Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund supplies smallholder farmers with the agricultural services they need to make their farms more productive. We provide quality farm supplies on credit, delivered within walking distance of farmers’ homes, and agricultural trainings to improve harvests. We measure our success by our ability to make farmers more prosperous: On average, farmers harvest 50 percent more food after working with One Acre Fund. We serve more than 800,000 farm families in Eastern and Southern Africa, with more than 7,500 full-time staff, and we aim to serve 1 million farm families by 2020.
We are recruiting to fill the position below:
Job Title: Human Resources Specialist
Locations: Minna and Abuja
Duration: Full-time job.
Preferred Start Date: 1st October, 2019.
Open to: National applicants only
Career Level: Early to mid-career professionals
Job Responsibilities
- As the Human Resources Specialist, you will report to the Pilot Manager. You will establish the groundwork for the growth, sustainability, and professional development of our team as it grows. You will set up essential human resources policies, oversee staff payroll and benefits, and support the program’s recruiting and onboarding. Specific responsibilities include:
- HR Policies, Payroll & Benefits: As a pilot for a global organization, the team in Nigeria has made due with the minimal context-specific HR policies. One of your main roles will be to integrate Nigeria’s context with global processes to professional the standards and support of our team!
- Staff Development: Once you have familiarized yourself with how One Acre Fund invests in its team- from mentorship, to bi-annual reviews, to development plans, to hard & soft skills development- you will ensure managers and staff meet the minimum requirements while maximizing development opportunities.
- Onboarding: The faster new team members become comfortable with their surroundings, the sooner they can turn their attention to making an impact in the lives of our clients. You will oversee and improve on the reception and onboarding process, building new staffs’ experience from accepting the role until their first biannual review
- Hiring: As a pilot, our staffing needs right now are small. But by 2021, we may need to double or even triple our team! Between now and then, you can establish great hiring processes to ensure the program can meet those targets. You will inform current hiring processes and test approaches to hire better, faster.
- Recruitment: As One Acre Fund is relatively new in Nigeria, you will build recruitment nodes, networks, and policies to support current recruitment efforts, while laying the foundations for accelerated growth in the coming years. You will manage relationships with the global recruitment team & recruiting firms to short-list top candidates, while working with pilot leadership to determine staffing strategies 2020+.
Qualifications
- Excellent interpersonal skills, collaborative, and interested in building a team with different backgrounds
- Willing to see a problem, find a solution, and make it happen; experience working in a startup or new market environment desired
- +5 years of professional work experience OR an undergraduate degree and 2+ years of professional work experience in Human Resources, Recruitment in Nigeria
- Written & verbal fluency in English required; written & verbal fluency in Hausa desired
- Thoughtful understanding of the employment and labor laws of Nigeria
- Maintain complex spreadsheets on Excel and familiarity with Google Suite/Microsoft 365
Career Growth and Development:
- We have a culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months. You will help shape the growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.
Sponsor International Candidates:
- No; must have existing rights to work in Nigeria.
Compensation
- Consistent with experience
Benefits:
- NHIS Health insurance, 25 days paid leave, 7 days paid sick leave, Relocation allowance, part-time housing in Minna
Application Closing Date
Not Specified.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
Job Title: Nigeria Country Lead
Location: Niger
Duration: Full-time job.
Preferred Start Date: 13th January, 2020
Team: New Country Expansion
Location Type: Field
Career Level: Early to mid-career professionals
About the Job
- The Pilot Manager reports to the Director of Expansion and oversees strategy for the pilot program on its path from 1,200 farmers in 2020 to +10,000 farmers in 2023.
- To reach this goal, you will guide an impassioned team of motivated professionals to understand and meet farmer demand, and create meaningful impact.
- You excel in a start-up environment and handle evolving situations well, while developing the capacity of your team for future challenges; all while looking for new ways to improve the lives of Nigerian subsistence farmers.
Your Roles and Responsibilities
Lead the pilot – You will oversee strategy and lead the pilot program, guiding its pursuit of a scalable model:
- Determine the pilot’s strategy in Niger State and set the long-term vision for One Acre Fund in Nigeria.
