Programme Lead, Nutrient Enriched Crops at Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)

About the Role

Reporting to the Senior Cluster Lead, Food Fortification, the Programme Lead will be responsible for building out GAIN’s programming in commercialisation of nutrient enriched crops (biofortified crops) through programme design, technical support to country programmes, and supporting on-time and on-budget delivery across all country programmes.

The postholder will manage GAIN’s engagement with our partner organisations, specifically around commercialisation and marketing of biofortified crops. You will bring excellent portfolio management skills to the relationship between GAIN and our other partners and take a lead role within GAIN in supporting the execution of scaling up and the commercialisation of nutrient enriched crops / biofortified crops strategy.

Key Responsibilities include;

• Providing technical oversight to the implementation of activities that bring biofortified crops to scale through commercialisation activities such as production delivery models and supply chain and market development initiatives
• Co-leading on the development of detailed workplans to support the commercialisation of biofortified crops in Asia and Africa, whilst clarifying how GAIN and our partners will ensure impact, scale, and sustainability in a small number of strategically selected geographies
• Supporting the design process in GAIN countries and providing technical know-how to deliver strategically relevant, sound, and feasible project design
• Working closely with GAIN’s Knowledge Leadership team and our partner’s monitoring and evaluation teams to ensure measurable and effective monitoring and tracking targets are in place, and evaluation and learning takes place within the commercialization activities
• Providing guidance to GAIN’s country teams on strategy development, state of the field, and the positioning of commercialization of biofortified crops programme
• In existing global fora, contribute strategic direction and good practice to build strong evidence-based approaches to commercialisation of biofortified crops and nutrient rich agricultural commodities
• Supporting resource mobilization for commercialization of biofortified crops programmes and relationship management with funders
• Developing and managing relationships with other organisations active in the biofortification and commercialisation of agricultural commodities space
• Supporting delivery of a dissemination and visibility plan (including by leading on dissemination workshops, manuscripts, publications, blogs, white papers, articles, factsheets, brief), alongside GAIN’s Knowledge Leadership, Communications and Country programmes teams, as well as with GAIN’s partners
• Protecting and promoting the effective functioning of the project management Quad system

About You

• The ideal candidate will have a demonstrable track record in managing multi-country, multi-donor, multi-partner consortium projects of $10M or more, ideally with experience in implementing large market-based nutrition programs and projects.
• You will have a substantial level of professional experience directly or indirectly related to marketing foods, new product category development, supply chains and international development.
• You should also have the ability to operate within the private and public sectors to effectively liaise with food enterprises, development agencies, and governments at senior level. Candidates with strong business-to-business (B2B) development skills, trade marketing, or partnership management with private and public experience is preferable.
• You should have previous experience of leading and managing a team and possess excellent representational, strategic, and diplomatic abilities to represent GAIN and our partners. Candidates must have excellent written/verbal communications, research, writing skills, and should be willing and able to work in multicultural and multilingual environments.
• The postholder should have Bachelors’ degree in Business and Marketing, Food Technology, Development Studies, Economics, Agricultural Development or related fields. You should be highly flexible and willing to travel in challenging environments.

Education

• University level degree in a relevant field such as business and marketing, food technology, development studies, economics, agricultural development, or other relevant technical field.
• Masters’ degree desirable