Talent Agency Manager

Seedstars
Seedstars is a global investment holding with headquarters in Switzerland, 15 offices and a presence in 80+ emerging markets. We are on a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The group is organised around two key activities; 1) talent incubation and 2) VC investing. We incubate talent and high growth ventures through a series of programs from idea stage to early growth stage. We are currently building a platform of funds to be positioned as a key early-stage emerging market VC.

SAFEEM
SAFEEM is a non-profit organisation that supports and empowers entrepreneurs in emerging markets and works in close collaboration with Seedstars on many projects around the globe. As the consortium lead, SAFEEM will serve as the main point of contact to MCC and will ensure alignment and coordination with the consortium partners, as well as implement and foster learning mechanisms throughout the project. 

Seedstars Talents 

Seedstars Talents’ mission is to support top talents from emerging markets to get access to and acquire 21st-century skills to help them shape their career in a meaningful way. The Talents team partners with development organisations, governments, investors and higher-education institutions on finding and providing solutions to mitigate skill imbalances by bridging labor market skill shortage gaps through its core activities:

• Academy - Equipping the education sector with gamified tech and entrepreneurial EdTech platforms and science-backed innovative pedagogies. 
• Talent Agency - Discovering and preparing Academy talents and landing them in meaningful professional opportunities.

DigiFemmes

The DigiFemmes Program is a holistic technical assistance program to enhance the capacity of women in Côte d’Ivoire to run and grow successful businesses by participating in the digital economy. The DigiFemmes Academy component is a two-year program which aims to create a new generation of women equipped with valuable skills in tech and entrepreneurship through a combination of an 18-months full stack developer training followed by a 6-month venture building incubation program.

The DigiFemmes Academy combines 1) the use of gamified tech platforms that guide the learners through a series of challenges that support them in acquiring skills, 2)  an innovative, yet proven pedagogical approach to skill training that heavily relies on peer-to-peer learning. 

The opportunity 

We are seeking a highly motivated, self-starting entrepreneurial Talent Agency Manager to join our DigiFemmes Academy team and provide a full range of placement activities. The Talent Manager will be responsible for developing a talent agency from the early stages; they will set up processes, manage and monitor the portfolio of talents locally, and ensure the success of the to-be graduates.

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Responsibilities
Talent Management 

• Prepare learners for market entry (build professional social media presence, CV building support, interview best-practices, etc). 
• Perform learner assessments and skills gap analysis to assess placement suitability.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to the Academy learners to support their career growth and development.
• Support the future graduates with compensation negotiations.
• Actively place the future graduates in meaningful positions. 

Community

• Organise an annual job fair and career events.
• Coordinate workshops on campus for potential employers to come and speak to future graduates. 
• Design marketing campaigns and perform outreach to engage employers  to facilitate linkages between learners and opportunities.

Analysis & Insights 

• Use data and feedback to assess the effectiveness of opportunities, and clearly communicate with reports, slides, and visualizations to diverse groups.
• Develop and maintain accurate records and reporting on the talent agency's performance, including financial reports and KPIs.
• Use data to monitor and assess the effectiveness of graduates' progress and make data-driven recommendations for improvement.

Your profile

• Your competencies 
  • Fluent French with a working proficiency in English. 
  • Passion for problem solving, new challenges, and taking action to create value.
  • Operational excellence with strong attention to detail.
  • Extremely polished and straightforward communication –written and spoken– with different levels of stakeholders.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
  • Thrives under time timelines and high pressure environments.
• Your Experience 
  • At least 3 years in talent placement, staff augmentation, vocational or occupational integration, or devshop management.
  • Experience supporting startup & entrepreneurial programs.
  • Experience working in diverse cultural environments.
  • You are comfortable in using Google Workspace and have experience working with Slack, Zoom, Notion, and Airtable.
• Nice to have 
  • You are either a local entrepreneur or innovation enthusiast.
  • You are an active member in your startup community. 
  • Knowledgeable about the startup ecosystem in your country or region.

 Why our employees love working with us:

• We are on a mission which is bigger than all of us: to impact people’s lives in emerging markets.
• You get many growth opportunities and responsibilities early on.
• You work in an entrepreneurial culture where you’re surrounded by a vibrant and diverse team.
• We offer autonomy and flexibility with a flat hierarchy and a strong belief that responsible people should have the freedom to do their work when and how they want.
• We were awarded as one of the most democratic workplaces in the world due to our freedom-centred practices.

We are an equal opportunity employer with a diverse mix of nationalities and backgrounds represented in our company. We truly value diversity and believe that the cultural landscape of our organisation should reflect the types of work that we engage in and the places that we do it. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status and strongly encourage applicants from historically underrepresented groups to apply to all of our roles at Seedstars and SAFEEM.