- Bottom-up planning to set program goals and track the metrics necessary to meet them
- Experiment with products, services, and tech-based innovations to maximize the impact our products have on farmers’ lives
Manage relationships – Manage external relations with federal and local government, and important partners:
- Collaborate with global One Acre Fund teams for support and information sharing
- Build relationships with external partners and government entities for future collaboration
- Represent One Acre Fund Nigeria to external organizations
Build the team – Invest in a diverse and inclusive team of proficient professionals who can bring about transformative change to the lives of our customers, by adapting the One Acre Fund model to the Nigerian context:
- Oversee the recruitment, onboarding, performance management and growth of the Nigeria Pilot team
- Directly manage 4-6 Associate-level team leaders
- Influence the culture of the program as it grows from 35 team members to +100
Qualifications
- Committed to the mission of eradicating food insecurity across Nigeria
- Willing to get your shoes muddy and work productively alongside anyone, from farmers to technical subject experts
- Use data to guide decisions and improve execution
- Experience collaborating across diverse teams and time-zones
- 6+ years of professional work experience in Nigeria, with experience leading diverse teams
- Experience in agri-business, new market unit, or a start-up environment in rural markets preferred
- Top-performing undergraduate background required; Master’s Degree in Business Administration, International Development, Logistics or Supply Chain Management, Human Resource Management, or related fields preferred
- High proficiency with Google Suites, including Microsoft Excel (can perform complex functions)
- Fluency in English essential, fluency in Hausa preferred
Professional Development
- One Acre Fund has a culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people.
- You will have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals.
- You will directly shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.
Compensation
- Starts modest. However, this is a career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary for long-term placement in our organization.
Benefits:
- Health insurance, 5 weeks paid leave and 7 days paid sick leave, relocation and housing compensation
Sponsor International Candidates:
- Yes – Nigerian candidates strongly encouraged to apply.
Application Closing Date
14th December, 2019.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
Job Title: Program Design Associate
Location: Jinja, Uganda
Duration: Full-time job
Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible
Team: Field Operations
Job Description
The first half of your job is to ensure our farmers understand our wide set of products, and are changing their behaviours accordingly through highly impactful trainings. You work closely with:
- Our M&E team to understand how we can maximize impact from existing products and behaviours and you update and innovate on our training content accordingly.
- Our Product Innovations team to maximize impact from new products, services and practices
- Our Field Operations team, who ultimately deliver all the content you are creating, to ensure strong understanding and buy in behind our products, services and impact strategy.
- Success in your role is measured by our ability to optimize each season’s impact and thereby hit our impact targets.
The second half of your job is to help build our field-facing strategies, setting our Field Team up for success:
- Work with Operations (Field Operations and Systems) to develop practical solutions to field challenges
- Design and build the enrollment and repayment strategies for our field team and transform them into understandable training elements for our FIeld Leaders and Field Officers
- As part of the Steering Committee for Uganda, help to build the long-term country programme direction and strategy
- Undertake post-mortems at the end of each major programme phase and develop action-focused recommendations for future programme improvements
- Manage the field team calendar and seasonal activities, support in price setting and product selection.
- Sit on the impact working group
- Success in these areas will be measured through Field Team performance, specifically repayment of our credit portfolio and hitting growth metrics such as overall farmer numbers.
Responsibilities
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Creating, monitoring, executing and adjusting (if needed) an Annual Impact Strategy:
- You will work with the Impact Lead, and in close collaboration with PI, M&E, Field Ops and our Systems Teams to create/update and present an outstanding Impact Strategy every season.
- In addition to help creating the annual Impact Strategy, you also own the creation of an execution plan to ensure that this strategy is effectively implemented. This includes coordination of key stakeholders who may be implementing certain aspects of the strategy.
- Once launched, you are responsible for monitoring how this strategy plays out in field and if needed adjust and respond to challenges and opportunities as they unfold
Optimizing our Impact Training Portfolio/Farmer Training Uptake/Retention:
- As we are growing our product portfolio and our program is becoming more complex and tackling a wider range of challenges such as income diversification, soil health, nutrition, etc. you will need to explore new and innovative ways of delivering training content and/or techniques for better knowledge retention
- We expect you to frequently spend a lot of time in the field with our farmers and with the field team to understand what works and what does not so that you constantly re-iterate and improve our techniques for behaviour change.
