Job Description

To generate more impact for more farm families on a national level, One Acre Fund is developing new business units within the organization to push innovation in retail, finance, and marketing in rural communities. In particular, the Seed Unit is developing a portfolio of seed-related programs across markets to increase access to and demand for improved seed.

Improved seed is a proven technology that can generate significant increases in yield and farm profit, with minimal behavior change and financial investment required. However, adoption of improved seed is lower than 25% in many Sub-Saharan African countries. Increasing adoption of improved seed by the millions of smallholder farmers in these countries represents literally billions of dollars of potential impact.

Seed-related work is one of the organization’s highest priority areas for generating impact for farmers and the Seed Unit will continue to grow rapidly in both scope of work as well as in team size. The goal for most innovations is to scale them to reach huge populations to generate as much impact as possible.

We are seeking exceptional individuals to join this early-stage team. Strong candidates would be considered for a core leadership role within the Seed Unit, managing region-wide or nationwide ventures and helping expand this work to support farmers in several new markets.

Members Of The Seed Unit Will

• Design innovative trials with the intention to scale impactful interventions to a regional and national level. Example projects include:
• Large Scale Marketing Campaigns – basic agricultural knowledge and inputs like seed allow farmers to produce more food for their families. Unfortunately, the majority of households in most markets continue to lack awareness of this basic information. One Acre Fund is carrying out marketing campaigns in several markets with the aim to scale these efforts to national levels to better inform millions of farmers about how they can increase their yields.
• Supply Chain Innovations – in some markets, farmers are well aware of the benefits of the latest seed technology, but access in rural communities which need these technologies the most can be very limited. One Acre Fund is seeking to innovate at various points in the supply chain to increase the availability of the most productive seeds.

Develop strategies and push innovation

• Seed Unit team members will coordinate research and evaluation of new opportunities, and design trials to test ideas.
• Data analysis of high level country wide data to create strategic plans to choose next steps and locations
• Work with M&E teams to create an impact measurement process to assess in the short term and long term how much impact our interventions are generating for farmers
• Scout new locations – develop assessment criteria to help scout the best locations for seed programs

Build and manage a team – hire, develop, and lead a team to effectively execute in the field.

Coordinate with external partners – manage relationships with key partners who are relevant to our work. Partners could include executives at seed companies, local distribution partners, government officials, etc.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager will invest significant time in your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about. Because of our rapid growth, we constantly have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications

We are seeking 2+ / 5+ years of work experience and ideally a demonstrated passion for international development. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Strong work experiences. Examples include a demanding professional work experience, or successful entrepreneurial experience (e.g. leading a conference, starting a business, solid Peace Corps accomplishments).
• Experience developing innovative ideas and opportunities. We are seeking an entrepreneur at heart.
• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work.
• Demonstrated passion for cultivating relationships with public and private sector actors.
• Top-performing academic background (include GPA on your resume).
• Humility. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service to join our growing family of leaders.
• Language: English required.
• No seed or agriculture-specific experience required.

Preferred Start Date

Flexible

Compensation

Starts modest. However, this is a career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary for long-term placement in developing nations.

Benefits

Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room, and board.

Sponsor International Candidates

No