Location: Africa-based
Reports to: FLIGHT Board
Application deadline: 15th December 2025
Salary and benefits: A competitive salary and benefits package, commensurate with the scale of FLIGHT’s ambition and benchmarked against comparable executive roles in leading global education and philanthropic organisations.

About FLIGHT

FLIGHT is a new catalytic funding facility created to help African governments make foundational learning happen at scale, and to demonstrate a faster, simpler, and more government-led model for development.

Anchored with an initial $35m commitment by leading philanthropic funders, FLIGHT supports African countries committed to improving foundational learning for every child. It provides flexible, high-trust finance and practical support to help governments design, implement, and scale reforms that work.

As an organization, FLIGHT is built to be different: light on process, big on government ownership, and deeply grounded in what it takes to make learning happen.

The Opportunity

This is a unique opportunity to build a new kind of institution from the ground up and to shape a new approach to development – an approach grounded in partnership with governments and built to help countries translate ambition into action.

The Executive Director will lead FLIGHT through its first chapter: turning a promising concept into a fully functioning organization that helps governments deliver real progress on foundational learning and unblocks the practical and political challenges that hold reforms back.

By 2027, they will have established FLIGHT as an independent, well-run entity with strong funder confidence, respected governance, with programs underway and promising early traction in multiple African countries, and growing recognition across the global education community.

The Role

The Executive Director will:

• Lead FLIGHT’s establishment and growth.
  Oversee legal and financial setup, operational systems, and partnerships with the fiscal sponsor that will house the new entity. Ensure the organisation is efficient, transparent, trusted, respected, and results oriented.
• Build a high-performing team and culture.
  Recruit and inspire a small, diverse, mission-driven team that embodies FLIGHT’s principles of trust, government-owned decision-making and a relentless focus on student outcomes.
• Secure and steward resources.
  Maintain strong relationships with anchor funders and attract new ones, while deepening funder confidence.
• Deliver early country results.
  Oversee FLIGHT’s initial funding cycles, ensuring rapid disbursement and strong government ownership; build trusted relationships with senior leaders and use political capital to unblock obstacles and maintain reform momentum.
• Shape the FLIGHT model.
  Design and refine the core systems - application processes, country selection, program co-design, reporting, and learning - that make FLIGHT’s approach distinctive and high impact.
• Represent FLIGHT on the global stage.
  Serve as the public face and chief storyteller, building belief among African governments, funders, and multilaterals that development can be done differently.

About You

You are a strategic, entrepreneurial and politically savvy leader who thrives in novel, ambiguous situations, is able to build trust across diverse stakeholders, and is comfortable using relationships and influence to unblock delivery challenges. You likely bring:

• Deep experience working in a highly senior role with or within African governments in education reform, development finance, or large-scale delivery.
• A track record of turning ideas into operating institutions, programs and results. Experience doing this in the context of foundational learning is highly desirable.
• Credibility with senior political leaders, government officials and funders, and skill at navigating politics and partnerships.
• Comfort with both strategy and execution—equally at home on a global stage and in the weeds of implementation.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling ability.
• A commitment to learning, humility, and integrity.

How to Apply

Please submit a CV and short cover letter explaining your interest and suitability to selin@prevailfund.org by 5pm GMT on December 15th 2025.

FLIGHT’s leadership will be Africa-based, and we are especially seeking African candidates with the experience and vision to build this new institution.