- Lastly, it’s critical that you operate through the formal processes set up by the Field Team to ensure the right content goes out at the right time – in each and every district
Protecting our Farmers from External Impact Threats:
- To minimize the time spent on responding to unforeseen impact threats, you will:
- Work with our global/in country team to prevent/prepare our farmers for the biggest impact threat.
- Work across our Field and Systems team to ensure we have the systems/protocols build out to respond to risks with minimal disruptions
- Keep a close eye on our Client Engagement database and foster ongoing dialogue with Field Leaders to pick up challenges as early as possible.
- In the event of unforeseen challenges, you will help:
- Prioritize the response: Deprioritize and carefully weigh the cost of the response against the risk. You quickly and systematically quantify an impact risk and advise if/how we respond
- Coordinate/optimize the response: Your leadership skills here could range from ‘only’ securing agronomic advice from experts and ensuring Field Ops update next week’s meeting agenda to rapidly aligning the organization behind a seed swap
- Learning for the future: Ensure that lessons learned reach the team that can proactively prevent the risk in the future
Planning Field Activities:
- Building out detailed process and plans for each seasonal activity.
- Monitoring and trading off activities for the field team where needed to prioritise tasks at the appropriate time.
- Coordinating between different departments to feed into field based actions
Team Management:
- You manage the Programme Design team. You will be responsible for their professional development, performance, efficiency and team culture in accordance with One Acre Fund management principles and expectations.
Career Growth and Development:
- We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance.
- We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals.
- You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.
Qualifications
We are seeking one exceptional professional with 5+ year(s) of work experience and ideally a demonstrated passion for our mission. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:
- Strong educational background; degrees in Rural Development, Agronomy, or research in rural environments preferred.
- 5+ years of relevant work experience which includes qualitative and quantitative research on smallholder agriculture, with an emphasis on behavior change and adoption of improved technologies (products or practices), preferably including some work around agroforestry.
- Experience of working in Extension Services, or implementing development programmes in rural locations preferred.
- Demonstrated leadership experience at work, or outside of work, enthusiasm for learning, and openness to feedback.
- Ability to build teams and collaborate with colleagues from diverse backgrounds.
- Language: English required. Luganda and/or Lusoga strongly desired.
- Prior experience with research and extension project design and management, ideally including participatory methods, on-farm trials, surveys and focus groups
- Strong interpersonal skills to effectively collaborate and coordinate work across multiple teams
- Ability to easily explain complex technical concepts in plain language
- Strong ability to stay organized to simultaneously manage the complexity of our products, regions, calendars, effectively prioritising to meet short- and long-term deadlines
- Analytical ability to effectively identify and prioritize impact opportunities
- Passion for collaborating with and training others, with strong experience in contributing to capacity building and professional development of colleagues and direct reports
- Humility. We have a fantastic and likeable team. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service.
- We place a lot of value on the ability to proactively respond to open and frank feedback in order to grow as individuals and a team as well as constructively and respectfully give feedback
Compensation
- Commensurate with experience
Benefits
- Health insurance, paid time off
Sponsor International Candidates:
- Yes.Uganda country nationals / East Africans are strongly encouraged to apply.
Application Closing Date
11th January, 2020
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates sould:
Click here to apply online
Job Title: Program Design Associate
Location: Jinja, Uganda
Duration: Full-time job
Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible
Team: Field Operations
Job Description
The first half of your job is to ensure our farmers understand our wide set of products, and are changing their behaviours accordingly through highly impactful trainings. You work closely with:
- Our M&E team to understand how we can maximize impact from existing products and behaviours and you update and innovate on our training content accordingly.
- Our Product Innovations team to maximize impact from new products, services and practices
- Our Field Operations team, who ultimately deliver all the content you are creating, to ensure strong understanding and buy in behind our products, services and impact strategy.
