The TechLab spearheads CfA’s design and development of all digital services for the organisation, and its external human rights defending partner organisations. This includes digital infrastructure, such CfA’s open data portal (the largest non-government data source in Africa) and machine learning or natural language processing analysis tools (such as https://civicsignal.africa/), as well as deploying and maintaining our operating systems and our public-facing web platforms or digital tools/widgets (such as https://taxclock.pesacheck.org/).

In this role you will be responsible for the overall development and implementation of front and back-end software services and applications. This means you will impact the entire software development cycle and delivery from design to deployment. Additionally, you will develop and maintain software across the entire tech stack including UI, backend, and infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities:

• Meeting with a cross-functional team (architects, UX designers, product owners and other software engineers) to define the scope and scale of software projects.
• Partner with a cross-functional team to design, code, test, and operate web services, applications, and APIs that are performant, reliable, secure, responsive, and accessible.
• Make engineering investments and build reusable components to ship faster with higher quality and consistency.
• Growth mindset to learn, seek diverse viewpoints, and stay current with industry trends and techniques.
• Writing technical documents.

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.

How to apply:

Please fill in this form by 30 April 2022

About Us:

Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent’s largest network of indigenous African civic technology and investigative data journalism laboratories, with over 70 staff in 19 countries, who build digital democracy solutions that are intended to give citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them to make informed decisions and that strengthen civic engagement for improved public governance and accountability.

This includes building infrastructure such as the continent’s largest open data portal, open.AFRICA, and largest open source civic software portal, commons.AFRICA, as well as the largest repository of investigative document-based evidence, source.AFRICA, as well as incubating initiatives as diverse as the africanDRONE network that gives citizens their own ‘eyes in the sky’, the PesaCheck fact-checking initiative in 12 African countries, and the sensors.AFRICA remote-sensing citizen science initiative to combat air/water pollution.

CfA also incubates the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), as an association of the continent’s best investigative newsrooms, ranging from large traditional mainstream media to smaller specialist units. ANCIR member newsrooms investigate crooked politicians, organised crime and big business. The iLAB is ANCIR’s in-house digital forensic unit, with teams in east, south and west Africa. ANCIR uses its resources to strengthen newsrooms’ own internal capacity, by providing access to the world’s best whistleblower encryption and investigative semantic analysis technologies, as well as skills development, and seed grants for cross-border collaboration.

At CfA, we don’t just accept differences – we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. CfA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

• Knowledge of modern software development and deployment tools (e.g. Python, Docker, etc.), and public cloud provider technologies (e.g. AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.).
• A technical understanding of CDNs, DDoS, web caching, DNS and related technologies will be a major advantage.
• Strategic thinking and great problem-solving skills.
• Evidence of experience at successfully building and maintaining a wide array of relationships with both internal colleagues and external partners
• Demonstrated experience of working effectively as part of a geographically distributed multicultural team will be an advantage

Language and Location Requirements:

• Location: CfA has labs located in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. However the role can be performed remotely, and applicants across Africa will therefore be considered.
• Languages: English
• Preferred but not required: Arabic, French, KiSwahili or any other major language spoken in Africa.

About the Role:

The successful candidate will join CfA’s technology team. The team is distributed across east/west Africa, and benchmarks itself on similar civic technology initiatives elsewhere in the world that build digital democracy solutions.

The Security Evangelist will play a key role in shaping internal technology decisions and mitigating third-party risks. The successful candidate will ensure that CfA deploys new infrastructure, projects and technologies in a safe and secure manner. The candidate will lead the selection and deployment of world-class open-source cyber security tools, and contribute to recruitment and talent management of information security technologists.

The Security Evangelist will also have important external-facing responsibilities. The candidate will be a cybersecurity advocate, drive a diverse cybersecurity community and garner awareness, oversee events, contribute to engagement  and offer insight to stakeholders.

The Tech Lab spearheads CfA’s design, development and maintenance of all digital services for the organisation, and its external human rights defending partner organisations. The team is responsible for digital infrastructure for teams and organisations, through managing and deploying tools/services such as password managers (like BitWarden), digital security (like ProjectShield) and VPNs (such as Outline). The Tech Lab develops and maintains our public-facing web platforms (like AfricanSpending, Afrileaks, Grano, and PesaYetu), tools/widgets (such as  BiscuitIndex, HURUmap and TaxClock) and bots (such as DebunkBot). The team also manages CfA’s machine learning  and natural language processing analysis tools (such as CivicSignal). CfA’s github is available here.

