Partnerships Manager (Professional Pathways Pillar)

Job title: Partnerships Manager (Professional Pathways Pillar)

Location: RLRH office at the British Institute in Eastern Africa in Kileleshwa, Nairobi (with occasional travel)

Salary: KSh 3,234,111 – 3,727,222 gross yearly + benefits, dependent on experience

Hours: Full-time (37.5 hours per week)

Contract type: Fixed-term 12-month contract. We expect to renew this contract; funding is secured until at least October 2028.

Reporting to: Senior Programme Manager, Professional Pathways Pillar

Closing Date: 21 September 2026, midday (EAT)

Start Date: 19 October 2026 (desired) but flexible

About the Refugee-Led Research Hub

The Refugee-Led Research Hub (RLRH) supports individuals with lived experience of displacement to become leaders in fields related to human rights, forced migration, humanitarian response and development, politics, and law, among other areas. We do so by delivering academic and professional development programming to a global cohort of students who have been affected by displacement—as refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs, stateless, and beyond—supporting access to graduate degrees and advanced career opportunities. RLRH also creates opportunities for researchers with displacement backgrounds to lead primary and secondary research studies, from start to finish.

RLRH’s team is comprised of colleagues who are deeply committed to advancing refugee leadership, the majority of whom have lived experience of displacement. Our network of staff, researchers, students, and other affiliates is made up of 1,400+ individuals across 80+ countries. RLRH has six active offices: our first was established in Nairobi in 2020, we have had an office at the University of Oxford since 2021, and we have since developed physical hubs in Kakuma refugee camp (Kenya), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Kampala (Uganda), and in the Oxfordshire community (UK).

From October 2025 RLRH is funded to serve as a technical partner for the Mastercard Foundations Scholars Program network, advancing an ambitious global agenda to support displacement-affected learners to access 1,000+ graduate-level scholarships at partner universities around the world. RLRH provides expert guidance and implements specialised programmes to help these learners enter university, thrive on course, and pursue meaningful and enduring careers on completion of their degrees. A complementary, refugee-led research agenda designed by RLRH colleagues produces insights to help Scholars Program partner universities and other stakeholders accelerate positive, long-lasting systems change.

The Role

Overview of the Professional Pathways Pillar

The Professional Pathways Pillar (PPP) supports individuals with displacement backgrounds to access career opportunities. We work most closely with RLRH affiliates who have completed our academic and research programmes and other students who have completed or are pursuing postgraduate degrees at partner universities. We also collaborate closely with allied organisations and universities to systematically strengthen the inclusion of refugees in the workforce. RLRH’s people-centred career advancement programming brings to life our vision of creating transformative refugee leadership in impactful professional settings throughout the world. We deliver three main interventions:

1. Foundationally, we provide individualised career counselling to RLRH affiliates at any stage in their journey, helping them to identify career pathways that are well suited to their personal and professional skills, experiences, and aspirations.
2. To build out core professional skills, we run a stipended six-month, in-person advanced traineeship for degree completers, which combines foundational professional training with deep mentorship. This is currently run in three of RLRH’s offices – in Kampala, Kakuma, and Nairobi, with plans for future expansion – in collaboration with our Research Pillar.
3. To develop meaningful and sustained pathways, we facilitate paid external professional placements with values-aligned partnered employers who are active and influential across various sectors of interest to RLRH affiliates. Placements provide a supportive environment for affiliates to establish themselves in the workforce, building skills and profiles that will serve them for years to come.

On top of our existing global footprint, the PPP will grow in the coming years in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, with the aim of supporting African graduates across 20+ universities worldwide to transition to meaningful employment soon after completion of their degrees. By 2028, the programme expects to have enrolled 110 African displacement-affected graduates in the traineeship across RLRH’s physical hubs and facilitate 130 professional placements with employer partners.

Overview of Position

The Partnerships Manager is responsible for supporting the management, expansion, and stewardship of RLRH’s global employer and institutional partners network with the objective of increasing professional opportunities for graduates affected by forced displacement.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to work closely with highly regarded employer partners to encourage and support concrete action to hire, train, and mentor professionals with lived experience of displacement. The Partnerships Manager will also work with employers to share best practices, helping them to move from commitment to implementation.

The postholder will balance these activities with a substantial responsibility to serve as the primary PPP technical liaison for Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program partners. The postholder will work closely with RLRH’s Academic Pillar partnerships manager, who holds a similar function that advances education access with the Foundation. The Partnerships Manager will cultivate dynamic inter-institutional working relationships, leading the mainstreaming of refugee-inclusive professional transitions support across the university ecosystem.

