About the Job

This is a senior leadership position at the heart of how SmartStart understands, learns from, and acts on data across its national network. You will lead the monitoring, data, and insights function ; building the frameworks, systems, culture, and external partnerships needed to translate complex information into meaningful action, driving a culture of learning, and ensuring SmartStart's data systems are fit for societal scale. You will lead a team of seven and work closely with senior leadership, government partners, and the broader ECD ecosystem, ultimately ensuring that data drives better outcomes for children at scale.

Key Responsibilities

Monitoring, Feedback & Sense-Making

Lead coherent, role-appropriate target-setting processes across the network

Design and continuously improve performance indicators and dashboards tailored to different user contexts

Guide iterative sense-making - helping teams navigate, explain, and act on data as an ongoing organisational practice

Prepare core quarterly performance reports and an extended annual report suitable for funders and senior stakeholders

Champion reflective practice and guide teams in drawing actionable insights from performance data

Data Management & Governance

Co-lead the ongoing development of data governance frameworks and practices (in partnership with the IT Head)

Maintain a living map of key data sets, their sources, owners, and lineage

Drive continuous improvement in data ethics, POPIA compliance, accessibility, quality, integrity, and security

Introduce user-friendly tools, guides, and processes that support data owners and stewards across the network

Foster a data-engaged organisational culture that builds confidence and ownership at all levels

Strategic Data Systems & External Partnerships

Map and manage population data to inform multi-year planning, targeting, and scenario modelling

Lead the alignment of SmartStart's data systems with eCares and other relevant state and partner systems (DBE, Ilifa Labantwana, National Treasury)

Monitor and respond to emerging strategic information needs as they evolve across the ecosystem

Insights, Rapid Learning & Innovation

Design and lead rapid learning projects using short feedback loops, iterative experimentation, and short-term focused studies

Synthesise collective intelligence from across the network to surface patterns, opportunities, and risks

Commission and guide analyses of existing data as well as targeted fieldwork investigations

Champion reflexive, double-loop learning practices that interrogate assumptions, not just outcomes

Collaboration with Research, Reflection & Evaluation

Co-develop a relevant research and evaluation agenda for SmartStart

Conceptualise research questions, evaluation frameworks, and terms of reference for studies

Create and disseminate knowledge grounded in the lived expertise of SmartStart practitioners

Organisational Leadership & Development

Lead in alignment with SmartStart's purple practices

Co-realise SmartStart's strategy through coherent, adaptive management

Create conditions for diverse thinking and collaborative problem-solving across the network

Practice and exemplify systems thinking; seeing big-picture patterns, feedback loops, and cross-boundary dynamics

Model SmartStart's values: trustworthiness, curiosity, psychological safety, coaching leadership, and accountability

Commit to continuous self-development and the development of your team

Requirements
Qualifications and Experience

Master's degree or equivalent postgraduate qualification in a relevant discipline.

Minimum 8 years of relevant, diverse professional experience in complex organisational or systemic contexts

Minimum 4 years in a senior role successfully leading data-related functions and managing data-related teams

Demonstrated experience in social impact organisations, programmes, or initiatives

Advantageous

Doctoral qualification (PhD) in a relevant field

Formal training or certification in Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL/MERL)

Certification or demonstrated proficiency in data visualisation (e.g. Power BI, Tableau)

Project management qualification (e.g. PMP, PRINCE2, Agile/Scrum)

Fluency in one or more South African languages in addition to English

Experience in early childhood development, education, or public health sectors

Experience with eCares or similar government data systems

Technical & Specialist Knowledge

Advanced comfort leading sophisticated, multi-layered work with data across its full lifecycle

People-centered and user-centered approaches to data design and delivery

Thoughtful familiarity with M&E/MEL/MERL frameworks and their practical application at scale

Ability to see patterns and build coherence across complex, ambiguous environments

Proficiency in Power BI and/or comparable data visualisation platforms (advantageous)

Familiarity with Microsoft Dynamics 365 or similar CRM platforms (advantageous)

Familiarity with A/B testing and iterative experimental design (advantageous)

Leadership & Interpersonal

Track record of building trusting, high-performing team relationships across organisational levels

Ability to communicate complex data narratives accessibly to diverse, non-technical audiences

Experience facilitating collective thinking and enabling productive collaboration

Capacity to co-build and communicate coherence in fast-moving, evolving contexts

Skilled at reprioritising and adapting in response to shifting organisational needs

Mindset & Values

Deep commitment to social justice and SmartStart's purpose

Demonstrable learning orientation: curiosity, openness to feedback, and a track record of doing differently

Comfort navigating ambiguity, complexity, and the tension between rhetoric and reality

Systems thinker: able to perceive wholes and parts, feedback loops, and cross-boundary dynamics

Skilled at distinguishing complicated problems (requiring analysis) from complex ones (requiring adaptive experimentation)

Please send your resume/CV