Responsibilities: Your core responsibilities will include:

• Establish a security standard that all technologies and solutions at CfA, managed by your fellow technologists, must be held against to ensure the online safety of both internal and external users.
• Build a dynamic pan-African digital security community for the media and other civic watchdogs, based on peer-learning and peer-support.
• Manage a virtual ‘hotline’ and support service for African newsrooms and/or journalists who need urgent help on digital security and investigative technology issues.
• Develop and deliver a range of technical and non-technical presentations / webinars / classes to help impact digital security skills and investigative technology awareness.
• Manage an onboarding and support service for newsrooms and/or journalists who adopt any CfA-endorsed technologies or digital solutions.
• Identify events, organisations, and other approaches to build awareness of CfA security projects, tools, and technologies and to drive partner activation.
• Develop metrics to measure success in raising awareness and activating partnerships, for progress tracking by the core CfA team and partners.
• Provide ongoing support to regional CfA teams in their own outreach efforts.

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.

How to apply:

Please fill in this form: by 30th June, 2022

About Us:

Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent’s largest network of indigenous African civic technology and investigative data journalism laboratories, with over 70 staff in 19 countries, who build digital democracy solutions that are intended to give citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them to make informed decisions and that strengthen civic engagement for improved public governance and accountability.

This includes building infrastructure such as the continent’s largest open data portal, open.AFRICA, and largest open source civic software portal, commons.AFRICA, as well as the largest repository of investigative document-based evidence, source.AFRICA, as well as incubating initiatives as diverse as the africanDRONE network that gives citizens their own ‘eyes in the sky’, the PesaCheck fact-checking initiative in 12 African countries, and the sensors.AFRICA remote-sensing citizen science initiative to combat air/water pollution.

CfA also incubates the African Network of Centres for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), as an association of the continent’s best investigative newsrooms, ranging from large traditional mainstream media to smaller specialist units. ANCIR member newsrooms investigate crooked politicians, organised crime and big business. The iLAB is ANCIR’s in-house digital forensic unit, with teams in east, south and west Africa. ANCIR uses its resources to strengthen newsrooms’ own internal capacity, by providing access to the world’s best whistleblower encryption and investigative semantic analysis technologies, as well as skills development, and seed grants for cross-border collaboration.

At CfA, we don’t just accept differences – we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. CfA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

The Knowledge team spearheads our training partnerships through CfA’s Academy, which works with over 30 leading African universities, as well as a range of mainstream newsroom and civil society partners to deliver innovative training on topics ranging from data journalism to digital activism and data analysis and storytelling initiatives. It also includes CfA communities such as the WanaData women data science/storytelling network and the africanDRONE civic drone community, as well as the sensors.AFRICA sensor journalism initiative, with a network of more than 50+ newsroom and university partners across Africa. The Knowledge programme is also custodian of other major CfA public infrastructure, such as the continent’s largest open data portal, open.AFRICA, and Africa’s largest census data portal, HURUMap.

The Curriculum Developer will be CfA’s in-house ‘architect’ for designing the structure for our courseware modules and courses, as well as setting the benchmark for curriculum resources. The candidate reports to CfA’s Senior Programme Manager on the Knowledge team, and will work with the support of CfA’s wider team of editorial experts, data analysts and digital designers, as well as external domain experts. The candidate will champion CfA’s Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), ensuring that it is on par with the world’s best.

Required minimum requirements include:

• Qualifications or significant proven expertise in learning sciences, and specifically mass open online course (MOOC) design, instructional design and learning technologies or Information architecture, evidence-based education, and/or related fields.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience in training development, creating blended learning solutions for both instructor-led and self-paced training programmes.
• Experience with using multimedia and online web instructional materials, especially for a web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as WordPress’ LearnDash platform.
• Experience assessing training needs, writing lessons objectives, and storyboarding course outlines/learning journeys.
• Ability to work creatively and accurately under pressure with excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to multitask and self-organise, and prioritise work when managing multiple timelines and schedules.
• Excellent leadership, team-building, and self-management skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Preferred: preferred qualifications and skills include:

• Knowledge of data journalism and/or multimedia storytelling, or civic technology and civic engagement, or digital democracy approaches.
• Experience with developing courseware formats for new communication channels, including using mobile platforms like WhatsApp or equivalent social messaging platforms.
• Experience with creating or customising courseware content using InDesign (or equivalent tools), video scribe, audio/narration editing tools and other e-learning design technologies is also an asset.
• Expertise in adult learning and all aspects of instructional design for various formats, including instructor-led, self-directed e-learning, task-driven experiential learning, webinar-driven interactive learning, mobile optimised courseware, and various types of performance support.
• Willingness to teach others and learn/pioneer new techniques.
• Experience in remote collaboration tools, including Slack, Google Drive, and Trello to manage workflows.
• The ability to communicate and work effectively with curriculum or domain experts and project team members who work remotely and in different time zones.

