Agroforestry Innovations Associate at One Acre Fund

About the Role

• One Acre Fund is home to Africa's largest agroforestry programs, serving over 2 million farmers, providing more than 100 million seedlings per year, and engaging a network of over 2,500 rural nurseries run by local entrepreneurs. We see these programs as part of the solution to three key challenges facing smallholder farmers - poverty, climate change, and biodiversity loss. 
• As an Agroforestry Innovations Associate, you will strengthen and improve these programs with new approaches to generate positive change for farm families and the environment. 
• You will work on a variety of complex challenges, including strengthening our supply of quality tree seed, improving training and management tools for nursery managers, and diversifying our species offerings.
• The Agroforestry Innovations Associate will be part of our dedicated international agroforestry team and will support ten embedded agroforestry teams—one in each country program. 
• This role will report to the Agroforestry Director.

Responsibilities
Scope, pilot, and scale new investments to improve program impact and reach.  Example initiatives could include:

• Developing solutions to improve seedling survival rates 
• Building planning solutions to better support nursery managers
• Researching and trialing sustainable socket alternatives
• Implement improvements to tree seed supply systems
• Supporting tree tracking systems at the farm level
• Conducting site<>species matching research (field and desk) to expand species diversity
• Provide short-term direct support to agroforestry operations in cases where team bandwidth isn’t adequate.  This could be in the form of high-touch operational support or even a short-term secondment.

Qualifications
Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for, For this role specifically, you will have:
Experience in Agroforestry and Landscape Restoration:

• University or advanced Degree in Agroforestry, Ecology, Restoration, or related fields
• 3+ years of leadership and demonstrated results in agroforestry, restoration, or related domains in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Familiarity with biodiversity projects or nature-based carbon projects is an additional advantage.

External Relationships:

• Exceptional written and verbal communication to engage a range of audiences, including rural farmers, internal staff, external partners, and organizational leadership
• History of collaboration with primary actors in the forestry and landscape restoration sectors, including implementers, technical resources, and policy-makers
• Experience launching new programs or building successful partnerships.

Management Skills:

• Experience coordinating complex and scalable programs
• Penchant for data-driven decision-making with structured analysis and fact-based recommendations.

Other:

• Willingness to travel within the region at least 25% of the time
• English Fluency. Other preferred languages include Swahili, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Chichewa, Amharic, or French.

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.