Managing Director South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa Full Time Executive Leadership

Nova Pioneer is looking for an outstanding Managing Director to lead our South Africa network of nine schools, our talented senior team, and a mission we have spent more than a decade building. This is the most senior role in the South African organisation and one of the most consequential leadership roles across Nova Pioneer globally. It offers a rare chance to lead at scale, shape a thriving network, and work alongside ambitious leaders as part of an international organisation with a growing footprint across multiple countries.

The Managing Director of South Africa is the chief executive of the Nova Pioneer SA network. The MD is responsible for Nova Pioneer's commercial performance, educational excellence and cultural health across our South African network of nine schools (and growing!). The MD leads an exceptional senior team of educators and operators to achieve those outcomes in pursuit of our mission: to develop innovators and leaders for the African Century.

Over the next 3 years, the MD's first mandate will be enrolment growth and market leadership. The MD, with the support of the CEO, is charged with getting a network of genuinely strong schools to the enrolment density, operational efficiency, and reputational distinctiveness their quality deserves, while ensuring we consistently deliver the Nova Pioneer educational promise with excellence. The right person for this role is inspired by the mission, excited by the commercial opportunity and a strong team and culture leader. They understand that profitability and educational excellence are not in tension; one enables the other.

• Consistently role model and actively reinforce Nova Pioneer's culture principles across all schools and central functions. Ensure culture is lived, not stated, by embedding expectations into daily leadership behaviours, decision making, and team norms.
• Build, lead, and develop a high performing regional leadership team (School Leaders and Functional Leads). Ensure clarity of roles, strong accountability, and alignment to regional and organisational priorities.
• Partner closely with the Director of Schools (DOS) to ensure consistent, high quality performance management of School Leaders and instructional leadership teams.
• Drive strong staff retention through proactive engagement, development, and performance based recognition. Build and maintain a robust talent pipeline across teaching and leadership roles, ensuring succession readiness for critical positions and alignment to regional growth plans.
• Continuously strengthen and evolve culture in response to organisational growth and regional context, while protecting the core identity of Nova Pioneer. Lead initiatives that reinforce key culture themes and ensure they are embedded in schools and teams.
• Oversee systems to regularly assess cultural health across all schools and functions (e.g., engagement surveys, retention data, performance insights, qualitative feedback). Identify risks early and lead targeted interventions to address gaps and sustain a high performance, values aligned environment.

• Financial performance ownership across all nine schools in South Africa.
• EBITDA improvement through enrolment growth, cost discipline, operational efficiency, and delivering sustained profit growth.
• Budget preparation, management and financial reporting to the CEO, CFO and the board.
• Capex allocation decisions within agreed parameters.
• Facilities oversight: scheduling efficiency, usage maximisation, and capital appeal; lease matters supported by CFO, CEO, and Facilities Manager.

• Network wide enrolment strategy and execution.
• Retention of existing families by identifying risk early and responding effectively.
• New family acquisition by positioning, marketing, admissions pipeline.
• Pricing strategy in partnership with CEO.
• Community positioning and brand in the SA market.
• Parent engagement as a driver of family retention and new referrals.

• Accountability for student outcomes across the network in partnership with the South Africa DOS and with educational leaders from our Kenyan and/or global teams.
• Ensuring commercial focus does not compromise educational integrity.
• Supporting the instructional and curriculum leadership layer to thrive.
• Championing (including resource allocation) the delivery of our promise, and particularly market leadership in Innovation & Leadership, and developing beyond classroom opportunities.

• Parent community trust and confidence.
• Government and regulatory relationships and deliverables.
• Landlord and property relationships.
• Community partnerships.

• Annual and multi year SA strategy in partnership with the CEO.
• School level growth plans and capex needs.
• Input into network wide decisions affecting SA.
• Network expansion planning (site feasibility, location assessment, and growth viability for new schools).

• Senior leadership in a multi site commercial operation (school networks, retail, hospitality, healthcare, or similar people intensive business with multiple locations).
• Direct income statement and capex expenditure ownership and accountability at a country or regional level.
• Demonstrated enrolment or revenue growth in a competitive market.
• Experience leading in the South African context (regulatory environment, labour law, community dynamics) is an advantage but not a requirement.
• Education sector experience is an advantage but not a requirement; genuine respect for educational mission is non negotiable.

• Commercial sharpness: reads financial data fluently, makes decisions from evidence, holds teams accountable to numbers without losing the human dimension.
• Relational intelligence: builds trust quickly with diverse stakeholders including educators, parents, landlords, and government.
• Emotional intelligence: leads with self awareness and empathy, managing a complex organisation without losing the human dimension.
• Presence and communication: credible and warm in a room, able to hold difficult conversations without losing relationship.
• Operational discipline: sets up sustainable and scalable systems and rhythms that work without needing constant personal intervention.
• Strategic clarity: can hold the long view while managing day to day complexity.
• Change leadership: has led teams through uncertainty and kept morale and performance intact.

• Excited by the mission and impact.
• Comfortable with complexity and ambiguity.
• Names problems early and directly and holds difficult conversations without letting discomfort delay them.
• Open to learning; genuinely curious about what it takes to run great schools and lead in the South African context.
• Leads teams to find and implement solutions to problems with a strong bias for action. Good work done today beats a perfect concept for tomorrow.
• High standards for self and others.
• Culturally attuned to the SA context and the specific communities Nova Pioneer serves.
• A stable and grounding presence for a team.
• Aligns strongly with and models Nova Pioneer's culture principles.
• Balances the humility to listen and learn from the team with the confidence to lead from the front.

• Reports to: Chief Executive Officer.
• Direct reports: Directors of Schools SA, Functional Leads in SA.

Competitive for a senior country MD role in the South African independent education market. Details available during the selection process.

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 or .