Chief of Staff to the CEO

Chief of Staff to the CEO

Location: Delhi, Manila, Nairobi, Lusaka, Rabat, or Senegal

About the role

Reporting directly to the CEO, the Chief of Staff (CoS) serves as a strategic partner, integrator, and operational anchor across IDinsight’s global leadership. The CoS plays a critical role in ensuring that the CEO’s time, priorities, and strategic focus are deployed toward the organization’s highest-impact goals, while also supporting cross-organizational alignment and execution.

Specific responsibilities would include:

Strategy
• Own and drive the organization's goal-setting and performance tracking framework (currently an “Objectives and Key Results” system), ensuring annual goals are established, monitored, and reported to the Board
• Develop inputs from quantitative analyses and consultations to monitor and refine the implementation of IDinsight’s multi-year strategy for impact growth.
• Translate strategic priorities into clear, actionable plans, and coordinate cross-functional and regional execution against them
• Facilitate standing meetings of senior leaders around current challenges and opportunities at the organizational level
• Maintain awareness of key developments in the evidence, evaluation, and AI landscape and surface opportunities or risks relevant to IDinsight's strategy and positioning

Special projects
• Elevate IDinsight’s operating standards by identifying, implementing, and tracking system and process improvements in partnership with functional and client-facing teams
• Lead or participate in cross-team working groups and internal projects to achieve strategic objectives
• Design and manage strategic talent and leadership development initiatives (e.g., rotational programs, onboarding frameworks) that build organizational capacity and support the professional growth of emerging leaders

Internal communications and Executive Voice
• Draft and manage CEO communications across internal channels (e.g., Slack, email, all-hands meetings), board materials, and stakeholder updates, serving as a trusted voice proxy for the CEO when needed
• Shape the messaging and framing of organizational priorities, ensuring that strategic decisions are communicated with clarity and consistency across the organization

Relationship building and coordination
• Manage the Executive team’s preparation and involvement with organization-wide processes, internal team meetings, and other engagements that drive alignment, shared knowledge, and learning
• Prepare and follow up on meetings by generating data-driven insights, developing presentations, drafting written deliverables, capturing and sharing meeting notes, maintaining task lists, and tracking critical next steps to completion
• Develop talking points, presentations, and written materials for the CEO's internal and external engagements, synthesizing complex information into clear, compelling narratives
• Shape the messaging and framing of organizational priorities, ensuring that strategic decisions are communicated with clarity and consistency across the organization
• When needed, participate directly in meetings and represent the CEO’s point of view in internal and external settings

Executive and Board Management
• Manage the CEO’s time, priorities, and information flow to ensure focus on the organization’s most strategic work
• Support the Executive team in engagement with the Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, clients, funders, and other stakeholders
• Lead Board engagement, including planning and executing board meetings, overseeing governance and compliance processes, and maintaining board knowledge management systems
• Manage ongoing relationships with individual board members between meetings, ensuring timely follow-up on action items, facilitating information requests, and keeping governance communications on track

Organizational Coordination and Change Management
• Strengthen linkages between the Executive Team and regional and functional teams to ensure clear communication, information cascade, and organizational alignment.
• Support and sometimes lead organizational change management initiatives that enhance coordination, performance, and culture.
• Partner with senior leaders to steward key organizational initiatives, ensuring momentum, clarity, and accountability

Thought Partnership and Representation
• Serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner to the CEO and other members of the Executive Team
• Pressure-test strategic decisions by providing independent analysis, surfacing risks and trade-offs, and offering candid counsel on cross-cutting organizational priorities
• Synthesize information from across the organization to help the CEO and Executive Team maintain a clear, current picture of organizational health, emerging risks, and strategic opportunities

Event Planning and Leadership Engagement
• Lead the end-to-end planning and execution of high-impact internal events – including executive retreats, leadership summits, CEO roadshows, in-person board meetings, and organization-wide convenings – from scoping and programming design through vendor procurement, stakeholder coordination, and on-site delivery

Technology and Operational Efficiency
• Leverage technology and AI tools to improve executive workflows, streamline information management, and increase the efficiency of organizational coordination and reporting.
• Identify and implement process improvements that reduce manual overhead for the CEO and Executive Team, enabling greater focus on high-impact work.

