Program Associate (Operations, Innovation) at One Acre Fund

Background

• 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 training to improve harvests. We measure our success by our ability to make farmers more prosperous: On average, farmers increase profits by 50 percent on the activities we support.
• We are growing quickly. We serve more than 950,000 farm families in Eastern and Southern Africa, with more than 7,500 full-time staff, and we aim to serve 1,250,000 farm families in 2020.

The Roles

• One Acre Fund is growing quickly, and we plan to at least triple our farmer impact in the next five years. This offers Program Associates a powerful career opportunity: learn from a successful field operation, contribute to aggressive growth, and make improvements to our program.
• We are looking for Program Associates for a variety of teams within One Acre Fund, including:

Operations:

• Our country operation teams face the classic management challenge: how to keep a large country operation growing at 30-60% per year while also making improvements to our operating model. Program Associates learn from our organization’s deep knowledge on scaling rural field programs; then, they are challenged to find new ways to stretch, grow faster, and increase our quality of service.
• Field operations staff focus on farmer-facing services. Staff help to develop and manage performance of 500-3,000 field staff. Some roles are more general; others specialize in important moments like new site expansion, enrollment, and repayment.
• Support operations staff create the infrastructure for growth. These teams might operate and improve our deliveries to thousands of drop sites; enable mobile money integration in a country; or improve the flow of tens of millions of SMS and phone calls with farmers.

Innovations:

• Our Innovation teams discover new ideas for our programs and conduct dozens of trials to test these ideas.
• Product Innovations staff improve our core agricultural products or run new experiments in energy and health products. For example, our Product Innovations team is investigating delivery of live chickens and preparing the product for full-scale roll out.
• Program Design staff improve our core operating model. They test program model changes and analyze the resulting impact on customer satisfaction. Changes can include small shifts such as changing our loan structure, to more radical shifts like opening physical shops.

Daily, all roles involve a mix of activities:

• Understanding and solving problems: observing field operations, meeting with leaders of our field staff , running surveys, conducting desk research, analyzing performance indicators, etc. Then creating simple and lasting solutions to complex problems.
• Planning and executing large projects: identifying clear goals, creating project calendars, designing workflows, creating field tools and talking points, designing incentive systems, building buy-in across hundreds of staff, following up and monitoring project execution in the field, etc.
• Building teams: hiring staff using One Acre Fund’s unique “experiential hiring” system, mentoring deputies, and steadily handing off responsibility to your team as you build it.
• Communicating with other teams: working together with One Acre Fund’s other teams on the ground to provide a smooth customer experience in the simplest way possible.
• One Acre Fund has deep operational experience running rural field programs at scale. Program Associates benefit from the large size and experience of One Acre Fund, building skills through immersion in our operating environment. At the same time, Program Associates also serve on a small team-within-a-team, with autonomy to deliver results and improve operations.

Career Growth:

• You may report to a Program Manager (in larger operations) or the Country Director (in our smallest program countries). 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 mentors 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 can help shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

• We are looking for exceptional professionals with 2 to 5+ years of work experience, and a demonstrated long-term passion for our mission.

Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work.
• A willingness to commit to living in rural areas of East Africa for at least two years.
• Language: English required in all locations. French required for Burundi placement. Other notable and useful languages are Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Chichewa, Amharic.

Job Conditions and Benefits
Preferred Start Date:

• Flexible. We hire for all roles on a rolling basis and don't make a hire until we find the right fit.

Job Location:

• Kakamega, Kenya; Rubengera, Rwanda; Muramvya, Burundi; Zomba, Malawi; Kabwe, Zambia; Iringa, Tanzania; Minna, Nigeria; Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Compensation and Benefits:

• Based on experience
• Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Sponsor International Candidates:

• Yes; East and Southern Africans strongly encouraged to apply.