Senior Programs Officer - Student & Academic Innovation

About Ashesi University:

Our vision is a flourishing Africa whose leaders make ethical decisions in the best interests of their communities, and where innovation drives economic, cultural and social growth. We educate leaders who will make this vision a reality, and we collaborate with other institutions to multiply this work.

Joining Ashesi means becoming part of a vibrant community dedicated to excellence, innovation, and a transformed Africa. We provide opportunities for everyone to do their most meaningful work, through cross-functional collaboration in an environment that encourages intellectual and personal growth.

If you're seeking an environment that values diverse contributions, supports professional development, and enables you to work with purpose, come join our team

About the Center

The Ashesi Center for Entrepreneurship supports students and alumni as they move from early ideas to viable ventures through a structured entrepreneurship pipeline built around three stages: Idea, Project, and Venture. Through programs, grants, sector engagement, and partnerships, the Center equips builders to test ideas, develop solutions, and approach venture building with greater clarity and readiness.

The Center helps anchor entrepreneurship within the university by connecting it to faculty expertise, student and alumni development, and Ashesi’s wider contribution to innovation and economic development.

As it grows, it is strengthening the systems, evidence, and cross-functional discipline required to operate as a credible, high-performing platform for entrepreneurship
development.

About the Role
The Senior Programs Officer, Student & Academic Innovation leads the delivery and performance of the Center for Entrepreneurship’s student entrepreneurship and academic innovation work.

The role manages the student entrepreneurship pathway from engagement and program entry through validation, development, funding, progression, and handoff, ensuring that students and teams receive support appropriate to their stage, evidence, and readiness.

The role also builds an active student entrepreneurship and innovation community across Ashesi, working with the Entrepreneurship Committee of the Ashesi Student Council and the Center’s communications team to strengthen awareness, participation, peer connection, and sustained engagement beyond formal programs.

Working with faculty and academic departments, the role builds a consistent pipeline for identifying promising research, capstones, prototypes, technical projects, and other applied work that may benefit from further development, and coordinates the Center’s support for faculty exploring the application, commercialization, or venture potential of their work.

The role requires strong program ownership, entrepreneurial judgment, relationship and community management, execution discipline, and the ability to make sound support and progression decisions based on evidence and readiness.

Reports to: Assistant Director, Operations

Key relationships: Director, Center for Entrepreneurship; faculty and academic departments; Ashesi Student Council Entrepreneurship Committee; Office of Research & Innovation

Key Responsibilities

Lead the Student Entrepreneurship Pathway and Community

• Lead implementation of the Center’s student entrepreneurship and innovation programs in line with approved strategy, program frameworks, budgets, and annual priorities.
• Manage the full program cycle across student-focused initiatives, including sourcing, applications, selection, onboarding, delivery, review, and close-out.
• Maintain visibility of students and teams across the pathway and coordinate appropriate progression between programs, stages, and forms of support.
• Work with the Entrepreneurship Committee and the Center’s communications team to build sustained engagement with entrepreneurship and innovation across campus.
• Create clear entry points and community activities that enable students to discover the Center, connect with one another, exchange ideas, collaborate, access opportunities, and remain engaged beyond formal programming.
• Mobilize student and alumni founders, faculty, mentors, technical experts, and other contributors where relevant to strengthen the student entrepreneurship experience and community.
• Monitor participation, engagement, and delivery and recommend improvements that strengthen pathway performance and student engagement.

Manage Student Progression, Grants and Support

• Assess students and teams against their stage, evidence, objectives, and readiness and determine the support required to enable meaningful progression.
• Match students and teams to appropriate mentors, coaches, specialists, technical experts, facilities, funding, and other resources.
• Manage student grants and other structured support, including assessing requests against available evidence and intended outcomes and ensuring each award is tied to a clear question, test, milestone, or progression objective.
• Monitor funded work against approved purposes and ensure appropriate evidence of expenditure, activity, learning, outputs, and outcomes is maintained.
• Identify students and teams ready for deeper venture-building, technical development, commercialization, incubation, research, or external opportunities and coordinate appropriate handoffs.
• Ensure progression, funding, support, and referral decisions are documented, communicated, and followed through.
• Escalate significant performance, funding, compliance, or progression issues requiring further management decision.

