Application Guide
How to Apply for Head of East Asia Labour Mobility and Venture Builder
at Africa Jobs Fund
🏢 About Africa Jobs Fund
Africa Jobs Fund is a mission-driven investment fund that backs ventures in export manufacturing and international labor mobility to boost incomes for Africans. It stands out for its hands-on venture-building approach, directly sourcing founders and structuring deals to create jobs. Working here means shaping a new asset class at the intersection of migration, workforce development, and impact investing.
About This Role
As Head of East Asia Labour Mobility and Venture Builder, you will identify and unlock labor corridors from Africa to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China, then build and fund companies that place African workers in skilled jobs. You will recruit founders, assess investment opportunities, structure deals, and support portfolio companies from formation to scale. This role is pivotal in creating a repeatable model for ethical labor migration that increases incomes and reduces irregular migration.
💡 A Day in the Life
Your day might start with a call with a recruiter in Kenya to discuss bottlenecks in placing welders to South Korea, followed by a deep-dive with a potential founder on their business plan for a nurse training and placement company targeting Japan. In the afternoon, you'd structure a revenue-based financing deal for a mobility startup, then hop on a call with a portfolio company in Taiwan to troubleshoot a visa processing delay. You'd end by updating your pipeline of corridors and drafting an investment memo.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Africa Jobs Fund Is Looking For
- Founder or senior operator with full P&L accountability, ideally in labor mobility, recruitment, or workforce solutions across Africa and Asia.
- Deep network and on-the-ground experience in at least one African country and one East Asian country (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or China), with understanding of government labor schemes and employer needs.
- Strong investment acumen: can assess ventures, build cost-effectiveness models, and structure equity, revenue-based financing, or hybrid deals.
- Persuasive relationship-builder who can recruit exceptional founders and operators, and work hands-on with portfolio companies to overcome bottlenecks.
📝 Tips for Applying to Africa Jobs Fund
Highlight specific labor corridors you have experience with, including volumes, sectors, and outcomes (e.g., 'Placed 500 nurses from Kenya to Japan under EPA').
Quantify your P&L responsibility and operational achievements—e.g., revenue growth, cost savings, or number of workers placed—to demonstrate you can build and scale ventures.
Show your understanding of Africa Jobs Fund's model by referencing their focus on export manufacturing and labor mobility, and how you would apply venture-building to East Asia corridors.
Demonstrate existing relationships with recruiters, employers, or government officials in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or China; name specific schemes like Japan's Specified Skilled Worker program.
Explain why you are excited about the venture-building aspect, not just investing, and give examples of how you've sourced or supported founders in the past.
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
['Your firsthand experience in building or scaling a labor mobility business, including navigating regulations and employer relationships in East Asia.', 'A concrete example of a corridor you identified and developed, from opportunity mapping to deal structuring and operational execution.', 'Your ability to recruit and persuade top founders, with a track record of attracting talent to early-stage ventures.', "Alignment with Africa Jobs Fund's mission to increase African incomes through ethical labor migration, and your vision for scalable impact in the region."]
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Review Africa Jobs Fund's website, portfolio, and any published reports to understand their investment thesis, typical deal sizes, and impact metrics.
- → Research the latest government labor migration policies in Japan (e.g., Specified Skilled Worker), South Korea (Employment Permit System), Taiwan, and China, including quotas and sector focuses.
- → Map out key recruiters, training providers, and employers in at least two African countries and two East Asian countries that are active in labor mobility.
- → Look into competitors or similar funds (e.g., other impact investors in labor mobility) to understand the landscape and how Africa Jobs Fund differentiates.
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Focusing only on investment analysis without demonstrating operational experience in building or scaling a labor mobility business.
- Ignoring the venture-building aspect and presenting yourself as a pure investor; this role requires hands-on company formation and founder support.
- Lacking specificity about East Asian labor markets—avoid generic statements about 'Asia' without naming countries, schemes, or sectors you know well.
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!
Ready to Apply?
Good luck with your application to Africa Jobs Fund!