About One Acre Fund
Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund supplies 1 million smallholder farmers with the agricultural services they need to make their farms vastly more productive. Our 8,000+ team is drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. With operations across six core countries in Africa, we make farmers more prosperous by providing quality farm supplies on credit, delivered within walking distance of farmers’ homes, and agricultural training to improve harvests. On average, the farmers we serve harvest 50 per cent more food after working with One Acre Fund.
To learn more about our work, take a look at our Why Work Here blog for information.
About the Role
We’ve set ourselves a bold target to plant 1 billion trees in the next 8 years. We need you to help us achieve it.
In Rwanda alone, we have planted over 50M trees in the last 4 years, and our tree program distributes over 20 million trees, to over 1 million farmers annually. We do this through the hybrid production model (producing tree seedlings from 6 central nurseries and over 1,000 decentralized nurseries) and a distribution model that uses our partnership with the Rwandan government’s extension network, Twigire Muhinzi.
Yet despite these major successes we have a lot more to do to reach our potential: a) scale the program beyond 20 million trees per year b) increase impact per farmer by improving the tree products we offer, performance (e.g. survival), diversification, intensification, and market access c) increase program sustainability by finding ways to generate an income (e.g. accessing financing opportunities, such as the carbon credit market, or monetizing portions of our work), or improve efficiency
- We are looking for an experienced program manager to lead our growing tree department
- You will oversee our priority projects that can dramatically improve the tree program impact, scale and efficiency outcomes over the next 3-5 years.
- You will lead a team of 50 + staff and support them to achieve the organization’s objectives
- You will report directly to the Extension Lead
Responsibilities
This is an exciting opportunity to lead a growing department that inspires some of the largest impacts in the organization. The department lead will:
1) Coach leaders: Oversee our yearly tree campaign. You will primarily support and empower leaders to run our tree campaign independently and come up with their own strategy
2) Prioritize collaboratively building longer-term strategies: so that a) the decisions we make today, support our strategic priorities tomorrow b) team leads can develop shorter-term strategies c) the tree program supports wider organizational goals (e.g. commercialization)
3) Strategic innovations: build and oversee a culture where major and minor innovations are identified, tested and scaled, and ensure they are contributing to wider organizational priorities. Our current priorities include:
- Find “right size” tree packages,
- Maximize tree survival,
- Maximize planting on consolidated land,
- Use our grower network to create more impact and business opportunities,
- Test carbon credit opportunities, and run field trials to recommend promising ones to grow
- Evaluate the opportunities to increase the value of timber in Rwanda
4) Guide our organization’s initiative to collaborate with actors in the sector to improve Rwanda’s tree system: Lead on strategic partner management and system change analysis, to deliver system-wide impacts
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
Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:
- 3+ years experience leading and growing team
- 2+ years in program management, preferably experience in agriculture extension, scaling and expanding programs, with an emphasis on systems building and innovations
- You are comfortable with engaging high-level partners
- Previous background in Agroforestry or related field preferred but is not strictly required
- Fluency in English is required
Preferred Start Date
As soon as possible
Job Location
Based in Kigali with frequent travel to districts of operations
Benefits
Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits
Eligibility
This role is only open to citizens or permanent residents of Rwanda
Application Deadline
20 November 2022
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.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to our organization’s mission and purpose. One Acre Fund aspires to build a culture where all staff feel consistently valued, represented, and connected – so that our team can thrive as professionals, and achieve exceptional impact for the farmers we serve.
We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, 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.
