Ethiopia Innovations Associate

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 percent more food after working with One Acre Fund. 

To learn more about our work, take a look at our Why Work Here blog for more information.

About the Role

The Innovations Associate will be an essential part of our leadership team in one of One Acre Fund’s fastest growing country programs. The Ethiopia program is poised to serve over 100,000 farmers in 2021, grow 10 million trees and expand our seed multiplication program. In 2025, we plan to serve over one million farmers.

We are looking for someone to research, design and trial innovations through a team. You will report directly to the Ethiopia Country Director or Agroforestry Program Manager, and you will directly manage three deputies.

Responsibilities

• Lead Product Innovation. You will lead efforts to identify high impact products for our partners to sell to our growing network of agroforestry farmers. You will lead research and engagement to evaluate new product options and manage early stage trials to test demand and impact.
• Scale Selected Products. For selected new products, you will guide them to scale in our core agroforestry program, ensuring that our field staff and managers are trained and our evaluation team has the necessary context to confirm impact at scale.
• Design and Pilot Program Improvements to Increase Impact and Efficiency. You will design improvements to our programs and trial new ones to produce an additional $5-$10m USD of impact, to potentially create revenue and to make our work more cost efficient. You will work with a diverse set of people to gather input on these and coordinate their roll out.
• Lead a Team of Technical Specialists and Leaders. Work with others to set department-level goals, then guide your team to achieve these through clear expectations, support and coaching. Your team will be made up of technical specialists and who are learning project management skills, and you’ll need to ensure they have development plans and opportunities for growth. You’ll also manage a modest budget for trial supplies, your staff and research expenses.

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:

• 5+ years of experience in dynamic and creative organization(s)
• Experience managing people and projects in a systematic way, in particular strategic plans to implementation by working through others
• Experience working with rural development programs
• Experience comparing new opportunities quantitatively
• Agroforestry, forestry, carbon finance, coffee or fruit tree background is a plus; interest in these is required
• A Bachelor’s degree
• Language: English required and Amharic strongly preferred

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Bahir Dar, Ethiopia with up to 50% optional Addis Ababa time after the first six months

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility

This role is only open to citizens, permanent residents, or origin card holders of Ethiopia. 

Application Deadline

28 September 2021

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 ([email protected]), 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, 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.