- Success in your role is measured by our ability to optimize each season’s impact and thereby hit our impact targets.
The second half of your job is to help build our field-facing strategies, setting our Field Team up for success:
- Work with Operations (Field Operations and Systems) to develop practical solutions to field challenges
- Design and build the enrollment and repayment strategies for our field team and transform them into understandable training elements for our FIeld Leaders and Field Officers
- As part of the Steering Committee for Uganda, help to build the long-term country programme direction and strategy
- Undertake post-mortems at the end of each major programme phase and develop action-focused recommendations for future programme improvements
- Manage the field team calendar and seasonal activities, support in price setting and product selection.
- Sit on the impact working group
- Success in these areas will be measured through Field Team performance, specifically repayment of our credit portfolio and hitting growth metrics such as overall farmer numbers.
Responsibilities
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Creating, monitoring, executing and adjusting (if needed) an Annual Impact Strategy:
- You will work with the Impact Lead, and in close collaboration with PI, M&E, Field Ops and our Systems Teams to create/update and present an outstanding Impact Strategy every season.
- In addition to help creating the annual Impact Strategy, you also own the creation of an execution plan to ensure that this strategy is effectively implemented. This includes coordination of key stakeholders who may be implementing certain aspects of the strategy.
- Once launched, you are responsible for monitoring how this strategy plays out in field and if needed adjust and respond to challenges and opportunities as they unfold
Optimizing our Impact Training Portfolio/Farmer Training Uptake/Retention:
- As we are growing our product portfolio and our program is becoming more complex and tackling a wider range of challenges such as income diversification, soil health, nutrition, etc. you will need to explore new and innovative ways of delivering training content and/or techniques for better knowledge retention
- We expect you to frequently spend a lot of time in the field with our farmers and with the field team to understand what works and what does not so that you constantly re-iterate and improve our techniques for behaviour change.
- Lastly, it’s critical that you operate through the formal processes set up by the Field Team to ensure the right content goes out at the right time – in each and every district
Protecting our Farmers from External Impact Threats:
- To minimize the time spent on responding to unforeseen impact threats, you will:
- Work with our global/in country team to prevent/prepare our farmers for the biggest impact threat.
- Work across our Field and Systems team to ensure we have the systems/protocols build out to respond to risks with minimal disruptions
- Keep a close eye on our Client Engagement database and foster ongoing dialogue with Field Leaders to pick up challenges as early as possible.
- In the event of unforeseen challenges, you will help:
- Prioritize the response: Deprioritize and carefully weigh the cost of the response against the risk. You quickly and systematically quantify an impact risk and advise if/how we respond
- Coordinate/optimize the response: Your leadership skills here could range from ‘only’ securing agronomic advice from experts and ensuring Field Ops update next week’s meeting agenda to rapidly aligning the organization behind a seed swap
- Learning for the future: Ensure that lessons learned reach the team that can proactively prevent the risk in the future
Planning Field Activities:
- Building out detailed process and plans for each seasonal activity.
- Monitoring and trading off activities for the field team where needed to prioritise tasks at the appropriate time.
- Coordinating between different departments to feed into field based actions
Team Management:
- You manage the Programme Design team. You will be responsible for their professional development, performance, efficiency and team culture in accordance with One Acre Fund management principles and expectations.
Career Growth and Development:
- We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance.
- We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals.
- You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.
Qualifications
We are seeking one exceptional professional with 5+ year(s) of work experience and ideally a demonstrated passion for our mission. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:
- Strong educational background; degrees in Rural Development, Agronomy, or research in rural environments preferred.
- 5+ years of relevant work experience which includes qualitative and quantitative research on smallholder agriculture, with an emphasis on behavior change and adoption of improved technologies (products or practices), preferably including some work around agroforestry.
- Experience of working in Extension Services, or implementing development programmes in rural locations preferred.
- Demonstrated leadership experience at work, or outside of work, enthusiasm for learning, and openness to feedback.
- Ability to build teams and collaborate with colleagues from diverse backgrounds.
- Language: English required. Luganda and/or Lusoga strongly desired.
