Deputy Director of Land Acquisition Job Vacancy in Kenya - Bridge International Academies

Job Title: Deputy Director of Land Acquisition

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

About Bridge International Academies

Bridge International Academies is a startup revolutionizing education across Africa with a truly unique business model.

The company has launched a large-scale franchise-like network of ultra low-cost for-profit private primary schools across Africa. Our schools profitably deliver high-quality education for less than $4 per child per month, enabling local school managers to operate their school businesses profitably, while creating a highly successful business at the central level.

We have launched our first 10 schools in Kenya, have 15 more opening in January and plan to rapidly scale the company to serve more than 1 million students.

About this position

We have and are continuing to develop one of the most sophisticated approaches to providing affordable education to MILLIONS of children in one of the most challenging environments in the world!

A central part of our operations includes the identification, verification, negotiation and purchase of plots of land for our schools inside the slums. These plots often do not have title associated with them, but through our land identification and procurement process we must establish a certain amount of security -- understanding the previous ownership, other potential competing claims, titling possibility, issues with city council, lands office, etc.

To make these determinations and the actual purchase, the process may involve negotiations with local village elders, local government administration, and local landlords, and ultimately a lease or sales contract written with some or all of these participants.

And because our plan is to launch hundreds and thousands of schools, this process must be streamlined, made cost effective, and transparent.

The Deputy Director of Land Acquisition, working underneath our existing Head of Land, Site Preparation and Community Negotiations will have to make decisions incorporating information about how much it will cost to prepare a particular site for construction, proximity to our target market, proximity to other schools, information from Bridge’s household survey research, and more in order to optimize the locations of our individual schools.

We are looking for a Deputy Director of Land Acquisition, who will help provide critical leadership and management of the land acquisition, site preparation, and community negotiation process.

We are looking for someone who is excited about going out to the slums and often doing the hard work him/herself.

Responsibilities

    * Refine, develop and manage a very detailed set of processes to identify, verify, negotiate and purchase plots of lands in the slums.
    * Expand and coordinate a team of local “property scouts” looking for and undertaking preliminary negotiations
    * Creating and auditing a checklist of requirements for acceptable plots
    * Using handheld GPS, satellite maps and aerial photography for identification, sizing, & verification
    * Developing a geographically-based database of plots, their prices and main to establish a core knowledge base of land pricing
    * Step by Step Verification process, which may include negotiations and conversations with local administration Chiefs, local village elders, undertaking title searches through Ministry of Lands, negotiating with City Council, NEMA and local youth organizations
    * Incorporate many pieces of information and data into the decision making process before choosing a particular school site. This includes the cost of prepping the site for construction and more.
    * Negotiation of a contract, including customization of specific deal terms where necessary.
    * Develop and manage handover process between plot purchase and our construction team
    * Developing a sophisticated auditing process to ensure transparency of the whole purchasing process

Requirements/Skills:

    * You have minimum of 10 years experience in land acquisition or real estate development
    * You have successfully managed the purchasing or leasing of large numbers of plots, ideally having to also deal with community lands, temporary occupation licenses, allocation letters, etc
    * You have experience with very process-oriented project management
    * You have experience with negotiating creative deals with many people/parties in complex situations
    * Contract or Legal experience a plus
    * You are willing to work in the slums for a large percentage of the time
    * You have experience with managing distributed teams and auditing for corruption
    * You are extremely analytical, and excited about using data to drive processes and decision making
    * "Love to get my hands dirty" is your middle name.
    * You function well in a fast-paced, informal environment where constant change is the norm and the bar for quality is set high

Our team has a passionate belief that basic primary education is critical to the development of every child, family, community and nation.

We believe that it is possible to address this critical need for poor families through new and innovative approaches leveraging the private sector, and that by providing low-cost but high-quality primary education, we will give millions of children the opportunity to accomplish their dreams.

We are looking for someone who wants to join us in this rewarding task.

How to apply
click here

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