Digital Innovation and Technology Manager

ABOUT SPARK MICROGRANTS

Spark MicroGrants believes in a world where everyone lives with dignity and determines their own positive future. Spark has worked in 800+ villages in 6 countries and has pioneered a community-driven development model in sub-Saharan Africa. Spark works with NGO and Government partners to scale the model's adoption and impact on rural communities - on their own terms. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyse local action and institution building. Read more about our Approach , Impact and Values on our website .

Spark seeks an experienced Digital Innovation and Technology Manager to lead the organization’s use of digital tools and emerging technologies to strengthen the quality, reach, and efficiency of Spark’s programs and internal ways of working. The Digital Innovation and Technology Manager will report to the Senior Program Design Director, with technical reporting lines set based on the workstream. The position will work closely with teams across the organization, including Design, Monitoring and Evaluation, Operations, and Programs. This role is ideal for someone who combines strong technology and project management skills with a background in e-learning and/or social impact, and who is excited by the potential of technology to improve how community development programs are designed and delivered.

OUR WORK

The foundation of our approach is Spark’s village facilitation and grants model, where rural communities are led through regular facilitated meetings to organize, conceptualize and implement local development projects, which are supported by a microgrant to fund them. The model has been designed to improve local livelihoods, enhance social cohesion, and improve citizen engagement.

Our operating model is based on an international team of functional advisers (e.g. finance team, M&E team, Program Design team) who support country teams. Country teams co-design the model with local partners and government, train partners or directly implement the design, and support quality monitoring and oversight.

Digital tools play a key role in how Spark delivers, monitors, and learns from its programs. This is increasingly important to support quality implementation of national scale programs. Spark aims to use emerging technology pragmatically and responsibly: testing new approaches, learning from implementation, managing risks, and scaling tools that demonstrate value for the communities we serve.

WHO YOU ARE

You are a creative and organized technology and innovation professional who is excited about applying digital tools and emerging technologies to international development and social impact. You are comfortable working across technical and non-technical teams, translating programmatic or operational needs into clear technology designs, and managing initiatives from initial concept and piloting through adoption and rollout.

You are an experienced project manager who can manage multiple technology workstreams and coordinate internal and external stakeholders. You are motivated by identifying practical ways that technology can improve community development programs and organizational effectiveness, and you are comfortable experimenting with emerging technologies while ensuring responsible adoption. The right candidate will not want to do ‘development as usual’ but question how aid works and ensure that Spark is ultimately accountable to the villages we serve.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibility: Digital Innovation Across Programs and Operations

Duties:

Identify opportunities to apply emerging technologies, including AI, to improve training and facilitation approaches, support high-quality implementation at national scale and strengthen organizational cost effectiveness. Lead the design, piloting, and implementation of identified opportunities, including through on-ground engagement with end users and field testing.

Collaborate with Product/M&E teams to identify and test technology improvements for monitoring and evaluation activities. Act as technical support or workstream lead, as designated.

Manage key digital program design workstreams, including Spark’s Content Player, ChatBot, IVR hotline, and SMS outreach, ensuring that products are implemented with high-quality and fidelity to their design, are regularly assessed and iterated on, and are designed with national scale in mind.

Establish processes for gathering feedback and incorporating learning into the ongoing improvement of digital products and tools.

Monitor the performance and risks of technology pilots and recommend whether approaches should be adapted, scaled, or discontinued.

Responsibility: Manage Digital Tool Development and Rollout

Duties:

Lead organizational uptake of new tools by coordinating testing, training, documentation and ongoing technical support. Develop project plans, coordinate cross-departmental inputs, and manage the implementation and rollout of new digital tools within the organization.

Oversee contracting and management of vendors and contracts associated with Spark’s digital tools. This includes designing contract scopes, providing technical approval of deliverables, and overseeing contract term, implementation and payments.

Advise on how program design and implementation and related materials should be adapted or structured to be fit for purpose for use with new digital tools.

Support the design and development of digital products by translating program needs into technical requirements and collaborating with developers and partners on testing and improvement.

• Responsibility: Oversee Responsible Technology and AI Adoption
• Duties:

Lead Spark’s Working Group on the use of AI, supporting the responsible adoption of AI tools by assessing their relevance, risks, and potential value for Spark’s programs and operations.

Develop and complete risk assessment frameworks and templates for digital tools and emerging technologies. Where needed, support the development of organization guidance or standards for responsible use.

Build organizational understanding of the opportunities and limitations of emerging technologies through training, guidance, and ongoing support.

Responsibility: Organizational Change and Representation

Duties:

Monitor emerging technologies and global best practices in social impact and technology

Build support and organizational buy-in for digital tools by engaging teams, understanding their needs, and demonstrating the potential value of new approaches

Represent Spark’s work and experience with digital innovation externally to government and NGO partners and other stakeholders

REQUIREMENTS:

Qualifications, experience & skills:

Bachelor’s degree in a related field (Computer science, software engineering data science, machine learning or a related discipline)

Minimum 5 years of relevant professional experience, including experience managing technology or digital innovation projects, e-learning, learning and development, or technology-enabled international development

Expert knowledge of data integration techniques and tools, including ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes to integrate data from various sources.

Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., Python, PowerShell) for automation and data manipulation tasks.

Experience in developing or managing digital products, with the ability to translate user needs into technical solutions and work effectively with developers.

Experience managing complex, cross-functional projects from concept or pilot through launch

Demonstrated interest in and understanding of emerging technologies, including AI, and their practical applications in social impact or development

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate between technical and non-technical audiences

Excellent organizational and project management skills, with the a