CRM and Digital Systems Manager

About Global Schools Forum  

Global Schools Forum (GSF) is a collaborative community, innovation accelerator, and partnership builder for non-state organisations working to improve education at scale for underserved children in low- and middle-income countries. 

Since our establishment in 2017, we’ve grown our community to over 162 organisations spanning over 64 countries, collectively running or supporting over 1.35m schools and centres and providing education to well over 122 million children. Our members are standalone schools; a diverse set of school networks working within or across countries; or organisations providing core support services to non-state schools. 

Our work currently covers three core areas:  

Growing a global, interconnected learning community. We are continuously expanding our community of mission-aligned, non-state organisations across Asia, Africa, and South America. We provide opportunities for our community of leaders to collaborate and learn from each other, as they confront shared operational and pedagogical challenges. Based on the needs and challenges of the community, we curate an annual programme of events and communities of practice.   

  
Testing promising approaches and diffusing evidence. We fund and support education entrepreneurs to develop, test and scale promising education approaches. We generate and share evidence on ‘what works’ in education and what makes organisations more effective.   

Partnering strategically to shape policy and scale solutions. We enable our community to engage in the strengthening of education systems by engaging in global policy processes, and with support in forging partnerships with other organisations, funders, and policymakers.   

We are a small, fully-remote global team with colleagues based in the UK Africa and Asia, reflecting the communities in which we work. 

Our values guide everything we do as a team, as a global community and in our engagements with partners, funders and the global education community: 

• Collaboration: We leverage each other's strengths and knowledge to drive and amplify purpose driven collective action. 

• Intentional Inclusivity: We cultivate and celebrate diversity of backgrounds, culture, perspectives, and approaches promoting inclusivity and mutual respect. 

• Continuous Improvement: We commit to continuously learning, improving, and innovating, while sharing best practices and failures. 

• Honesty and Transparency: We conduct ourselves with integrity, openness, accountability and kindness. 

CRM and Digital Systems Manager 

Role Purpose 

GSF is an ambitious global education organisation with a fully remote global team. We have evolved fast since we were founded in 2017 and spun out as a fully independent organisation in 2021. 

Now entering our next phase of development, we are looking for someone passionate about developing effective systems, processes and ways of working for a remote-first team that will support us in taking in our delivery and impact to the next level.  

As an integral member of a growing entrepreneurial team no task will be too big or small. You will be the primary owner of GSF digital systems, working independently and in collaboration with colleagues across the whole team, to develop, embed and maintain systems, processes and technologies that support the smooth running and growth of GSF.  

A key role will be to roll out and embed several key phases of our new CRM and integrations, and to own, maintain, continually develop, and train colleagues in the use of it over time. You will be creating, reviewing and updating workflows and ways of working to ensure smooth collaboration within and between teams. You will ensure digital systems across GSF are fit for purpose. You will work across the team to spot and propose solutions to IT and software issues, working alongside our outsourced IT provider, Penelope.  

Key Responsibilities 

CRM and project management systems 

• Project managing the development, customisation and roll out of phase 2 of our CRM system and associated integrations, working closely with external consultants and colleagues across the GSF team. 

• Conducting detailed scoping with team members to ensure functional requirements are captured and can be met.  

• Customising the system to meet the needs of the GSF team, and working with external suppliers where necessary for more complex requirements.  

• Ensuring the system is structured effectively for data management, workflow automation and reporting in line with the scoped requirements.  

• Leading the user acceptance testing within the team for each new element of the system.  

• Maintaining and continually improving the CRM system and any integrations, ensuring the evolving needs of the GSF team are met.  

• Becoming the internal owner, and champion of the CRM and integrated digital systems. Training and supporting the GSF team to ensure adoption and effective use across all functions. 

Operational Process Development & Improvement 

• Working across GSF teams to map, streamline and document key processes and workflows for use by the current team and to onboard new joiners. 

• Creating SOPS, how to guides, videos and training as relevant to ensure workflows are understood and implemented consistently across GSF. 

• Supporting with the development of operational policies and standards, including ensuring effective dissemination and implementation. 

Digital product management  

• Managing relationship, contract and costs with external IT service providers (Penelope) and working with them to maintain GSF hardware and software suite (MS 365 based), subscriptions, and usage.  

• Maximising the use of the MS 365 ecosystem and Power Automate to streamline workflows and integrating products as relevant within the CRM using Zapier or similar.  

• Owning and maintaining GSF’s document management system (MS SharePoint) and managing internal and external access architecture, permission levels, naming conventions, retention and archiving guidelines. 

• Researching, testing and implementing new software and systems as appropriate to meet the evolving needs of the GSF team. 

Data Protection  

• Acting as the data protection officer for GSF and leading on ensuring GDPR compliance across the organisation.  

• Ensuring all data protection policies and practices are up to date, fit for purpose and being effectively implemented across the GSF team. 

• Working with Penelope to ensure cyber security and data protection advice are implemented effectively across GSF and that software, systems and the team’s usage of them are compliant with relevant data protection legislation. 