Responsibilities

Employers - partnership development and creation of professional opportunities (40%)

• Manage relationships with current and prospective employers and other refugee livelihoods actors, approaching collaborators with a proactive and encouraging, problem-solving disposition.
• Lead the identification and cultivation of new employer placement hosts across Africa and globally, spanning (I)NGOs, research institutions, and the private sector, to create a robust pipeline for displacement-affected graduates.
• Provide employer partners with dedicated support to design and launch professional placements, advising them on best practices for including refugees in their workplaces.
• Send regular communications to partner employers on a range of topics including spotlights on good practices for inclusion, legal and policy developments, employer and employee success stories, and other opportunities to support individuals with lived experience of displacement.
• Arrange and lead virtual and in-person webinars and working groups for employer partners to stimulate discussion on effective practices for hiring and retaining professionals with displacement backgrounds.

Universities - developing the network and opening labour pathways (35%)

• Serve as the primary PPP focal point for partner universities and technical support organisations - with particular emphasis on those in the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program network.
• Develop and deliver a comprehensive partnership engagement plan in collaboration with the PPP team to support the mainstreaming of refugee inclusion across universities’ transitions interventions. This includes:
  • Convene universities on a 1-to-1 basis and collectively to advance the professional transitions agenda, identifying priority areas for collaboration.
  • Send regular communications to partner universities to cover topics of relevance to professional transitions for their on-course and already graduated students.
• Collaborate with RLRH colleagues - including those in the Research and Academic Pillars - who hold partnership strengthening responsibilities with the Scholars Program network, ensuring advancement of organisational objectives.
  • Work closely with the Transitions Manager to create a pipeline of placements that align with Scholars’ profiles, and with the AP’s Academic Partnerships Manager to cultivate university relationships and jointly advance RLRH’s advocacy agenda.

Programme development, coordination, and data management (15%)

• Participate in regular PPP vision-building workshops and contribute to annual planning and budgeting.
• Provide support in operationalising placements in coordination with the Professional Pathways Programme Officer.
• Contribute to the development of RLRH’s MEL portfolio, supporting data-driven insights that improve internal programming and partners’ ability to deliver inclusive programmes.
• Monitor enrollment cycles, academic year timelines, and partner university engagement to inform planning and reporting.
• Contribute to data collection and analysis.
• Provide line management support and/or mentorship to junior programme staff (e.g., Advisors and Programme Assistants).

Advocacy and external engagement (10%)

• Work closely with PPP’s Senior Programme Manager to expand advocacy efforts with key employer and livelihood partners, advancing meaningful and sustainable inclusion of refugees in workforces across different sectors.
• Contribute to co-creation of an organisational advocacy strategy that amplifies RLRH’s mission, namely refugees’ access to higher education, dignified work, and leadership in research; in close collaboration with RLRH’s programmatic and operational leads.
• Represent the PPP at local and regional fora, acting as an ambassador for RLRH’s mission.

Selection criteria

Essential

1. Demonstrated experience working in partnership development, stakeholder management, and widening participation, ideally with a track record in the African context.
2. Working familiarity with refugee professional advancement, economic inclusion, and access to higher education and/or employment.
3. Experience in programme development and coordination to align project delivery with wider organisational goals.
4. A bachelor’s degree in a relevant area of studies.
5. Highly organised, with the ability to manage competing priorities and deliver to deadlines. Ability to work independently, prioritise own workload, and work flexibly as part of a team.
6. Excellent relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence and support senior institutional counterparts.
7. Demonstrated success in developing and managing institutional partnerships.
8. Experience with data collection, monitoring, and reporting in programme or partnership contexts.
9. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience of preparing reports, briefings, and presenting to diverse stakeholders.
10. Excellent interpersonal communication skills, with experience working across diverse teams.
11. Excellent cultural competency and cultural humility.
12. Excellent written and verbal English.
13. Ability to travel internationally up to 10% of the time.

Desirable

1. Familiarity with the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program and/or the Young Africa Works strategy.
2. Fluency in additional languages spoken by RLRH learners and affiliates, such as French, Swahili, Arabic, Amharic, Somali, and/or Oromo.
3. A postgraduate degree (or equivalent professional experience). No particular field is expected, but familiarity with (Refugee and Forced) Migration Studies, Education, International Development, and related disciplines can be an advantage.

Applicants are expected to have or obtain the right to work in Kenya. For candidates affected by displacement who do not currently have this, RLRH can provide support for acquiring a gratis Refugee Class M work permit.

We believe that lived experience of displacement is a strength, and we give active, positive consideration to those with intersecting identities and backgrounds as part of our commitment to equitable hiring practices. As such, RLRH encourages applications from individuals who have been affected by displacement and others who may belong to historically under-represented groups, including but not limited to those who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQI+, women, and differently-abled candidates.

In line with RLRH’s AI use policy, we kindly ask that you do not use generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) to draft or edit your application materials.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to apply and be considered for any role, and our recruitment process is accessible to all candidates. If you would like to request an adjustment (including requests for alternative formats) to our process, please contact our team at careers@refugeeledresearch.org