Qualifications
• Strong commitment to advancing IDinsight’s mission and vision for the sector
• Strong understanding of development policy and social sector in LMICs required, with approximately 6 to 12 years of professional experience, including meaningful time working in or with LMIC contexts
• Standout project management skills, with an ability to easily switch between high-level considerations and nuts and bolts of implementation
• Experience managing concurrent workstreams across multiple time zones, with the ability to maintain quality and momentum in a globally distributed organization.
• Experience designing and managing programs involving multiple stakeholders and junior team members, including mentoring, onboarding, and performance support. People management experience preferred
• Expertly develop and execute tactical assignments, including producing high-quality deliverables independently
• Excellent judgement and problem-solving abilities, with an ability to think through complex questions conscientiously and judiciously
• Demonstrated track record as a self-starter and leader, including comfort with ambiguity and dynamic environments and workstreams
• Strong communicator in multiple fora (written communications, public speaking, teamwork, and upward management)
• Strong written communication skills, including comfort ghostwriting for senior executives and adapting tone and voice across different audiences and channels
• Comfort with AI and technology tools for workflow automation, information management, and executive support
• Experience managing vendor relationships, procurement processes, or consultant engagements
• Solutions-oriented, with an ability to translate strategic ideas to action plans working across multiple work-streams in parallel
• Strong desire for professional growth and development, with a track record of openness to give and receive feedback;
• High level of independence and sharp attention to detail
• Strong ability to maintain integrity and confidentiality in complex situations; to handle sensitive information, data, and issues with mature and discreet professionalism
• Ability to serve as a culture carrier for IDinsight - someone who embodies and reinforces the organization's values, principles, norms, and ways of working across teams and contexts
• Intellectually curious, with a genuine interest in how evidence, data, and AI can improve decision-making for social impact

Nuts & bolts

Location

This position can be based out of any IDinsight office: Delhi, Manila, Nairobi, Lusaka, Rabat, or Dakar.

IMPORTANT: This role is not available for candidates based in the United States. Applicants must be based in, or willing to relocate to, one of IDinsight's regional offices listed above.

We strongly encourage applications from candidates with existing ties to the regions where we operate. Preference will be given to those with pre-existing work authorization; however, IDinsight will pursue work permits for exceptional candidates where possible.

Work Hours

Desired work hours: at least 3-4 hours’ overlap with US EST; this would require heavier evening work hours for India or SEA candidates, with lots of flexibility.

Start date

The ideal start date of this position is August 15, 2026.

Work authorization

IDinsight can sponsor employment visas for all nationalities in these locations; however, we will prioritise candidates who do not require IDinsight to sponsor work authorization in the aforementioned countries. All candidates not currently located in our country offices listed above will be expected to relocate to their office locations at the onset of their employment.

Compensation

IDinsight is committed to paying competitively and equitably. We benchmark salaries against relevant social-sector markets in each location using accredited third-party data, targeting the 50th percentile where feasible. Placement within each range reflects qualifications, experience, and office location. Ranges are listed in USD for comparison. The currency of pay depends on your hiring location and is confirmed in the offer.

Salary ranges by location (USD):

India (Local Nationals): 24,400 - 51,900

India (Foreign Nationals): 24,600 - 57,300

Southeast Asia: 36,100 - 66,500

Kenya: 45,500 - 71,700

Zambia: 43,100 - 68,000

Senegal: 60,300 - 88,900

Morocco: 56,700 - 92,500

How to apply

Please click the "Apply for this job online" button at the top right. Applications are due on July 21, 2026 at 11:59 (PST). The application asks various questions for us to get to know you and requires a CV.