Property Analyst and Facilities Associate

Nova Pioneer is looking for a passionate and superstar Property Analyst and Faclities Associate. This is an exciting opportunity to work in a hybrid environment (remote and in-person) and to help create a transformative brand with the future of Africa’s youth at stake. 

ABOUT NOVAPIONEER

Imagine a world in which every young person across Africa attends a school that truly sets them up for success in the 21st century. A school that cares about individual students and allows them to explore the world around them. A school that focuses more on developing skills than on memorizing content. At Nova Pioneer, we have done more than just imagine this future, we are bringing it to life. Nova Pioneer is a Pan-African, independent network of schools offering high quality, accessible education from pre-primary through secondary school. Nova Pioneer uses a unique, inquiry-based learning approach that encourages students to ask “why” instead of telling them the “what”. It allows them to form their own thinking through exploration, investigation, and collaboration. Nova Pioneer currently has 16 schools in South Africa and Kenya with a vision to launch 100 schools and reach tens of thousands of students across the African continent in the next decade. To learn more visit www.novapioneer.com. 

ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Property Analyst and Facilities Associate, you will play an instrumental role in driving Nova Pioneer’s productivity and path to profitability.  By doing so, you will advance our mission by increasing our resource base and helping optimise their allocation in service of that mission.  

You will do this by working closely and under the guidance and coaching of the MD of Property provisioning the analytical, implementation tracking, and other duties that are needed to lead that organisational change.   

The impact of the Property team will be evident in stakeholder satisfaction with facilities and the cost-effectiveness of those services. The impact of this role will be in measurable utilities and facilities cost saving and profit growth that results from cost savings and/or non-tuition revenue streams.  The analyst will need to support the clean data collection, management and reporting to support the above

Working at Nova means: 

• Fully embracing Nova’s values and beliefs and promoting them to students, teammates and parents.

• Living the culture principles inside and outside of the school. 

• Working cohesively in a team, being respectful of each person’s contributions and style. 

• Maintaining positive, constructive and professional relationships with students, their families, and teammates. 

• Adapting to change frequently and embracing the gift of feedback

How will your day to day at Nova look like? 

General data analytics support includes:

• Design processes and systems for gathering (e.g. dashboards), analysing and reporting utilities cost saving across schools, functions and regions.
• Build and maintain strong information databases, systems and analytic tools (e.g. Business intelligence tools) across various organisational functions.
• Create high quality professional and easily digestible reports and be able to tailor these to a specific audience.
• Build in best practice for various analytics, making sure to maintain data integrity, confidentiality, security (by tracking access privileges) and quality.
• Update various management tracking dashboards monthly as needed.
• Analyse business cases for various initiatives intended to enhance profitability.
• To generate, interpret and analyze trends or patterns on data collected using statistical techniques and provide ongoing reports. .
• Conduct and run the critical surveys that feed into the organisation’s performance data dashboards
• Any other duty as may be assigned to you by your Manager.

Organisational performance management responsibilities include:

• Create, maintain and update business performance & business intelligence reports that integrate financial and operational data
• Conduct analyses using organisational performance data to identify opportunities for organisational performance improvement.  This includes trend analysis, variance analysis vs target,  internal and external productivity ratio benchmarking, and possibly other analyses.
• Track and report on the implementation of actions agreed as part of the organisation leadership team’s organisation performance reviews
• Any other duty may be assigned to you by your Manager.

Profitability improvement responsibilities include:

• Work with the MD Property to identify and assess possible cost improvement and non-tuition revenue generation opportunities
• Support the MD PropCo in assessing and build the business case for the opportunity 
• Support relevant stakeholders in receiving and internalizing the necessary data to implement initiatives
• Support the effective tracking and analysis of initiative implementation 
• Support the effective tracking and analysis of profitability impact achievement 
• Any other duty may be assigned to you by your Manager.

ABOUT YOU 

Skills and Qualifications required:

• Bachelor's degree or Diploma in analytical science, business, mathematics, real estate and property management or statistics field is  required.
• At least 2 years experience in a fast-paced, data/systems analytics role or in business intelligence reporting.
• You have excellent verbal and written communication skills both in one-on-one settings and digitally.
• You are able to build strong relationships with those who you provide data pieces to.
• You strive for excellence in yourself and in others, and hold high expectations for all people.
• You are detail-oriented, goal-focused and a team player who is excited about organisational culture and is committed to deepening culture within the team.
• You possess a high analytical ability, able to review / assess / make recommendations as a result of analysis.
• You are flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances, evolving requests and are naturally someone who is a strong problem-solver.
• You are able to prioritise quickly and sensibly
• You are hypothesis driven, and able to test and revise those hypotheses to drive insight and direction
• You are an eager and quick learner, and possess a growth mindset 
• You deal well with ambiguity, holding a Solutions First (one of Nova Pioneer’s culture principles!) mindset when coming across something you don’t immediately understand.
• You are highly proficient in Microsoft office applications and / Google Workspace Applications (required) and may have some prior statistical coding experience in e.g., R or Python (advantageous) and can work with business intelligence tools such as Power BI and other key data sourcing and collection tools such as surveys software and APIs
• You are resilient and diligent to follow through with set targets and goals
• You have grit and you are willing to bring your best self everyday to work
• You are self disciplined and do not require micro managing to get the job done
• Our culture resonates deeply with your values- and in particular, you are excited to challenge yourself by taking risks and getting more feedback than you've ever gotten before.

HOW TO APPLY

Does working at Nova Pioneer excite you? If so, then apply now! 

To apply, please complete the form on the right-hand side of this page. We cannot process applications that are emailed to us.

Please note: Where a copy of your resume is required, you are encouraged to attach your resume in PDF format to protect formatting.

All applications will be reviewed and applicants notified of next steps. There are a series of stages in the Nova Pioneer interview process and candidates will be moved forward in the process depending on their success in the previous stage. The process is as follows:

1. Phone interview: a short conversation to understand your skills and experience a little better.

2. Practical demonstration of what you can do: you will complete a written task or a demonstration related to the role you are applying for. Teachers participate in a half-day selection day at one of our campuses as well as deliver a lesson to a class.

3. In-person interviews: at this point, you will visit one of our schools to meet the team and participate in a series of in-person interviews.

4. Final interview: you’ll have a final conversation with the hiring manager before decisions are made.

N.B: Should you not receive feedback from Nova Pioneer within 30 days after you have submitted your application, kindly consider your application unsuccessful.

WORKING AT NOVAPIONEER

Nova Pioneer is a place where our people experience tremendous growth, fast! We invest heavily in the growth of our people because it leads to greater mastery in both us and our students. “Novaneers” work harder and work longer hours than most schools but as a result, the growth they experience is extraordinary. We offer consistent and ongoing personal development and provide clear career pathways that ensure that our people are always achieving their personal and professional best. Nova Pioneer has a highly energetic, entrepreneurial environment where our people get to bring their creative and innovative ideas to life. We look for people who are flexible and who are able to adapt and respond quickly to adversity with a positive, can-do attitude (there are no problems, only solutions!). We welcome challenges and roll with the punches because it makes us, and our students, better. There is no problem too big for us! We bring infectious energy and enthusiasm to everything we do because joy fuels our work and learning. Read more about our culture principles here.

Nova Pioneer will never request an application fee from candidates. If you are contacted with a request to pay a fee from someone claiming to be a Nova Pioneer Talent or Recruitment representative, please do not pay them and report it to us immediately on talent.ke@novapioneer.com or talent.sa@novapioneer.com.