Agronomist at One Acre Fund

Duration

Minimum 2-year commitment, full-time job

Job Description

One Acre Fund is growing quickly, and we plan to at least quadruple our farmer impact in the next five years. Our staff play a major role in driving that growth while adding major innovations and improvements to our program quality. This offers staff members a strong career opportunity: the ability to learn from a successful field operation, contribute to aggressive growth, and also make improvements to our program.

We are currently seeking an Agronomist to join the Product Innovations team in Kenya. This team works to discover new ideas for our programs and conducts dozens of trials to test them. We have a broad research portfolio, but the majority of our trials focus on new ways to boost yields and agricultural productivity for smallholder farmers. We conduct a large number of experimental trials each season, including over one hundred trials at five research stations spread across Kenya. We are continually looking for new ways to bring cutting-edge agricultural technologies and improved methods to the more than 200,000 smallholder farmers we serve.

The Agronomist role would include the following primary responsibilities:

• Conducting early stage agricultural research on new innovations: conducting literature reviews, continually tracking agricultural research developments globally, and preparing memos to synthesize knowledge and inform trial and program decisions.
• Managing all research station trials: identifying research priorities, developing trial strategies each season, and managing multiple teams across five research stations conducting experimental trials in Kenya  
• Building and managing relationships with experts: reaching out to other experts at universities and research institutions to help guide our agricultural research strategy and ensure we are pursuing the most promising innovations.
• Providing technical inputs and guidance: serving as a major source of technical knowledge about agriculture to help inform key decisions for the Product Innovations department and the Kenya country program more broadly.
• Staff mentorship: supporting all staff members working on agricultural trials to develop their technical knowledge, research and data analysis capacity, and leadership and management skills.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager and a global support team will commit 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.

Qualifications

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

• Advanced academic training in an agricultural field such as soil science, with a PhD and previous field trial experience in a smallholder farming context strongly preferred.
• Strong work experiences. Examples include a demanding professional work experience, or successful entrepreneurial experience, e.g. starting a field program in a developing country, leading a conference, starting a business, solid Volunteer Service Organization accomplishments (VSO, Peace Corps, JICA, etc).
• Advanced data analysis knowledge, with training in statistics and experience working with R strongly preferred.
• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work.
• Top-performing undergraduate background (include final grade/marks/GPA).
• 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.
• A willingness to commit to living in rural areas of East Africa for at least two years – this is a long-term, career-track role. The ideal candidate will have at least one year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.
• Language: English. Swahili-speakers are particularly encouraged to apply.

Preferred Start Date

Flexible

Compensation

We offer a modest starting salary that affords a high quality of life in our areas of operation. This is a career-track role with performance-based raises and the ability to expand responsibilities over time.

Benefits

Health insurance, immunizations, flights, housing.

Sponsor International Candidates 

Yes

East Africans are strongly encouraged to apply.