Language and Location Requirements:

• Location: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria or anywhere else in Africa
• Languages: English
• Preferred but not required: French and/or Arabic

About the Role

The successful candidate will join CfA’s Knowledge team to lead a revamp/refresh of our existing MOOC platform, restructuring and updating existing courseware, while also improving the functionality and user experience on the platform (with support from CfA’s tech and content teams).

A major focus for the role will be to build courses that are modular, with core lessons teaching key skills, complemented by elective modules that offer topic/tool specific add-on skills. CfA courseware is intended to be flexible enough to be easily customised or repackaged for different audiences by our in-country staff trainers or university partners. The MOOC courseware also serves as the master curricula for teaching kits for our in-person/offline training workshops, as well as template course materials for our university partners.

CfA’s curriculum developer will be responsible for benchmarking our learning materials on global best-practices, and will also lead our joint development of new courses with both internal and external stakeholders to create learning solutions.

The candidate should have a strong strategic analysis and critical thinking skills, as our projects are varied and fast-paced, so you need to quickly understand and learn new things. You will need to possess a keen attention to detail and a good eye for both quality and aesthetics. You should be comfortable handling multiple tasks with multiple ongoing deadlines and should have previous experience working on the digital collaboration tools that CfA uses, such as Slack, Google Drive, and Trello.

Responsibilities: Your daily responsibilities will include:

• Conceptualising and designing master curricula, in consultation with CfA programme teams and external domain experts, for modular, task-driven experiential courses that function as both self-directed e-learning and as in-person courseware of instructors.
• Developing courseware support materials, including facilitator guides and user-manuals; participant materials and exercises/assignments; and course handouts/toolkits.
• Repacking the master curriculum for offline/in-person presentation, including developing presentation slides (PowerPoint, etc) with instructor talking points/notes; class handouts and participant handbooks, etc.
• Cultivate and manage a pool of thematic experts that CfA can call upon to co-author courses and/or present flagship classes.
• Proactively measure user experience and participant trends/feedback to improve the quality and effectiveness of CfA courseware.
• Monitor overall usage/completion rates and trends for CfA’s online MOOC and other webinar-based learning programmes, to offer actionable insights to improve the effectiveness of CfA’s Academy programmes.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of the training courses
• Monitor trends in teaching practices, and explore and recommend new technologies that will enhance Knowledge’s training model
• Advise CfA’s trainers on the following aspects of the training content: accessibility, readability, potential for learner engagement and fit with learning objectives.
• Work with CfA’s engagement team to promote CfA training programmes including the MOOC site to the wider public and increase traffic and engagement on the site.

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.

How to apply:

Please complete this form by 30 August 2022. Applications shall be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Code for Africa is hiring! Check out our opportunities page.

At CfA, we don’t just accept differences — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. CfA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

• Produce designs to accompany CfA and partner content, as well as social media promotions
  and campaigns (examples from The Economist, Facebook/PesaCheck and Thomson Reuters Foundation).
• Produce gifs for social media promotions and campaigns (examples from The Economist, UN Women and NPR).
• Contribute designs and animations for social media videos (like these examples from the World Health Organisation and Viral Facts Africa).
• Maintain a reference list/database of competitors and benchmarks of quality.
• Develop a distinctive and world-class visual style to put CfA ahead of global partners.
• Support the development of coherent brand guidelines for CfA, our social media and platforms.
• Enforce a consistent, high visual standard across CfA comms platforms.

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, publishing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.

How to apply:

Please fill in this form by 30 August 2022. Applications shall be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Code for Africa is hiring! Check out our opportunities page.

At CfA, we don’t just accept differences — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. CfA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Please fill in this form by 30 August 2022. Applications shall be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Code for Africa is hiring! Check out our opportunities page.

At CfA, we don’t just accept differences — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. CfA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

PesaCheck is the continent’s largest indigenous fact-checking initiative, by geographic coverage, with teams in 12 African countries. It researches and debunks misinformation published both online and elsewhere in more traditional media, publishing over 2,000 fact-checks per year, in partnership with major platforms ranging from Facebook and TikTok, to traditional media. PesaCheck also tracks promises by public officials and shines a light on public finances to ensure the public is not misled. PesaCheck forms part of Code for Africa, Africa’s largest non-profit digital/data journalism initiative.

As Chief Copy Editor, you will build and supervise PesaCheck’s multilingual copy desk, managing a transnational team that sub-edits and polishes all fact-checks prior to publication. Your duties will include recruiting and nurturing a pan-African team of copy editors, and developing a robust editorial style guide. You will also be responsible for the day-to-day copyflow that detects defects in content and ensures factual accuracy/coherence and grammar/syntax consistency, while meeting deadlines and quality standards.

Candidates must have demonstrable experience managing a mainstream copy desk, with proven success working on editorial initiatives that consistently produce high-quality and impactful content on tight deadlines. The Chief Copy Editor’s primary international language will be English, with additional proficiency in Amharic, Arabic, French and/or Kiswahili being an advantage.

