Job Opportunities at One Acre Fund

Location: Minna, Niger
Duration: Full-time job.
Team: Impact Ventures
Location Type: Field
Preferred Start Date: As soon as possible
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.

Qualifications
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

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.

Compensation

• Commensurate with experience

Benefits

• Health insurance, paid time off.
• Sponsor International Candidates

Note

• Nigerian candidates are encouraged to apply.
• One Acre Fund never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the interview process. Official One Acre Fund emails will always arrive from an @oneacrefund.org address. Please report any suspicious communication here (globalhotline@oneacrefund.org), but do not send applications or application materials to this email address.
• We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression.
• We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

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Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Duration: Full-time job
Preferred Start Date: 1st March 2020

Job Description

• We are seeking an exceptional individual with a proven track record to help scale-up early-stage ventures and work in partnership with country + global teams to dream up new opportunities across One Acre Fund operations.

The role responsibilities will be adjusted to fit the candidate’s experience and interests, but in general, will include the following:

• Develop strategies and tactics to rapidly scale investments in your portfolio to reach hundreds of thousands of clients.
• For each project in your portfolio, you will be managing 1-2 on the ground leaders who oversee the day to day operations. Each of these leaders will likely lead a rapidly growing team. For early-stage investments, teams will likely include 10-30 people. Within a few years, many programs could have 100+ staff.
• Building 5-year strategies that improve our ability to hit aggressive scale targets, deliver stronger impact per farmer, and maintains program cost controls
• Working with program leads to maintain strong field execution through building systems/tools to track and assess key field performance indicators and flexibly collaborating with various departments to tackle unexpected operational challenges
• Supporting recruiting of senior program leaders
• Dream big and operationalize new ideas, whether enhancing existing pilots or contributing to country/organizational strategy in identifying new opportunities to pursue.
• Collaborating with country leadership teams to build a strong business case including strategic rationale, financial projections, and connecting the case to farmer needs identified in the field.
• Co-developing the trial design with country teams including what to trial, how to trial, and at what scale.
• Hiring and managing a pilot team directly to effectively trial new ideas or acting as a strategic advisor to country teams if they take on ownership of trialing
• Leading org-wide communications that share pilot learnings
• Building and maintaining a global pipeline of Impact Ventures opportunities
• Develop relationships and coordinate with internal and external partners who are relevant to our work. Partners could include One Acre Fund Country Directors, executives at social enterprises, key officials in government ministries, etc.
• The role is multi-faceted and suited to those who enjoy working under pressure with high levels of responsibility and independence.

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
Specific qualifications include, but are not limited to:

• 5 to 7+ years of professional work experience with experience in leadership of teams and project management; entrepreneurial experience preferred (e.g. starting a new program or business unit, launching new initiatives across a large field team, etc.)
• Top-performing academic background
• 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.
• Fact-based analytical decision-maker - an ability to gather and synthesize different types of qualitative (e.g. farmer interviews) and quantitative (e.g. financial/impact modelling) information to guide major strategic and operational decisions
• Willingness to travel 35% of the time to rural areas - One Acre Fund operations are predominantly based in rural areas, close to our customers.
• Fluency in English required, knowledge of other languages spoken in One Acre Fund countries strongly preferred
• 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

Compensation

• Commensurate with experience

Benefits:

• Health insurance, paid time off

Sponsor International Candidates:

• Yes; African nationals strongly encouraged to apply.

Application Closing Date
4th February, 2020.