How to apply for Chief Academics and Innovation Officer

About Rising Academies

Rising Academies runs affordable schools and provides curriculum and teacher-support technology to improve learning outcomes in West Africa. It started in Sierra Leone in 2014 and now supports more than 400,000 students across 1,400 public schools in West and East Africa. Seven randomized controlled trials found that students in Rising-supported schools learned 2.4x faster per year than peers in comparable schools.

About the role

The chief academics and innovation officer leads the academic model and the innovation pipeline for a fast-growing education organization. The job sits at the intersection of structured curriculum, teacher coaching, and real-time data. The work directly affects how 400,000+ students learn across government school systems in West and East Africa.

A typical day

A typical day may include reviewing curriculum and coaching materials with academic leads, checking learning data from supported schools, and meeting government partners or internal teams across West and East Africa. The role also spends time on innovation work, such as testing new academic tools or interpreting trial results. The exact daily routine is not described in the posting, so ask the hiring team how the academic and innovation work is split week to week.

Who Rising Academies is looking for

• Has led academic or curriculum design at scale, ideally across multiple countries or large school networks in low- or middle-income contexts.
• Understands how to build structured curriculum, teacher coaching systems, and data feedback loops that work in government schools, not just private or pilot settings.
• Can manage innovation from idea to proof, including running or interpreting randomized controlled trials and translating findings into program design.
• Is comfortable working remotely with teams across West and East Africa and with government partners, and can adapt support levels to different country contexts.

Tips for this application

• In your first paragraph, name Rising Academies' model (structured curriculum, ongoing coaching, real-time data) and state how your experience maps to at least two of those three parts.
• Cite the 2.4x learning gain from the seven randomized controlled trials and explain how you would protect or extend that result in your academic leadership.
• Give one concrete example of curriculum or teacher-support work you scaled through a government system, including the number of schools or students reached.
• Address the remote nature of the role directly: describe how you have led academic teams across countries and time zones and how you run data reviews remotely.
• Since the job description is cut off, apply only after you have the full responsibilities and required qualifications from Rising Academies' careers page or the recruiter; do not guess at the scope.

What to cover in your cover letter

Focus on your track record scaling academic programs through government systems, not private schools. Explain how you combine structured curriculum, teacher coaching, and real-time data into one coherent model. Show evidence of using randomized controlled trials or other rigorous evidence to change program design. State how you would adapt Rising Academies' support model to different country contexts in West and East Africa.

Research before applying

• Read the seven randomized controlled trials behind the 2.4x learning gain claim and note which interventions drove the results.
• Study Rising Academies' current footprint: 400,000+ students, 1,400 public schools, and the specific West and East African countries where it operates.
• Look at how Rising Academies describes its level of support in each context and what it means to work with and through government systems.
• Find the full job description and required qualifications, since the posting text above is incomplete, and check the Certified B Corp® commitments.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How would you adapt Rising Academies' structured curriculum, coaching, and data model to a new country or government partner?
• Walk through a time you used evidence from an evaluation or trial to change an academic program, and what the result was.
• How do you keep curriculum quality high when scaling from hundreds to thousands of public schools?
• How would you lead an innovation pipeline while protecting the core academic model that already produces 2.4x learning gains?
• How do you manage academic teams and government relationships when working remotely across West and East Africa?

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying with a generic academic leadership cover letter that does not mention Rising Academies' curriculum, coaching, or data model.
• Claiming scale experience without specific numbers of schools, students, or countries reached.
• Ignoring the government-system context and describing only private school or edtech startup experience, which does not match how Rising Academies works.