Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, Technical Business Analyst
About the portfolio organization
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator is a not-for-profit social enterprise building African solutions for the global challenge of youth unemployment. We work in South Africa and Rwanda with many partners who are committed to results that can work at scale – including government, the private sector, civil society, and almost 3.4 million youth.
Harambee is an anchor partner in a breakthrough platform called SA Youth. It is part of the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention – a coordinated strategic national plan, announced by President Ramaphosa in his 2020 SONA, that sets out priority actions to address the youth unemployment challenge in South Africa by creating opportunities for young people at scale.
SA Youth brings together many partners to create a single national network to allow young people to access a wide selection of earning and learning opportunities, and for opportunity holders to access young, engaged work-seekers – for free!
Our staff complement of over 400 motivated people continues to work both on-site and remotely in a fluid and vibrant environment to tackle the challenges of a country where over 50% of young people are unemployed.
Winner of the 2019 Skoll Award and 2019 Conscious Companies Award
About the Fellowship role
Harambee’s Product team is looking to expand its analytical capacity with a technical business analyst who is equally comfortable in a SQL database and a product roadmap session. The role will cover projects focused on developing and implementing AI and machine learning solutions on our platform.
Location: Hybrid - South Africa - Ideally Johannesburg or Cape Town but open to other areas
Employment: Full-time, one-year Fellowship
Starting Date: June/July 2026
Key responsibilities
- Assist stakeholders across the organisation in defining & refining needs, homing in on and clarifying the problems that they are trying to solve.
- Facilitate cross-team problem solving to refine solution designs
- Perform deep dive analysis. Write complex SQL queries to extract data from multiple sources to create context and validate and test solution designs.
- Translate analysis and solutions into development ready specifications including, but not limited to, user stories, functional specifications, process & data flows.
- Build a deep understanding of the business & product to identify dependencies, assumptions & risks.
- Work with relevant stakeholders to manage & maintain the product roadmap.
- Assist both internal & external stakeholders in understanding & adopting solutions
Requirements
Experience and education
- Strong analytical problem-solving ability
- Undergraduate Bachelors degree in Information Systems, Statistics or Computer Science
- Minimum of 5+ years' experience as a technical Business Analyst, Data Product Owner or Data Analyst
- Proficient in writing complex SQL queries (e.g., CTEs, window functions, and joins) to extract insights from relational databases.
- Proven ability to conduct independent data analysis and perform root-cause analysis by tracing data lineage across various systems.
- Prior experience with development teams building platforms using Agile, SCRUM, Kanban or similar methodologies
Advantageous
- Google BigQuery experience
- Prior experience on implementing machine learning or AI into systems or a strong interest in working on these types of projects.
- A strong grasp of probability, hypothesis testing, and exploratory data analysis (EDA).
- A Post-Graduate certification in Data Science, Statistics, or a related quantitative field
Competencies:
- Continuous Learning: Open, motivated, and proactive in seeking learning and development opportunities.
- Alignment with Vision and Values: Demonstrates understanding and adherence to Harambee's vision and values in decision-making and actions.
- Innovation: Generates novel solutions and approaches to work challenges at Harambee.
- Effective Communication: Delivers clear and impactful communication tailored to various audiences, utilizing multiple formats and tools.
- Influential Leadership: Motivates and mobilizes teams to deliver their best performance aligned with Harambee's objectives.
- Business Acumen: Understands Harambee's business and marketplace to define optimal solutions for clients.
- Accountability: Takes responsibility for actions, decisions, and deliverables, fostering a culture of accountability.
- Tenacity: Demonstrates enthusiasm and urgency, striving for excellence in achieving results and overcoming challenges.
Must Haves:
- South African National
- Proficient in English (spoken and written)