- Prior experience with research and extension project design and management, ideally including participatory methods, on-farm trials, surveys and focus groups
- Strong interpersonal skills to effectively collaborate and coordinate work across multiple teams
- Ability to easily explain complex technical concepts in plain language
- Strong ability to stay organized to simultaneously manage the complexity of our products, regions, calendars, effectively prioritising to meet short- and long-term deadlines
- Analytical ability to effectively identify and prioritize impact opportunities
- Passion for collaborating with and training others, with strong experience in contributing to capacity building and professional development of colleagues and direct reports
- Humility. We have a fantastic and likeable team. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service.
- We place a lot of value on the ability to proactively respond to open and frank feedback in order to grow as individuals and a team as well as constructively and respectfully give feedback
Compensation
- Commensurate with experience
Benefits
- Health insurance, paid time off
Sponsor International Candidates:
- Yes.Uganda country nationals / East Africans are strongly encouraged to apply.
Application Closing Date
11th January, 2020
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates sould:
Click here to apply online
Job Title: Nigeria Impact Ventures Growth Lead
Location: Minna, Niger
Duration: Full-time job.
Team: Impact Ventures
Location Type: Field
Preferred Start Date: 1st October 2019
Career Level: Early to mid-career professionals
Job Description
- One Acre Fund’s Impact Ventures Department aims to build ultra-scalable new channels and business models that can grow to serve more than half a million farmers in just a few years. We have a diverse portfolio of investments, from large government partnerships, to short-term behavior change campaigns, to rural retail shops, to tree seedling nurseries. What they share is a commitment to impact millions of farm families while maintaining operations that are cost-neutral or highly financially efficient, in order to reach as many people as possible.
- We are seeking an exceptional individual to launch a new Impact Ventures program in Nigeria. Strong candidates would be setting up and managing an initial trial with the future expectation of scaling to become the lead for a region-wide / nation-wide venture in Nigeria.
Responsibilities
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- The Pilot Lead is responsible for the overall launch and leadership of the new pilot program and guiding its growth through:
- Management and leadership of the pilot field team to achieve those vision and goals
- Higher level strategy development AND detailed field execution
- Collaborating with other Global and Nigeria One Acre Fund teams
- The role is multi-faceted and suited to those who enjoy working under pressure with high levels of responsibility and building a program from the start.
Examples of the type of tasks required of the role are:
Project Management:
- Building out a detailed trial project plan including execution calendar
- Working with the Finance Department to build a financial model for the trial permutations
- Developing trial deliverables that support field execution in order to meet the trial objectives:
- Field facing strategies and tools (e.g. Key performance indicator tracker)
- Management tools (e.g. dashboards/reporting tools, meeting/training calendar)
- Team management tools (e.g. multi-year organization chart, Professional Development Curriculum)
Strategy:
- High-level trial design – Lead discussions on what questions to test through the trial, how to test it, and how the learning will impact longer term program design. Some key components for discussion include marketing strategy/tactics, pricing, and distribution of the product/service.
- Trial monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan and execution – work with the M&E team to design trials and data collection plans to effectively evaluate impact at trial conclusion
- Collaborate with internal teams – Work with other departments and global research teams to build programme solutions and innovations. Communicate updates and results to key stakeholders.
Operations:
- Spend significant time with the field teams in the field talking to our potential smallholder farmer clients in order to understand real time challenges
- Set up initial structures to support the pilot season – distribution plan, recruiting a team, ensuring government approval, sourcing agricultural inputs and other support vendors
- Identify opportunities to improve operations and program performance, through weekly tracking of Key Performance Indicators, and identifying / executing on process improvements
- Collaborate and manage relationships with key partners to execute the trial including external stakeholders such as seed companies, local distribution partners, government officials, etc.
- Plan and manage budgets – monitor current budgets and forecast budgets for expansion and other programme innovations.
Team Management:
- Build and manage a team – hire, develop and lead a team to effectively execute operations
- Invest heavily in the development of staff, including training, tailored development plans, and support to team morale.
- Design and execute for massive scale, by building systems for performance management of a large field team.
