Kenya Growth Lead

Job description

Our mission at Ello is simple and urgent: maximize the potential of every child, everywhere. We're building the world's first AI teacher to close that gap: one that listens, speaks, adapts, and inspires, just like the best human educators. Our first product, Read with Ello, is already helping tens of thousands of kids each week learn to read. It listens as they read aloud, offers support when they stumble, and generates magical, personalized stories. It works, and kids love it. Now, we're scaling that success into something even bigger: a complete AI teacher that can help children learn far beyond reading. Our new app combines language, speech, and memory to deliver interactive learning for kids worldwide – you can explore it at ello.com http://ello.com. We're moving fast: we ship weekly, test directly with kids, and push the boundaries of what's possible with AI in education. With the resources of the world's top investors and the heart of a public benefit corporation, we're here to revolutionize how children learn globally. Featured on TIME's Best Inventions and Fortune's Change the World, Ello is a small, mission-driven team taking on one of the most important challenges of our time: to democratize education. ABOUT THE ROLE Ello is growing in Kenya, and we're about to grow much faster. As Kenya Growth Lead, you will own our in-market growth strategy and execution, with the goal of helping hundreds of thousands of Kenyan kids learn with Ello. You'll lead content creation, organic social, and creator and influencer relationships, and develop the partnerships that help Kenyan families come to know and trust Ello. In this role you will not just execute on a playbook, but instead be shaping the playbook. You'll take what's already working, make it work better for Kenya, and decide where we go next. You will turn local insight into a clear growth roadmap, prioritize experiments, and measure what moves the needle at each stage of the funnel: user awareness, acquisition, engagement, and retention. You'll work closely with our growth and product teams in San Francisco, and collaborate with the rest of our Kenya team to keep growth grounded in what Kenyan families actually need. Because the teams work across time zones, this role requires real independence — you'll need to communicate decisions and results clearly, use data to support your recommendations, and move experiments forward with a high degree of autonomy. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own and evolve Ello's growth strategy in Kenya, building on what's already working - Set growth priorities and measurable targets; build a regular reporting cadence across the funnel, from awareness and acquisition through engagement and retention - Lead content creation and organic social: source and manage local creators and influencers whose creative consistently powers our best-performing campaigns - Identify and test new channels for building awareness and trust with Kenyan families - Build strategic partnerships that unlock new audiences — think discounted mobile data with telcos, device access programs, and government relationships - Manage our local agency and contractor relationships, and grow that bench as we scale - Collaborate closely with the rest of our Kenya team to keep growth grounded in real user insight and data - Help shape the growth playbook Ello will use as we expand to new markets KEY REQUIREMENTS - 5–7 years of experience in growth, marketing, or strategy roles - Strongly analytical and data-driven: you own your metrics, know them cold, and catch when they're wrong - Experience with or exposure to digital marketing, particularly ad campaigns across Meta and TikTok - Real fluency in social and content: you're genuinely active on social platforms, have sharp opinions about what works, and have managed creators or influencers - Entrepreneurial generalist: you're at your best when the strategy is yours to define and the walls are yours to run through - An AI-forward way of working: you actively use AI tools to move faster and do better work, and can show it - A proactive, structured communicator who thrives working across time zones and continents - Based in Nairobi, or willing to relocate NICE TO HAVE - Experience building and leading digital marketing campaigns. A track record of impressive digital marketing results — you can point to specific campaigns, channels, and numbers - Partnerships or business development experience — the sales-adjacent skill of opening doors and closing deals - Founder or early-stage startup experience - Experience marketing to parents and families, or in consumer apps or education in Kenya and East Africa WE LOOK FOR CANDIDATES WHO - Run through walls — when the obvious path is blocked, you find or make another one - Feel deep empathy for users and treat being their voice as a responsibility, not a slogan - Bring an experimental mindset: test, measure, learn, repeat - Communicate proactively and generously, especially when working independently - Care deeply about our mission of maximizing the potential of every child REASONS TO JOIN US - Own Ello's growth in an entire country — and help shape how we grow in new markets - Bring a free, world-class AI teacher to hundreds of thousands of Kenyan children — this is democratizing education in the most concrete way possible - Dive deep into the rapidly evolving world of AI and interactive learning - Do meaningful work supporting child development - Be part of a growing but tight-knit team, with a second home in our Nairobi office ABOUT ELLO Ello is a public benefit corporation on a mission to maximize the potential of all children. We're currently around ~50 people, headquartered in San Francisco with a second office in Nairobi, Kenya. Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, K-12 education, and child development across institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Google, Apple, and more. We were part of Y Combinator's W20 batch and are funded by world-class investors including Goodwater Capital, Homebrew, Reed Hastings, Common Sense Growth, Ravensburger, Project A Ventures, Reach Capital, Khosla Ventures, WndrCo, Visible Ventures, and K9 Ventures. We're a small, collaborative team that takes each other's voices very seriously. Because our mission is to support all children, it is critical that our team is representative of the communities we work in; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture. If you have questions about immigration, reach out to us at recruiting@ello.com. We feel enormously privileged to be building at this moment. Advances in AI have made it possible, for the first time, to imagine giving every child a truly personalized teacher. We don't take that opportunity for granted. We work with urgency because millions of children can't wait. We care deeply about craftsmanship because learning experiences should feel magical. And we believe it's possible to build ambitious technology while building a company where people do the best work of their careers. If that excites you, we'd love to meet you. At Ello, we view diversity as a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to directly assess skills and experience. If you need any accommodations throughout the interview process, please reach out to recruiting@ello.com. At Ello, diversity is a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to assess skills and experience directly. If you need accommodations throughout the interview process, please contact recruiting@ello.com.