Assistant Director, Operations - Center for Entrepreneurship

• Lead the Center’s operating systems, workflows, and standard operating procedures to ensure strong coordination and follow-through.
• Run the Center’s weekly and monthly execution rhythm, including updates, action tracking, deadline management, and cross-unit follow-up.
• Maintain a central project and priority management system with clear ownership, timelines, and escalation pathways.
• Consolidate updates from unit leads, Faculty Partners, and key workstreams to support planning, review, and leadership decision-making.
• Identify execution risks early and intervene to prevent slippage across major priorities, deliverables, and institutional commitments.

• Budget Oversight and Financial Administration

• Oversee budget tracking across grants, donor lines, and operational funding streams, ensuring visibility, accuracy, and timely intervention where needed.
• Monitor spend-downs, burn rates, restricted lines, variances, and grant timelines, and flag risks with practical recommendations.
• Coordinate reimbursements, invoices, honoraria, stipends, consultant payments, founder disbursements, and other transactions in line with donor and institutional requirements.
• Prepare budget summaries, spend analyses, and financial inputs for Center leadership, Board reporting, donor reporting, and internal planning.
• Work closely with Finance, Procurement, and relevant university offices to ensure compliant and timely financial execution.

• Maintain the Center’s master tracker for grant deliverables, reporting deadlines, operational commitments, and institutional obligations.
• Own the reporting calendar and ensure donor and institutional submissions are complete, accurate, and on time.
• Strengthen documentation, evidence capture, filing discipline, and internal accountability systems to support reporting quality and audit readiness.
• Ensure that operational records, approvals, reconciliations, and supporting materials are maintained in a way that supports continuity and institutional memory.
• Work with the M&E function, Programs, and Communications to ensure operational inputs to reports are timely, accurate, and usable.

• Oversee travel planning and coordination for staff, facilitators, partners, and external guests, including itineraries, bookings, visas, briefing materials, and reconciliation.
• Lead operational planning for major Center events, partner visits, strategic engagements, and senior stakeholder interactions.
• Coordinate operational processes related to hiring, onboarding, contracts, consultant engagement, and partner administration.
• Oversee the readiness and maintenance of the Center’s physical and administrative environment, including space use, equipment, procurement, supplies, and scheduling.
• Liaise with HR, Finance, Procurement, IT, Facilities, and other university departments to resolve issues, maintain compliance, and keep execution moving.

• Serve as the Center’s lead on operational coordination and execution discipline.
• Represent the Center on operational matters in internal meetings and cross-department coordination forums when required.
• Make sound operational decisions within delegated authority and escalate higher-level issues with clear options and recommendations.
• Supervise relevant operations and support staff, ensuring accountability, responsiveness, and quality of execution.
• Maintain continuity across reporting cycles, program transitions, staff handovers, and priority shifts so that the Center does not lose momentum or institutional memory.

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, operations management, public administration, management, or a related field.
• At least 5–7 years of progressively responsible experience in operations, administration, program management, grant management, or institutional coordination.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex budgets and supporting compliance-heavy, grant-funded, or multi-stakeholder work.
• Strong project management capability, including the ability to coordinate moving parts across teams and keep execution on track.
• Strong written communication skills, including the ability to prepare concise reports, leadership briefs, and operational summaries.
• Strong judgment, discretion, and ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment with incomplete information.
• High proficiency in productivity, reporting, and project management tools.
• Demonstrated ability to follow through, manage risk, and maintain credibility under pressure.
• Experience in a university-based center, nonprofit, entrepreneurship support organisation, or innovation ecosystem is a plus.

Ashesi University