Pilot Growth:
- Based on a successful pilot year, there is a possibility for the person in this role to continue to build and grow this into a larger multi-year programme in subsequent years.
Career Growth and Development
- We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance.
- We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.
Qualifications and Experience
Specific qualifications include, but are not limited to:
- 4 to 6+ years of professional work experience in Nigeria with experience in mentorship and leadership of teams; entrepreneurial experience preferred (e.g. starting a new program or business unit, launching a new initiatives across a large field team, etc.)
- University degree required in Business Administration, International Development, Logistics or Supply Chain Management, Human Resource Management, or related fields.
- Functional flexibility – an entrepreneurial mindset and the ability to hit the ground running and start adding value quickly. Proven ability of creative problem-solving, successful implementation and execution of strategy based on field data and programmatic evidence.
- Geographic flexibility – at least in the first 12-18 months, the ability to relocate/travel will be important as One Acre Fund. This includes willingness to live outside capital cities, close to our customers, as this is where most of the work will be based.
- Fluency in English + Hausa required, knowledge of other languages spoken in Nigeria preferred
- High proficiency with computer skills particularly Microsoft Office
- Friendly personality, professional and proactive work attitude
- Humility; a willingness to get your shoes muddy and work productively with people from all walks of life; Ability to tackle any task, large or small, with professionalism and enthusiasm
- Seeking an exceptional individual with 4-6+ years of experience to set up and manage an initial Impact Ventures trial in Nigeria with the potential to become the lead for a region-wide / nation-wide venture.
Compensation
- Commensurate with experience
Benefits
- Health insurance, paid time off.
- Sponsor International Candidates
Application Closing Date
Not Specified.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
Note: Nigerian candidates are encouraged to apply.
Job Title: Government Relations Officer
Location: Minna, Niger
Duration: Full-time job.
Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible
Job Description
- One Acre Fund is a rapidly growing organization; increasing the number of clients we serve in each year and the number of countries in which we operate. One Acre Fund is seeking a Government Relations Officer (GRO) to be based in Minna, who will serve as the primary point of contact for the local Ministry of Agriculture and other government officials, traditional leaders and external stakeholders, helping to establish our program in Nigeria.
- This role will be reporting to the One Acre Fund’s Government Relations Analyst based in Abuja, as well as to the Nigeria Country Manager based in Minna. The successful applicant will demonstrate a strong understanding of local government structures, a strong work ethic, have an interest in agriculture, be prepared to travel regularly in Niger State and be a clear and effective communicator.
Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Engage stakeholders and local government officials of all levels with a view to deepening and broadening One Acre Fund’s local government network in Nigeria.
- Create project plans and budgets, and effectively manage concurrent projects
- Support the scoping, development and management of program partnerships, with support from manager.
- Produce communications materials to engage key contacts and keep them informed of our work, including quarterly reports, briefing notes and official written correspondence.
- Provide trainings to One Acre Fund staff on best practices for working with government officials, and other capacity building support, as needed.
- Track and manage risks and issues from local government affecting field operations.
- Track and manage One Acre Fund’s database of key contacts and interactions in Nigeria.
- Host key stakeholder events (e.g. field visits) and oversee participation in agricultural shows and other external events. Ensure proper government protocols are observed at all hosted events.
- Assist program expansion through relationship management with relevant authorities in new or targeted areas of operation.
- Track and (as needed) renew licenses and permits required for our operations.
- Research and analyze policies, regulations, programs and political developments relevant to field operations.
- Continually engage field leadership to remain informed of the latest developments with our program and trials, through:
- Regular attendance at FO/Field Leader Meetings
- Monthly meetings with Field Team and Innovations lead(s)
- Other duties, as assigned.
Qualifications
We are seeking professionals with a minimum two years work experience, some of which will have been in or with government institutions in Nigeria. They will demonstrate a long-term passion for agricultural development in Nigeria and be familiar with the challenges faced by smallholder farmers in Niger State. We are looking for extraordinary candidates that are organized and proactive; please only apply if you fit these criteria:
- Undergraduate degree from a recognized academic institution required. Candidates with graduate studies and degrees will be given additional consideration.
