Chief of Staff

Job Description

Accelerate Africa is now part of Itana, built to unlock Africa’s innovation economy by combining policy, infrastructure, innovation, and ecosystem development in one live–work–build hub in Lagos, Nigeria.

Our mission is simple yet ambitious : Economic growth doesn’t happen by accident — it is intentionally designed.

We are designing the systems that enable African founders to scale globally from African soil, driving $100 billion in GDP impact over the next decade. Accelerate Africa powers this vision through its corporate innovation hubs, corporate accelerator programs, core accelerator, startups services, and ecosystem development.

Role Overview

The Chief of Staff (CoS) serves as the operational architect and execution partner to the Head of Accelerate Africa, ensuring that vision translates into systems, alignment, and delivery.

This role combines strategic execution, team coordination, and leadership support across a growing portfolio of accelerators, corporate partnerships, and startup programs — ensuring that every project under Accelerate Africa operates like a well-oiled machine.

The CoS will play a key role in building internal cohesion while enabling the Head to focus externally — on developing strategic partnerships, closing corporate programs, and ecosystem leadership through external engagements.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Operations & Systemization (40%)

Translate strategic goals into operational systems, OKRs, and workflows across multiple accelerator and ecosystem programs.

Design and refine process play books for startup selection, corporate accelerator delivery, and program evaluation.

Build systems for managing cross-program reporting and dashboards to give leadership real-time visibility into progress, risks / issues, etc.

2. Team Alignment & Performance (25%)

Serve as central point of coordination for the distributed team, including the Corporate Accelerator, Managing Directors, Program Managers, visiting partners, etc.

Coordinate work of internal core team while supporting the onboarding and alignment of flexible staff

Establish rhythms of accountability : team stand-ups, project reviews, and leadership check-ins for on-time delivery of program milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) set by corporate partners and internal metrics.

3. Leadership Support & Thought Partnership (20%)

Exec Prep : Serve as a force multiplier for the Head of Accelerate Africa — handling preparation, briefing materials, and follow-up for meetings, keynotes, podcasts, and strategic engagements.

Content & Narrative : Draft executive communications, presentations, and thought leadership content to amplify Accelerate Africa's work, draw attention to the innovation hub, and articulate the vision of the ecosystem.

External Engagements : Attend key external functions as an internal strategist and execution partner, then translate external insights into actionable priorities

4. Program Portfolio Management (10%)

Portfolio-Level Project Management : Manage all large-scale projects at a portfolio level, ensuring alignment between the corporate hubs, core programs, and the work of the Programs and Partnerships Lead.

Liaison with Partnerships : Work closely with the Programs and Partnerships Lead to ensure a smooth transition from the sales and implementation phase into operational delivery for all new startup programs.

Track success metrics, ensuring each program meets corporate partner KPIs and contributes to portfolio-level impact, while driving integration between programs so learnings, data, and tools are shared across teams.

5. Fellowship & Capacity Development (5%)

Design and manage a Fellowship Program that creates a talent bench for temporary or project-based staffing needs.

Develop rotational roles for fellows across functions to strengthen ecosystem talent pipelines.

Requirements

Ideal Candidate Profile

Attribute

Description

Experience

5–7 years in chief of staff role, consulting, or portfolio / program management with exposure to Africa’s tech or entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Mindset

Systems thinker and operator who thrives on order, structure, and impact; able to balance precision with startup agility.

Skills

Exceptional coordination, stakeholder management, process design, and world class communication abilities.

Orientation

Mission-driven builder who sees this as an opportunity to help architect the foundations of Africa’s first global-scale tech ecosystem.

Culture Fit

Calm under pressure, low ego, high ownership, and obsessed with clarity and accountability. High emotional intelligence

Bonus

Experience supporting a senior executive; prior exposure to accelerators or venture ecosystems a plus.