Chief Operating Officer at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

Role purpose

• To provide strategic leadership and operational integration across AGRA’s corporate-services portfolio—including Finance, People & Culture, Procurement, Administration, Information Technology, Grants Management, Facilities and Enterprise Risk Management—to enable efficient, effective and sustainable delivery of AGRA’s mission and strategic objectives.
• The role ensures that corporate-service strategies, systems, processes, resources, and performance priorities are integrated and aligned with the approved operating model, while preserving the functional accountability, professional independence, and delegated authorities of the respective functional leaders.

Role Summary

• The Chief Operating Officer at AGRA provides strategic and operational leadership to strengthen organisational effectiveness and ensure the seamless delivery of corporate services that enable programmatic impact across Africa. Reporting to the President and serving as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, the COO leads integrated operational planning, cross-functional performance and delivery of the approved operating model across the corporate-services portfolio.
• Operating through a matrix-management model, the COO provides executive coordination and operational-performance oversight across Finance, People & Culture, Procurement, Administration, Information Technology, Grants Management, Facilities and Enterprise Risk Management. The CFO and Chief People & Culture Officer retain functional leadership, professional independence, delegated authority and accountability for their respective mandates, including appropriate direct access and escalation to the President and relevant Board or Board Committee structures.
• The COO leads initiatives to improve resource utilisation, operational efficiency, digital and business transformation, enterprise risk management and compliance with donor, regulatory and organisational requirements. The role ensures the timely coordination, escalation and implementation of agreed actions on material operational, financial, people, risk, compliance, audit and control matters, in accordance with AGRA’s delegated-authority, governance and Board-reporting frameworks. Internal Audit remains independent of management and retains its direct reporting and escalation access to the Board or relevant Board Committee.

Key Measures of Performance

The performance of this role holder will be assessed based on the achievements made on:

• Operational Excellence & Service Delivery: Ensure effective delivery of corporate services by achieving agreed service-level standards, improving operational efficiency, and implementing process optimization initiatives that enhance organizational performance.
• Governance, Risk & Compliance: Maintain robust governance, enterprise risk management, and compliance frameworks across corporate functions, ensuring strict adherence to organizational policies, donor requirements, regulatory obligations, and the swift, systematic resolution of internal and external audit and control findings while respecting Board assurance independence.
• Financial Stewardship & Budget Discipline: Drive organizational cost optimization, strict budget adherence, and value-for-money outcomes in close operational matrix partnership with Finance, enforcing proactive cost-control mechanisms and operational efficiency across all corporate service units.
• Technology, AI & Business Transformation: Lead operational and digital transformation initiatives, leveraging AI-enabled tools, data, and modern business systems alongside appropriate risk and governance frameworks to strengthen organizational capabilities, efficiency, and business continuity.
• Grant Prudence & Effectiveness: Ensure effective stewardship of grant resources through strong grant management, compliance, monitoring, and reporting practices, maximizing the impact, efficiency, and accountability of donor-funded investments.
• People & Culture Leadership: Foster a high-performing, inclusive, and value-driven culture by overseeing operational HR execution, talent development, workforce planning, and employee engagement, while supporting executive and FHRC governance priorities.
• Leadership & Stakeholder Effectiveness: Build and sustain high-performing teams, foster a culture of accountability and collaboration, and maintain strong stakeholder satisfaction through responsive, reliable, and effective operational support services.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

Purpose – Advance

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight of AGRA’s operational functions, ensuring alignment with organizational strategy, growth objectives, and program delivery priorities.
• Lead the development and implementation of operational strategies, frameworks, policies, and systems that strengthen organizational effectiveness and sustainability.
• Oversee enterprise-wide operational excellence initiatives, driving continuous improvement, efficiency gains, and service quality across corporate functions.
• Direct the development and implementation of governance, risk management, compliance, and business continuity frameworks to safeguard organizational assets and reputation.
• Lead organization-wide operational transformation and digital enablement initiatives to improve service delivery, decision-making, and scalability.
• Oversee resource planning and optimization to ensure effective utilization of financial, human, technological, and physical resources.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to the Executive Leadership Team on operational performance, organizational capacity, and emerging risks.
• Build and maintain strategic partnerships with donors, development partners, regulators, and service providers to strengthen AGRA’s operational capabilities.
• Provide executive coordination and oversight of enterprise workforce and organisational-capability priorities, ensuring that people strategies, workforce plans, leadership pipelines and culture initiatives are aligned with AGRA’s strategy, operating model and resource plans.
• Champion a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, and operational excellence across the organization.
• Develop leadership capability and succession pipelines within operational and corporate services functions.
• Support change management, executive onboarding, and ensure operational continuity during top-level leadership transitions. 
• Enable integrated planning across Finance, People & Culture and other corporate-service functions, ensuring alignment of workforce plans, budgets, organisational design, capacity requirements and operational priorities.
• Hold the corporate-services portfolio accountable for agreed enterprise outcomes, service standards, cross-functional dependencies and delivery of approved operational plans, without displacing the functional mandates or delegated authorities of the CFO and Chief People & Culture
• Escalate material operational, financial, people, compliance and delivery risks to the President and relevant governance structures in accordance with AGRA’s approved escalation and delegated-authority framework.

