPO) to join its Nairobi office and provide executive leadership in shaping the organisation’s long-term strategy and advancing economic transformation across East Africa.

This is a senior leadership opportunity for a professional with strong experience in portfolio management, strategy, programme leadership, partnerships, investments, government engagement, and organisational development. The successful candidate will work closely with the Executive Director and Senior Management Team to guide Gatsby Africa’s strategic direction and ensure that its portfolio of programmes and investments delivers meaningful, sustainable, and system-wide impact.

The CPO will play a central role in identifying emerging opportunities, strengthening organisational performance, guiding investment decisions, developing strategic partnerships, and ensuring that evidence and learning inform future programmes and portfolio choices.

Purpose of the Role

The Chief Portfolio Officer will serve as a member of Gatsby Africa’s Senior Management Team and will have a major role in shaping the organisation’s future direction.

Working closely with the Executive Director and other senior leaders, the CPO will help define and implement Gatsby Africa’s long-term strategy while ensuring that the organisation remains well positioned to achieve its five-year strategic objectives.

The role requires a strong understanding of economic transformation, development programmes, investment, public-private partnerships, government relations, and organisational strategy.

The CPO will be responsible for bringing together different areas of the organisation so that programmes, strategic investments, partnerships, research, evidence, and learning contribute towards a common goal.

The successful candidate will ensure that Gatsby Africa’s portfolio choices are based on strong evidence, sound economic analysis, strategic priorities, and a clear understanding of opportunities for long-term impact.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership

The CPO will provide strategic leadership to help Gatsby Africa achieve its long-term objectives.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Working with the Executive Director and Senior Management Team to develop and refine the organisation’s long-term strategic direction.

• Supporting the implementation of Gatsby Africa’s five-year strategy.

• Identifying emerging economic, political, social, and development trends that could affect the organisation’s work.

• Assessing future opportunities and advising senior management on strategic priorities.

• Ensuring organisational resources are directed towards opportunities with the greatest potential for sustainable impact.

• Supporting strategic decision-making at the highest level of the organisation.

• Helping Gatsby Africa adapt its strategy as regional and global circumstances change.

The CPO will need to balance long-term strategic thinking with practical implementation and organisational realities.

2. Portfolio Leadership

A major responsibility of the CPO will be to provide overall leadership of Gatsby Africa’s portfolio.

This will involve:

• Reviewing the organisation’s portfolio of programmes and investments.

• Ensuring that individual interventions contribute to wider organisational objectives.

• Assessing the performance, relevance, and potential impact of different programmes.

• Identifying opportunities to strengthen, expand, redesign, or discontinue interventions where appropriate.

• Promoting coherence across programmes and strategic investments.

• Ensuring portfolio decisions are supported by strong evidence and analysis.

• Identifying opportunities for collaboration between different programmes.

• Supporting effective allocation of organisational resources.

The CPO will ensure that Gatsby Africa’s portfolio remains focused on areas where it can achieve the greatest long-term economic and systemic impact.

3. Programme Development and Oversight

The role will provide strategic oversight across Gatsby Africa’s programmes.

Responsibilities will include:

• Guiding the development of high-impact programmes.

• Ensuring programmes are aligned with organisational strategy.

• Supporting programme teams to develop clear objectives and measurable outcomes.

• Reviewing programme performance and identifying areas for improvement.

• Encouraging innovation and experimentation where appropriate.

• Ensuring lessons from programme implementation inform future decisions.

• Strengthening collaboration between programme teams and other organisational functions.

The CPO will promote a culture where programmes are continuously reviewed and improved based on evidence and experience.

4. Strategic Investments

The CPO will play an important role in guiding Gatsby Africa’s strategic investment decisions.

Key duties will include:

• Identifying investment opportunities that support Gatsby Africa’s strategic objectives.

• Assessing potential investments based on expected impact and strategic relevance.

• Supporting investment decision-making processes.

• Monitoring the performance and contribution of strategic investments.

• Ensuring investments are aligned with the organisation’s broader portfolio.

• Identifying opportunities to leverage investments for wider economic transformation.

• Working with relevant teams to assess risks, opportunities, and potential outcomes.

The role will require strong judgement and the ability to assess complex opportunities from both strategic and economic perspectives.

5. Partnerships and External Engagement

The CPO will strengthen Gatsby Africa’s relationships with important external stakeholders.

This will include:

• Developing strategic partnerships with governments, development organisations, private-sector players, investors, and other stakeholders.

• Strengthening existing relationships that support Gatsby Africa’s objectives.

• Identifying new opportunities for collaboration.

• Representing Gatsby Africa in important external engagements.

• Building relationships with organisations working on economic transformation and industrial development.