The successful candidate will work under the supervision of PesaCheck’s Managing Editor, work closely with a team of copy editors and translators and will liaise closely with the News Editor.

Required: minimum requirements include

• Excellent journalistic copy-editing and proofreading skills to ensure factual accuracy/coherence and grammar/syntax consistency.
• Experience in managing a copydesk and team in a mainstream multimedia environment, where content is packaged for publication in a wide variety of formats.
• Demonstrable understanding of technical editorial production systems and CMS tools, involving multi-stage copy-editing processes.
• A track record for copy flow management that sticks to editorial deadlines and quality standards.
• Experience in coordinating digital multimedia content (such as infographics or social media collateral) as an element of copy-edited reportage.
• Experience in creating or refining editorial guidelines, style guides and playbooks that set the tone, voice and standards for storytelling.
• Passion for mentoring young talent and growing new voices.
• Strong organisational and decision-making skills, with the ability to coordinate multiple tasks and projects simultaneously, while meeting deadlines and maintaining standards.

Preferred: characteristics that will give you an additional competitive advantage

• At least 3 years experience in a managerial/leadership role on a fast-paced multilingual and transnational copy desk in mainstream digital media, such as international news agencies/wire services or digital first media platforms.
• Experience in working with cross-platform data-driven journalism or other multimedia storytelling.
• A keen eye for data visual storytelling techniques, including experience in integrating social video and interactive infographics into story packages.
• An understanding of social media storytelling techniques, and editing guidelines, with insights into the strengths/differences of different platforms, including ‘dark social’ channels.
• A track record for using copy-editing to actively and formally mentor/train award-winning digital storytellers.
• Experience in using digital collaboration tools, including Slack, Google Workplace, and Trello to manage editorial workflows, alongside more traditional editorial CMS platforms.
• Proven ability at working effectively in virtual or distributed newsrooms, coordinating multicultural and multilingual writers, editors, and other project teams across different time zones.

Language and Location Requirements

• Location: East Africa or anywhere else in Africa
• Languages: English
• Preferred, but not required: French or KiSwahili , plus major African languages such as Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Dioula or Fula

About the Role:

The Chief Copy Editor will manage PesaCheck’s copydesk and specialist translators. You will work closely with the editorial team, and occasionally collaborate with other team members in each of the countries where PesaCheck operates in order to verify claims from a variety of sources. The content produced will be published on pesacheck.org, and will also be syndicated with various media partners.

You will be working to hold public figures accountable and ensure that the media is accurate in its reporting and coverage of issues of public interest. This will require a familiarity with social media as a source of news, as well as a familiarity with news and media consumption patterns in your country. You will also need to have solid news judgement, and a deep knowledge of the media landscape in your country of specialisation and in Africa in general.

The copy desk will apply a five-step copy editing process to all content to ensure factual accuracy/coherence, legal compliance/fairness, context, grammar/syntax consistency and adherence to PesaCheck’s editorial style/standard guidelines. The Chief Copy Editor will be responsible for ensuring that copy flow management sticks to agreed deadlines and quality standards, that journalists respond promptly to requests for clarity or corrections on draft content, and that multimedia materials (such as infographics) are commissioned timeously. The Chief Copy Editor will also ensure that feedback to journalists and/or designers is framed as constructive guidance, to help ensure that teams progressively improve the standard of raw content produced by partner newsrooms. This will include custodianship of a PesaCheck style guide, and convening regular ‘brownbag’ skills webinars to improve and standardise editorial quality.

The copy desk will receive support from CfA’s in-house data/design teams, as well as technical support programmes.

Responsibilities: Your daily responsibilities will include

• Recruit and manage a core team of highly skilled copy editors, that transforms raw journalism into award-winning multimedia storytelling.
• Manage a centralised news diary/schedule, in consultation with the Managing Editor, that governs copy flow with clear production milestones and that delivers content for publication on deadline.
• Implement a rigorous proofreading/quality control editing system, that ensures factual accuracy/coherence, legal compliance/fairness, context, grammar/syntax consistency and adherence to PesaCheck’s editorial style/standard guidelines.
• Design and curate PesaCheck’s editorial style/standard guidelines, including tipsheets or learning resources for journalists and other content producers to incrementally improve the quality of their raw reportage.
• Provide regular constructive feedback, guidance, and mentoring for both copy editors and journalists, to nurture and grow new talent.

What We Offer:

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, writing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.

How to apply:

Please fill in this form by no later than 30 August 2022

Code for Africa is hiring! Check out our opportunities page.

At CfA, we don’t just accept differences — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products and our community. CfA is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

To all recruitment agencies: CfA does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employment application line, CfA employees or any other CfA contact. CfA is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.