Key Qualifications: Strong alignment with our vision and mission, a passion for startups, experience building an initiative from conception to implementation, experience managing a team
Start Date: Spring, 2015
Time Commitment: Full Time, minimum 2 years
Location: Amman, Jordan
About Think Unlimited
Think Unlimited is a dynamic, fast-growing nonprofit registered in the U.S. and based in Amman, Jordan. We envision a rising generation of Arab youth equipped and empowered to become proactive citizens, social innovators, and problem-solvers in their communities, their nations, and the world. We provide transformative learning experiences that build achievement motivation, creativity, critical thinking, and entrepreneurship skills, and encourage young people to apply those skills through social innovation.
Our flagship program, called “Solutionaries,” is an evidence-based curriculum designed specifically for Arab youth. The first of its kind in the Middle East, the Solutionaries program brings issue-centered experiential learning to classrooms where rote memorization is the norm.
We partner with Jordanian Universities to offer Solutionaries as a two-semester, credit-bearing course. We also work to build an innovation ecosystem on campuses to support students as they develop and implement projects and initiatives. We also recruit Arab youth from all over the world and bring them to Jordan for a year of service as Solutionaries facilitators. We're placing youth on the front lines of education reform in the Arab world with this unique and powerful peer-to-peer model.
Think Unlimited is a Draper Richards Kaplan grantee, and a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. Our work has been featured by New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, as well as on the Harvard Business Review Blog, the World Economic Forum Blog, and the FastCompany CoExist Blog.
Position Description
Think Unlimited is in its fourth year of operations and is entering an exciting growth phase. We are making preparations to double our staff and our impact in the 2016-2017 academic year, and are undertaking an ambitious long-term plan for expansion both within Jordan and regionally.
As part of this growth plan, we are building a technology platform that will help us engage our students, our alumni, and our supporters in an innovative way. We are working with a U.S.-based company to develop a proprietary app to serve these functions. This app will be employed as part of our in-classroom curriculum, as a platform for engaging our alumni and providing ongoing support to them as they implement projects, and as a fundraising tool.
We are looking for a dynamic, passionate individual to lead this effort in close collaboration with our Executive Directors and the U.S.-based team that is developing the technology. This person will help us envision, mobilize support for, create, and implement the app.
This position will be full-time, will be located in our Amman, Jordan offices, and will require a commitment of two years minimum.
Because we are a startup and therefore in a constant process of growth and development, this is a truly dynamic position. We envision this position developing in phases, with the Action App Manager’s main responsibilities changing over time as follows:
Phase 1: Feasibility Study and Project Roadmap (2 months)
- Working closely with the Executive Directors to understand the vision for the app and its proposed applications
- Working closely with a U.S.-based team to determine the feasibility of this vision as applied to the Jordan context
- Working closely with the Executive Directors to determine the proper timeline, budget, goals, funding strategy, and execution plan for developing and utilizing the app
Phase 2: Developing the App and Engaging Support (2 months)
- Working closely with the Executive Directors and a U.S.-based team to develop the content and functionality of the app
- Road-testing the classroom-based functionality of the app during the fall 2015 semester of Solutionaries
- Raising support for the creation of the app itself and its first application, an “Action Festival” – this will include engaging underwriting support from either foundations or corporations for development costs and the cost of the festival, as well as funding partners tied to the app’s functionality
Phase 3: Utilizing the App as an Integrated Youth Engagement Tool and Fundraising Platform in Conjunction with an “Action Festival” (2 months)
- We envision a festival happening in late summer / early fall, 2015, in which we road test the fundraising potential of the app for the first time by engaging a wide audience of young people in a series of “Action Challenges” that ultimately culminate in a celebratory festival
Phase 4: Managing Ongoing Implementation, Iteration, and Build-Out (1 year+)
- Building out the functionality of the app to include alumni engagement, synching it with our existing alumni programming
- Continuing to implement and improve the content and functionality of the app over time
- Further integrating the app into the organization as a whole by exploring new ways to use it
- Developing a sustainable strategy for ongoing management and development of the technology over time
Our ideal candidate will bring:
- Strong alignment with our vision and mission, including a passion for social entrepreneurship, education, and human development
- A passion for startups and the process of building new initiatives
- Enthusiasm for working with an early-stage, but quickly growing organization
- Flexibility and comfort working in a fast-paced environment where creativity, collaboration, initiative, some unpredictability, and an iterative approach are the norm
- Enthusiasm for and familiarity with innovative technological platforms
- Experience engaging with private sector stakeholders in the Arab world
- Experience working independently or in a consultant capacity
- Experience building an initiative from conception to implementation
- A meaningful connection to the Arab World – culturally, ethnically, and/or time spent in the MENA region