Country Launch Manager at Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD)

Start Date: As soon as possible

Job Description

• We are looking for a driven, creative and independent person to join a high-performing, flexible team as a Country Launch Manager to start PAD’s new operations in Nigeria
• You will work in a non-hierarchical team and have opportunities to work closely with PAD’s global leadership, other PAD country teams, and affiliated researchers, and substantially contribute to a new PAD program that tests new ideas, measures their impacts, and scales them up.
• The role of the Country Launch Manager is to lead the initial development and launch of PAD's program and operation in Nigeria. We expect that over time as our country operation grows and assuming strong performance, the role will evolve into a member of PAD's Nigeria country leadership.
• Depending on the candidate's strengths and the needs of the program over time, the role could evolve into leadership of functions like partnerships, research, programs, product, or operations, or into a Deputy Country Director or Country Director.

Responsibilities

• The Country Launch Manager will be responsible to launch and manage PAD’s new operations in Nigeria
• In order to facilitate a steady stream of programmatic, research, and product development opportunities, the successful applicant will also actively contribute to fundraising, funder reporting, and research dissemination.
• The Country Launch Manager will report to the Africa Regional Director and will work closely with other relevant Program Leads and Global Directors, and various research affiliates
• The position will be located in Abuja, Nigeria and will temporarily be a work-from-home position due to the current COVID-19 pandemic
• When it is safe to do so, this position will be based from PAD’s office in Abuja, Nigeria and will require frequent travel to field locations in Nigeria
• PAD is a start-up organization and will require flexibility from all staff with regards to roles and responsibilities.

The Country Launch Manager will be responsible for the following main tasks:

• Supervise the launch and implementation of PAD’s new mobile agricultural advisory services in Nigeria, including developing partnerships with governments and other organizations, securing any relevant regulatory approvals, designing and improving new digital products and services, acquiring users, developing advisory content, developing protocols for monitoring digital platforms, ensuring rigorous testing and piloting of our platforms, collecting feedback from the platform users, and planning the development of new features;
• Develop and maintain close relationships with key Government institutions;
• Develop and or contribute to an evidence-based impact strategy, identifying scalable opportunities to increase the profits of Nigerian farmers using mobile phone-based information services;
• Lead or support the team to develop and rapidly iterate our products and services for the Nigerian market. Pair product development approaches such as human centered design, rapid prototyping, and testing minimum viable products with rigorous quantitative research. We don't require that you be an expert in these approaches, but we do ask that you bring a high degree of curiosity and empathy to understand farmer challenges, creativity to brainstorm solutions, and a desire to move quickly to test new ideas rigorously and then change your hypotheses on the basis of trial results;
• Bring an entrepreneurial spark to launching our new Nigeria program: a sense of urgency to achieve results, strong problem-solving skills, flexibility to change direction in the face of unexpected obstacles, and ability to balance between many competing tasks;
• Support the development and successful implementation of rigorous research projects. This largely involves effective collaboration and implementation with external researchers and PAD’s research staff. This will include activities such as engaging with the existing evidence base on rural development in designing our programs, and ensuring that our research design, implementation, and analysis follows appropriate technical guidelines in areas such as sampling, data collection, research protocols, data quality and security, and data cleaning and analysis;
• Directly supervise program staff (Research Associates, Program Associates, Agronomists, Field Staff, Call Center Staff, Interns, etc.), and lead hiring, training, and onboarding of new/incoming program staff;
• Maintain excellent relationship and communication with our partners to ensure the success of our programs;
• Develop and maintain work plans and timelines across workstreams to ensure optimal allocation of resources and meeting key deadlines on time;
• Keep the Africa Regional Director appraised of all developments on the workstreams in the Nigeria portfolio, and serve as key link between partners, funders, program staff, and PAD researchers;
• Support partnership development and the dissemination of results via presentations and reports to our funders and partners;
• Contribute to project financial management, including creation and monitoring of program budgets;
• Lead the administrative registration and set-up of PAD in Nigeria.

Qualifications
Required:

• A Bachelor's Degree in Economics, Agricultural Economics, Public Policy, Business (Mba), Computer Science, Data Science, or a closely related field.
• Strong technical understanding of economics and randomized evaluations.
• At least 5 years total work experience.
• At least 2 years' experience managing large projects or launching new projects, programs, or business units.
• Comfort engaging with high level policy contacts (e.g. senior officials, senior staff from international organizations).
• Strong quantitative analytical skills, and good ability to move between data and strategic insights.
• Strong writing and oral communication skills in English, with attention to detail and advanced writing and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams and stakeholders. Strong tenacity and self-motivation, with skill in working proactively to achieve deliverables under tight timelines.
• Experience managing and working collaboratively with a diverse team.
• Willingness to travel up to 30% within Nigeria and potentially within the West Africa region.

Desired:
Our preferred candidates are likely to have some, but not all, of the following qualifications:

• A Master's Degree in Economics, Agricultural Economics, Public Policy, Business (Mba), Computer Science, Data Science, or a closely related field.
• Experience managing in a fast-moving entrepreneurial environment with limited supervision and high degree of uncertainty.
• Experience working in low-resource contexts, or working on behalf of the rural poor.
• Prior experience in one of the following areas:
• Experience working on experimental research, including randomized evaluations and primary data collection, in developing countries.
• Experience in the technology or startup sector.
• Experience working on agricultural programs.
• Experience in management consulting.
• Previous work experience in Nigeria or other West African countries. We particularly encourage Nigerian candidates to apply.

Conditions

• Full time
• Start Date: As soon as possible
• Location: Abuja, Nigeria (temporarily work-from-home due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, until it is safe to work from PAD’s office)
• Work authorization: This position is contingent upon the candidate being able to get work authorization in Nigeria.

Compensation

• Commensurate with experience.