• Supporting initiatives that increase the organisation’s influence across East Africa.

The CPO will serve as an important ambassador for Gatsby Africa and help strengthen its reputation among key regional and international stakeholders.

6. Government Engagement

Government engagement will be an important part of the role.

The CPO will work to ensure that Gatsby Africa’s programmes and strategic priorities are aligned with relevant government objectives while maintaining constructive relationships with policymakers and public institutions.

Responsibilities will include:

• Building and maintaining senior-level government relationships.

• Supporting engagement with national and regional government institutions.

• Understanding government priorities and economic development strategies.

• Identifying opportunities where Gatsby Africa can contribute to public policy and economic transformation.

• Supporting partnerships between government and other stakeholders.

• Ensuring evidence and programme learning are communicated effectively to policymakers.

• Representing Gatsby Africa in high-level government discussions where appropriate.

Strong diplomatic, communication, and relationship-management skills will therefore be essential.

7. Impact, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

The CPO will oversee functions relating to impact, monitoring, evaluation, and organisational learning.

This will include:

• Ensuring Gatsby Africa’s programmes have clear impact objectives.

• Promoting the use of evidence in strategic and operational decision-making.

• Supporting the development of effective monitoring and evaluation systems.

• Reviewing programme evidence and performance data.

• Ensuring lessons learned are shared across the organisation.

• Using research and economic analysis to strengthen portfolio decisions.

• Encouraging a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

The CPO will ensure that evidence is not simply collected but actively used to improve programmes and guide future investments.

8. Organisational Learning and Innovation

The successful candidate will promote strategic learning across Gatsby Africa.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Encouraging teams to learn from both successes and challenges.

• Supporting innovation in programme design and implementation.

• Identifying new approaches to economic transformation.

• Promoting knowledge sharing across departments.

• Ensuring organisational learning influences strategy and resource allocation.

• Helping the organisation respond effectively to changing economic and development environments.

The role requires someone who is comfortable challenging existing assumptions and identifying better ways of achieving long-term results.

9. External Profile and Thought Leadership

The CPO will also help strengthen Gatsby Africa’s profile as a contributor to discussions on economic transformation.

This will involve:

• Representing the organisation at major regional and international forums.

• Contributing to discussions on economic development and industrialisation.

• Supporting the production and communication of research and evidence.

• Building relationships with thought leaders and development experts.

• Promoting Gatsby Africa’s insights and lessons from its programmes.

• Contributing to national, regional, and global conversations on Africa’s economic future.

The CPO will help ensure that Gatsby Africa is recognised as a credible and influential voice on economic transformation.

Leadership Responsibilities

As a member of the Senior Management Team, the CPO will be expected to provide strong leadership across multiple functions.

The position will provide leadership across:

1. Portfolio management.

2. Programme development and oversight.

3. Strategic investments.

4. Partnerships.

5. Impact, monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

6. External engagement.

7. Government engagement.

8. Organisational learning and strategic adaptation.

The successful candidate will need to bring teams together around shared objectives and encourage collaboration across different areas of the organisation.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate will be a senior strategic leader with the ability to operate effectively in complex and changing environments.

They should demonstrate:

• Strong strategic thinking and decision-making ability.

• Experience managing complex portfolios or programmes.

• A strong understanding of economic transformation and development.

• Experience working with governments and senior external stakeholders.

• Experience developing strategic partnerships.

• Strong understanding of investment and resource allocation.

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.

• Strong communication and influencing abilities.

• Experience using evidence to guide strategic decisions.

• Ability to lead multidisciplinary teams.

• Strong organisational and relationship-management skills.

• A commitment to sustainable economic development in Africa.

The candidate should also be comfortable working at both strategic and operational levels, moving between long-term planning, investment decisions, programme performance, stakeholder engagement, and organisational priorities.

Why the Role Matters

The Chief Portfolio Officer will have a significant influence on Gatsby Africa’s future direction and its contribution to economic transformation across East Africa.

By connecting strategy, programmes, investments, partnerships, government engagement, evidence, and learning, the CPO will help ensure that Gatsby Africa focuses its resources on opportunities capable of producing lasting and system-wide change.

The role therefore offers an opportunity for an experienced leader to shape an ambitious regional portfolio, strengthen strategic partnerships, influence economic development agendas, and contribute to initiatives that can create lasting opportunities for businesses, workers, and communities across East Africa.

The position is based in Nairobi and will work closely with Gatsby Africa’s Executive Director, Senior Management Team, programme leaders, government stakeholders, strategic partners, and other key actors across the region.

Application

Go to Gatsby Africa on www.gatsbyafrica.org.uk to apply