- Work experience in a demanding professional environment such as government, business or NGO.
- At least 1 year experience working in/with government or in community development roles
- At least 1 year experience managing government and/or stakeholder relationships
- Knowledge of sub-national Nigerian government and traditional structures is required.
- Must be a self-starter, capable of independent work, with strong adherence to deadlines
- Must be able to produce simple documents (emails, letters, etc.) and independently develop and use simple project tools and budgets
- Demonstrated computer skills in email, internet usage, and Microsoft Office
- Strong written and oral communication skills with good attention to detail
- A willingness to commit to living in Minna for a long-term position
- Leadership and management experience at work or outside of work
- Proven ability to set and meet targets
- Fluency in English and Hausa required.
- Passionate about serving smallholder farmers
Please highlight the following skills if you have them:
- Experience working in agriculture and/or rural development
- Experience managing events
- Background in dealing with government officials at local and national levels
- Capacity to produce neat and timely written work for internal and external audiences
- Ability to communicate across teams, coordinate meetings, and make recommendations
- Experience managing people
Application Closing Date
Not Specified.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online
Job Title: Agriculture Research Lead
Location: Zambia
Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible.
Job Descriptions
- The Agricultural Research Associate will focus on agriculture research from Desk Research to participatory farmer field trials.
- You will lead the process of trial identification, trial design, execution, analysis and interpretation of results, and recommendations for core program change and improvement.
- The Innovations Team is the driving force behind improving One Acre Fund’s programs, products, and services to farmers. The position will be based in Kabwe, Central Province Zambia. The Agricultural Research Associate will be on the Zambia Innovations Team, managed by the Innovations Lead.
Responsibilities
- Desk research: Conduct research and collaborate with other agriculture institutions in Zambia and elsewhere to inform Agricultural strategy.
- You will develop surveys, focus groups, semi-structured interview protocols and other farmer engagement strategies, and analyse data to discover and evaluate new trial ideas for improving impact along our 3 major impact categories: Farmer profit, Healthy soil, and Healthy families. Some current areas of focus are:
- Reduce the cost of growing maize for One Acre Fund Zambia farmers
- Move forward with trials and scale up of reduction of weeds pressure
- Develop a strategy to build soil fertility and structure for One Acre Fund Zambia farmers
- Best practices for designing crop storage trials
- Lead farmers’ preference tests for maize and other crops
- Design and support implementation of Research station trials
- Play a role in trial identification and design for all research station trials.
- Create impact models for each product or idea to be tested throughout trials
- Create crop management protocols and calendars for trials
- Support the research station team in managing trials and solving problems
- Design and support execution of participatory farmer field trials
- Prioritize trials, particularly through use of desk research and research station trials results
- Create planting protocols and calendars for trials
- Support the Impact field team in managing trials and solving problems
- Data audit and analysis
- Analysis and reporting
- Follow completion of trials, the Agriculture Research Manager will:
- Manage statistical analyses and interpret results
- Draft trial reports and make recommendations for next steps e.g. repeat trial, add treatments, scaling-up.
Career Growth and Development:
- We have a culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.
Qualification
- We are looking for someone with 2 or more years of experience and a passion for and knowledge of agricultural sciences and development. Candidates who fit the following criteria are encouraged to apply.
- Experience with agricultural research and application of findings, especially in smallholder tropical agriculture.
- Experience with trial management (research station and / or participatory farmer field trials)
- A formal educational background in the agricultural sciences or soil science. A Master is required.
- Relevant work experiences, which may include a demanding professional work experience, successful entrepreneurial experience, leading a conference, starting a business, etc.
- Project management skills, communication, and leadership experience.
- Data management and analysis skills. Experience with Excel (can perform complex functions) required; experience with R or Stata preferred.
- A willingness to commit to living in East Africa for at least two years.
- You have at least one year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.
- Language: English required.
Compensation
- Commensurate with experience.
Benefits:
- Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits
Sponsor International Candidates:
- Yes. Zambians are strongly encouraged to apply.
Application Closing Date
4th January, 2020.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online