Training & implementation  

• Onboarding and offboarding GSF team members to all digital systems and supporting with ongoing training for team members as needed. 

• Providing training and guidance to the GSF team on effective use of the systems and technology in place and maintaining an up to date GSF IT guide. 

• Being the first point of call for team IT issues and questions and working closely with Penelope to resolve them short term and implement changes as necessary to avoid them for the future. 

Additional responsibilities 

• Additional responsibilities as may be required as part of a small dynamic team 

Requirements

Is this you? 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience  

• Product management  – You'll have experience as the primary organisational owner of CRM, project management, workflow automation and/or other digital systems.  

• Process mapping and improvement – You'll be skilled at working across teams to identify, streamline and document operational processes.  

• Project management - You’ll have strong planning and time management skills with the ability to effectively manage multiple priorities and stakeholders to meet deadlines. 

• System adoption – You'll have experience in training colleagues on IT systems and driving adoption of new tools across an organisation. 

• Systems optimisation - You’ll be skilled in use of the Microsoft 365 suite and other digital tools and of supporting colleagues to leverage their capacities over time to better meet organisational needs. 

• Data management – You'll have experience with data management including in structuring data effectively for reporting, analysis and decision-making. 

• Communication and relationship management - You’ll have excellent written and oral communication skills, and solid experience building and maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders. 

• Remote working – You will understand the opportunities and challenges of working in a fully remote team, managing digital collaboration and optimising asynchronous workflows across time zones. 

Attitudes and Behaviours 

• Proactivity and problem-solving – You’ll be a self-starter, able to work independently and showing initiative in identifying areas for improvement and implementing solutions. 

• Attention-to-detail - You’ll be someone who prides yourself on getting the details right, with experience of managing high-volume workloads, without compromising on quality and accuracy. 

• Collaborative team player – You value others’ ideas, skills, perspectives and contributions and work actively to share ideas and support with colleagues . 

• Flexibility - You’ll be comfortable working in a young, rapidly changing organisation. You’ll be quick to adapt to changes in priorities and tasks, adjusting to new ways of working across teams. 

• Pragmatic and practical  - You are passionate about solving real business needs rather than using technology for technology’s sake. 

•  Honesty and transparency – you share information and updates in a clear and transparent way, when things are going to plan and when they aren’t.  

• Commitment to continuous improvement – you are committed to actively developing and sharing your knowledge and skills, to seeking and applying feedback and to sharing feedback with others.   

• Intentionally inclusive – You are committed to understanding, respecting and collaborating with colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels.  

• Passion and motivation - You’ll be passionate about education and making a difference, with a strong work ethic and willingness to get stuck in.

Terms and Conditions 

Salary: Competitive within UK not for profit sector, adjusted based on location and experience. 

Contract: 18 months fixed term with possibility of permanence on completion (funding dependant)  
Hours: Full Time, typically 9-5 in your time zone but with significant flexibility. Given that we work across different time zones, some non-traditional hours for early or late calls may be required. 

Location: We are a fully remote organisation. We are open to hiring in the UK where we are headquartered or in the global south where we operate, with a preference for a time zone between GMT-2 to GMT+5:30. Some international travel may be required. 

Local work authorisation is required in your place of residence. 

Responsible to: Operations Director. 

Start Date: We would like the successful candidate to start as soon as possible, subject to any notice periods. 

Benefits

• 35 fully flexible holiday days (including flexible bank holidays) 

• Flexible working - work from home or at a location that suits you and at the times that work best for you 

• Co-working space budget 

• Personal learning and development budget 

• Access to GSF events  

• Access to Learning Platform iHasco 

• Annual team retreat 

• Employee pension scheme  

 How to Apply  

Application deadline: 9am GMT, Monday 10th Mar 

Interview Dates:  

1st interview w/c 17th Mar 

2nd Interview w/c 31st Mar 

• In order to apply for this role, we ask all candidates to provide a CV, and a cover letter and to apply through the job portal link here  https://apply.workable.com/j/CC3C4A29E7/?utm_medium=social_share_link 

• Please include the following in the cover letter: 

- What excites you about GSF as an organisation and about this role in particular?

- Using a STAR structure give an example of a time you met an organisational challenge through introduction of a new digital platform, or expanding the use of an existing one. 

- What would you do in this role that would really make an impact? 

- Where did you first hear about this opportunity? 
 

Please note - we will not consider applications unless they include a CV, and a cover letter that responds to the points above and have been submitted through our Workable application portal.  

If you have any questions about the application process or the role, please contact us at info@globalschoolsforum.org (recruiters will be politely turned away). 

If you apply, we will process your personal data for recruitment purposes only and in accordance with our Data Privacy Policy. 

GSF is committed to cultivating a fair and inclusive workplace, where everyone can be themselves and thrive. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of race, age, disability, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or faith. 

If this role isnʼt quite right for you but you like the idea of working at GSF, please submit your CV to stay in our talent pool and be the first to hear about new opportunities in future  GSF Workable