Build the Academic Innovation and Referral Pipeline

• Build and maintain productive working relationships with faculty, academic departments, program leads, and research teams.
• Ensure faculty and departments understand the Center’s pathways, referral criteria, available support, and the types of work the Center can support.
• Establish practical mechanisms for identifying promising research, capstones, prototypes, technical projects, and other applied work emerging from academic activity.
• Assess referred work against the Center’s mandate, stage, evidence, readiness, and support needs and determine the appropriate next step.
• Coordinate the Center’s support for faculty and academic teams exploring the application, commercialization, or venture potential of their research, technical work, or intellectual property, connecting them to appropriate internal and external expertise and resources.
• Track referred opportunities and ensure agreed actions, support, and handoffs are followed through.
• Identify recurring opportunities, constraints, and support needs emerging from academic engagement and use these to inform programming, partnerships, and resource allocation.

 Manage Evidence, Reporting and Improvement

• Maintain complete and current records across participants, projects, referrals, grants, support interventions, progression decisions, and outcomes.
• Ensure program data and reported outcomes comply with agreed definitions, evidence standards, and reporting requirements.
• Monitor pathway performance and identify patterns in participation, engagement, progression, support utilization, and outcomes.
• Use evidence from delivery to recommend improvements to programming, community engagement, academic engagement, and resource allocation.
• Prepare timely program updates, performance summaries, and reports required for management, institutional, partner, and donor purposes.
• Contribute to the continued improvement of the Center’s tools, systems, and approaches for student and academic innovation.

Performance Expectations
Strong performance will be demonstrated by:

• high-quality and timely delivery of the Center’s student entrepreneurship and academic innovation work;
• clear and well-managed progression of students and teams through appropriate pathways;
• grants and other support deployed against clear purposes, milestones, and evidence requirements;
• an active and increasingly connected student entrepreneurship and innovation community, including students beyond formal Center programs;
• strong collaboration with the Ashesi Student Council Entrepreneurship Committee and the Center’s communications team to strengthen student engagement and awareness;
• strong and sustained engagement with faculty and academic departments;
• consistent identification and appropriate routing of promising student, research, technical, and faculty-led work into the Center;
• effective progression and referral into appropriate venture-building, commercialization, technical, incubation, research, or external opportunities;
• strong follow-through on referrals, handoffs, funding decisions, and support commitments; and
• complete, accurate, and timely program, grant, referral, and progression evidence.

Qualifications, Experience and Competencies
The successful candidate should have:

• a bachelor’s degree in Business, Entrepreneurship, Management, Innovation, or another relevant discipline;
• relevant professional experience in entrepreneurship, innovation, venture development, higher education, enterprise support, commercialization, or program management;
• demonstrated experience managing complex programs or initiatives involving multiple participants, stakeholders, timelines, and delivery requirements;
• experience working with students, founders, faculty, researchers, technical teams, or innovation projects;
• sound entrepreneurial judgment and the ability to assess ideas, research, technical work, and early ventures for readiness, evidence gaps, support needs, and appropriate next steps;
• experience managing grants, funding, or other structured forms of participant support;
• strong relationship- and community-building skills and the ability to work effectively across student, academic, entrepreneurial, and institutional contexts;
• the ability to mobilize relevant expertise, resources, partnerships, and opportunities;
• strong implementation and project-management capability, including planning, coordination, accountability, documentation, and follow-through;
• the ability to use program data and evidence to inform progression, resource allocation, reporting, and improvement; and
• excellent written and verbal communication, sound judgment, professionalism, and the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively.

What We Offer:
Our success is driven by our people, which is why we offer a comprehensive compensation package.
Compensation at Ashesi is regularly reviewed against industry benchmarks, and total compensation includes health insurance, retirement benefits, and paid leave, which are designed to support the holistic well-being of our staff.
We also invest in continuous learning, development and research opportunities, allowing our teams to grow with the university and achieve meaningful impact.

Application Process:

Screening of applicants will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Kindly note that only shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview and may also be asked to conduct an academic seminar, research talk, teaching simulation or practical assessment.

Commitment to Diversity:

Ashesi is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive staff and faculty. We encourage applications from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and academic diversity of our university.

Disability Confident: 

Ashesi University is committed to taking positive steps to employ, keep and develop the abilities of staff with disabilities.

Ashesi University is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building faculty and staff committed to excellence and equity and encourages applications from people who value same.

Join us in shaping the future of Africa’s leadership.