Job Summary:
The Program Director will provide overall strategic, technical, and operational leadership for this market systems development (MSD) program focused on strengthening food processing and inclusive markets for tomato, soybean, ginger, and sesame. S/he will be responsible for the quality of implementation, managing a team of 10+ people across the targeted states and will execute the overall strategy of the program to reach its goals and targets. S/he will operationalize the work plan, adapting technical approaches and interventions as needed, and manage program resources.
The role is responsible for ensuring the program achieves sustainable, scalable, and commercially viable outcomes by facilitating systemic change across input supply, aggregation, processing, finance, and market linkages—without distorting markets.
The Program Director will lead a multidisciplinary team, engage public and private sector partners, ensure donor compliance, and drive results that improve incomes, resilience, and employment—particularly for women and youth. S/he will also serve as the primary liaison with public and private sector counterparts and other key stakeholders, including donors. This role requires expertise in project/program management and a deep understanding of Nigeria’s agri-food systems, food processing ecosystem and regulatory landscape, especially for the core crops (soybean and sesame) and intercrops (tomato and ginger). The ideal candidate will be motivated and able to provide critical leadership in the three years of the first phase of the program, while delivering high quality results that may feed into the second phase.
Qualifications:
- A master’s degree or equivalent in agribusiness, agricultural economics, business administration, international development, economics, or other relevant field with at least 7 years of experience. Alternatively, a bachelor’s degree with 10 years of experience.
- At least eight years of relevant professional experience in international development.
- At least four years of proven experience leading/managing and implementing large, multi-stakeholder donor-funded programs/projects.
Required Languages: Fluency in English is required.
Travel: Local travel 40-50%
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Deep technical expertise in MSD and food processing value chains
- Demonstrated experience working across multiple value chains, preferably including tomato, soybean, ginger, or sesame.
- Strong understanding of the private sector–led development and market systems development approaches.
- Extensive experience managing large teams at a high level of leadership (e.g Team Lead, Chief of Party, Program Director).
- Familiarity with food safety standards, quality certification, and export requirements
- Prior work experience or collaboration with private sector companies and businesses.
- Demonstrated ability to interact effectively and collaboratively with a broad range of public and private sector counterparts and other key stakeholders.
- Experience working in Nigeria or similar emerging market contexts preferred.
- Experience in successfully implementing inclusive women/youth/PLWD-integrated programs and promoting women- and youth-led enterprises is a plus.
- Strong local and regional market knowledge
- Strong strategic thinking and systems analysis skills
- Excellent leadership, team management, and mentoring abilities
- High-level stakeholder engagement and negotiation skills
- Strong financial and operational management capability
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Ability to manage complexity, uncertainty, and adaptive programming
- Commitment to gender equity, youth inclusion, and environmental sustainability
- Extensive project management skills, including strategic planning, stakeholder coordination, resource allocation, compliance monitoring, and performance tracking
- Strong interpersonal and communications skills in a multicultural environment.
- Ability to work with tight deadlines while managing multiple tasks and priorities.
- Ability to develop well-written, cohesive analyses and reports.
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