Engagement – Position

• Lead and coordinate operational support functions, including administration, procurement, facilities, information technology, grants management, and enterprise risk management.
• Collaborate with business units and program teams to ensure operational services effectively support program delivery and organizational priorities.
• Drive cross-functional initiatives aimed at improving business processes, service delivery, and stakeholder experience.
• Provide executive coordination across Finance, People & Culture and Program teams to ensure integrated organisational planning, aligned resource allocation, workforce capacity and effective execution of AGRA’s strategy.
• Build strong relationships with country, regional, and headquarters teams to ensure consistent and effective operational support.
• Guide the implementation of operational policies, procedures, and standards across the organization.
• Foster collaboration and knowledge sharing across operational functions to promote organizational learning and continuous improvement.
• Lead and mentor high-performing operational teams, ensuring alignment with AGRA’s culture and values.
• Ensure effective stakeholder engagement and communication on operational priorities, risks, and performance.
• Work through the CFO and Chief People & Culture Officer to align financial, people and operational plans; resolve cross-functional dependencies; monitor delivery against agreed priorities; and escalate material issues that require executive or Board-level attention.
• Maintain a matrix relationship with the CFO and Chief People & Culture Officer that balances enterprise integration and operational accountability with their functional leadership, professional independence and delegated decision-making authority.
• Support the President in ensuring that the CFO and Chief People & Culture Officer have appropriate access to the Board, FHRC and other relevant Board committees on matters within their functional remit.
• Coordinate management’s response to material audit, risk, compliance and control findings, while ensuring that Internal Audit retains independence from management and direct reporting and escalation access to the Board or the relevant Board committee.

Delivery – Corporate Planning

• Lead the development and monitoring of the operational strategy and annual operational plans in alignment with AGRA’s strategic objectives.
• Oversee operational budgeting, resource allocation, and performance monitoring across corporate functions.
• Establish and monitor key operational performance indicators, service standards, and organizational effectiveness metrics.
• Drive the implementation of operational improvement initiatives and track realization of efficiency and cost optimization benefits.
• Lead scenario planning, risk assessments, and business continuity preparedness to enhance organizational resilience.
• Ensure operational priorities, investments, and initiatives are aligned with AGRA’s growth ambitions and long-term sustainability goals.
• Develop management dashboards and operational reports to support executive decision-making.
• Monitor emerging trends, technologies, and leading practices to identify opportunities for innovation and enhanced operational effectiveness.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of operational systems and processes and implement improvements where required.
• Ensure timely reporting on operational performance, risk, compliance, and strategic initiatives to executive leadership and governance bodies.
• Lead an integrated annual planning and performance-management cycle across corporate services, ensuring alignment between organisational strategy, budgets, workforce plans, operating plans, service standards and risk-management priorities.
• Ensure that Finance and People & Culture performance plans, budgets and key measures are integrated into enterprise planning and reviewed through the agreed management-performance cycle, while technical and professional accountability remains with the respective functional leader.
• Review, with the CFO, enterprise financial performance, forecasts, resource utilisation, budget variances and cost-management actions; ensure timely executive attention and corrective action on material issues.
• Review, with the Chief People & Culture Officer, workforce capacity, leadership capability, succession, employee engagement, performance and culture indicators; ensure that material workforce risks and organisational-capability gaps are addressed through agreed actions.
• Ensure that material financial, people, operational, risk, compliance, audit and control matters are appropriately escalated to the President, Executive Leadership Team and relevant Board or Board Committee structures in line with approved governance protocols.

Profile 

Education

• Master’s degree in business administration (MBA), Operations Management, Public Administration, Finance, Supply Chain Management, Organizational Leadership, International Development, or a related field.

Relevant Experience

• Minimum 20 years of progressive leadership experience in operations, corporate services, business management, or organizational effectiveness.
• At least 15 years in a senior leadership role managing multiple operational functions.
• Demonstrated experience leading large and geographically dispersed teams in a multi-national development organization, international NGO, foundation, multilateral institution, or private-sector organization of comparable complexity.
• Proven experience overseeing one or more of the following functions: finance, procurement, administration, technology, facilities, grants management, risk management, and business continuity.
• Experience driving organizational transformation, operational excellence, business process improvement, and digital transformation initiatives.
• Strong track record in governance, risk management, compliance, and operational performance management.
• Experience managing organizational budgets, resource planning, and performance reporting.
• Proven track record in enforcing organizational budget discipline, cost optimization, and successfully resolving complex audit and control findings in international or development environments.
• Experience operating within the non profit sector, scaling development initiatives through government systems, or managing the operational complexities of climate/agri-food funding structures.
• Demonstrated ability to influence executive leadership, Boards, donors, and other senior stakeholders.
• Experience operating in Africa and working across multiple countries and cultures.