Open Ownership (OO) is driving the global shift towards transparency over who owns and controls companies, known as beneficial ownership transparency (BOT). We are working to create a world where governments, businesses, and citizens can readily access and effectively use accurate, complete, and high-quality evidence and information on the true owners of companies, not only to achieve transparency, but to reduce key global and national risks such as corruption and tax evasion, and create a more sustainable business environment.

To achieve this, our team of programme delivery, technology, and policy and research experts:

• Provides technical assistance to implement beneficial ownership transparency reforms

• Builds technology and capacity to use beneficial ownership data

• Conducts research and advocates to shape global policy and practice

We are a remote organisation with a global team of 15 individuals based in Argentina, Philippines, the Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as the United Kingdom (UK) where currently 50% of the organisation is based. We offer  a fast-paced environment with an emphasis on agility and flexibility. People who enjoy learning and variety in their work will be particularly well-suited for our team. Although home-based, our remote team does meet in-person at least once a year (restrictions allowing).

Purpose of the post 

You will join a distributed team across the region and beyond, working on delivery of Open Ownership’s support to priority national governments in Africa, including a portfolio of countries in Southern Africa and other countries as determined, delivering high-quality technical assistance.  You’ll provide high quality programmatic support to enable the smooth efficient functioning of the country programmes team, using collaboration tools, effective communication and sharp administrative skills.    

Key tasks and responsibilities

• Country implementation support ( 70 %) 

Working closely with the Regional Manager for Africa & Middle East, you will: 

Support technical delivery to national governments implementing beneficial ownership transparency in Africa 

• Support assessments and delivery of written reports on the status and context for beneficial ownership transparency in 5-10 countries in the region, liaising with policy and technical colleagues to deploy their expertise as required.

• Based on Open Ownership’s Implementation Guide and country support package, help countries to implement legal, technical and other changes required, so that they can publish open and impactful beneficial ownership data.

Sustain and grow working relationships with national stakeholders across Africa

• Provide support in communicating with  stakeholders across government, civil society, academia  and the private sector in the region, and maintaining relationships with key external partners. 

• Organise and provide administrative, logistical and content support to the Africa team for regional and national events, workshops, technical capacity building and training sessions and other engagements.

• Help facilitate sharing of knowledge arising from Open Ownership’s work in the region with partners, stakeholders, funders and the wider international community.

• Country  Programmatic Support (30%) 

Working closely with Director of Country Programmes, you will: 

Organise and track OO’s country programmes delivery 

• Coordinate and track OO’s targets for technical implementation assistance, including working with the team to document and report on delivered outputs, as well as track new opportunities,  and provide support to induction processes for country team consultants as needed. 

• Maintain a calendar of country team activities, events and engagements, using our cloud-based events calendar. Working with colleagues to ensure workload and workflow  management and internal coordination with other OO teams, as well as coordinate internal country team monthly and quarterly meetings and maintain OO’s country team virtual task board.

• Coordinate the monitoring of progress and impact of OO’s country implementation support, working with colleagues  to evaluate progress, identify and take forward learning opportunities, and make continuous improvement to our technical delivery. 

• Undertake any other activities consistent with the purpose of the role, as needed by the entire OO country team.

Candidate Profile

We are seeking an action-oriented, well organised and articulate individual who can bring three or more years’ relevant experience for the skills required for this role. This role is ideal for a candidate who wants to build their professional experience in a dynamic, fast moving global environment.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following skills and attributes:

• At least 3 years experience in a relevant field (e.g. governance, law, anti-corruption, digital transformation) in at least one country in Africa, ideally more and in Southern Africa and ideally in the non-profit sector. 

• Experience of maintaining relationships with diverse stakeholder groups, ideally including governments, funders and civil society.

• Experience supporting monitoring and evaluation for international projects.

• Fluent business English with excellent communication skills, both written and verbal (other languages in addition are welcomed, in particular Portuguese or French). 

• Passion for how open data and policy can together drive positive impact, and knowledge of this work in contexts across Africa and globally. 

• Confidence with Microsoft Office and G-Suite, experience with Notion would be an asset. 

• Willing and able to travel internationally up to 30% FTE (travel restrictions permitting).

• An ability to self-organise and work autonomously in a remote organisation across multiple time zones.  

• A quick learner, able to swiftly understand information about complex issues.

• An organised and action-oriented professional with a keen eye for detail. 

• Entrepreneurial and able to look for opportunities to solve problems; you will be adaptable to changing contexts.

Application Process 

We want to hear from all voices, and particularly encourage individuals of diverse and marginalised communities to apply.  If there is a requirement in the job description which you think you don’t quite meet but are still keen to apply then please do. We are particularly keen to hear from candidates based in Southern Africa, and especially in South Africa or Zambia. 

Please note that Open Ownership is a fiscally sponsored organisation and the contract will be executed in the name of our fiscal sponsor Global Impact, a non-profit, on behalf of Open Ownership. 

Open Ownership uses the Applied platform for our recruitment which is designed to promote diversity and inclusion through anonymised applications and scenario-based questions. Our initial process will be solely based on your anonymised answers within the Applied platform. We will also ask you to submit your CV, but your CV will not be reviewed unless we decide to invite you to interview. 

We will retain your details for future posts at Open Ownership, unless you tell us otherwise.

To apply, please complete the question-based process by 23:59 BST  at the end of 27 November 2022.