Job Opportunities at One Acre Fund

Job Description

We are looking for a Strategy & Operations Analyst to work on short-term projects across functions to rapidly solve problems and drive key initiatives forward.  This is a full-time career-track role within One Acre Fund Rwanda’s Strategy Unit. The role therefore includes exposure to high level strategy, working in a variety of departments and functions, and getting into the field.

The ideal candidate is eager to learn and question, balancing keeping an open mind with “getting stuff done.” While the best part of the role is that no day will be the same, the role is structured as follows:

• 3-6 month support on critical projects: Strategy & Operations Analysts will spend 70-80% of their time on a challenging business problem. They will need to quickly understand the context, structure the problem, gather and analyze data, propose a solution, and potentially execute. This requires a lot of collaboration with other teams. Here are some example projects:
  • by working with external stakeholders, analyzing how clients will repay over multiple years, and identifying and solving logistical problems
  • by analyzing costs and processes to ensure we have critical inputs for farmers
  • by working with our Field team to revamp performance and incentives

• Ongoing initiatives and quick projects: The remaining 20-30% of the Strategy & Operations Analyst's time will be managing ongoing initiatives or responding to quick requests from our Country Director. An example of an ongoing project could be planning our quarterly all department leadership meeting (figuring out the agenda, how to make it engaging, and how to communicate a strategy update). A quick request could be conducting research that will go to a partner or external stakeholder.

Longer-term, there will be opportunities to lead increasingly large initiatives or join/lead a department you are supporting.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager will invest 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. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications

We are looking for truly extraordinary professionals who will help take our organization to the next levels of impact and scale. This is a competitive posting for a career–track role. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Strong work experiences: we are targeting former management consultants or people with similar experience quickly getting up to speed on a project, working across functions, and solving problems. We also look for leadership experiences, at or outside of work, particularly in roles that demonstrate relationship management and driving results on a variety of project types.
• Technical skills: advanced proficiency in Excel. Experience with other professional programs (e.g. R, STATA, Access) is a plus.
• Humility: in everything One Acre Fund does, we put farmers first. In ICT, we do this by approaching our work and individual professional growth with humility, efficiency, and compassion.
• A willingness to commit to living in East Africa for at least two years: this is a long-term, career–track role. The ideal candidate will have had experience working in an emerging market, although this is not required.
• Language: English required; French/Kinyarwanda a bonus

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Compensation

Starts modest. However, this is a career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary for long-term placement in developing nations.

Benefits

Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room and board.

Sponsor International Candidates 

No. Rwandan citizens only.

go to method of application »

Job Description
One Acre Fund began in Kenya and it is now one of our largest and fastest-growing countries of operation. Our vision for 2030 is to end hunger in Kenya and provide a pathway to prosperity for every farm family in the nation. One Acre Fund Kenya is transitioning from a start-up to a mature operation – and we need additional high performing staff members to continue our strong growth trajectory. Working with our Kenya team presents the opportunity to build upon our strong operational foundations and explore new ways to impact our well-established network of hundreds of thousands of farm families. The work of the People Division Deputy would include, but not be limited to:

1. Strategy & Vision
   • Together with the division director, set and steer course for the 5-15-year vision
   • Ensure department annual plans align with long-term vision and targets.
   • Measure progress against goals, regularly report on progress, hold the team accountable to prioritizing and delivering results in key strategic areas.
   • Prepare our people departments to scale rapidly, allowing OAF deliver rural services to 500,000 clients through 3,000 staff members by 2020.
   • Hold Kenya program accountable to meet career promises to all staff – meaningful work, career growth and fair compensation.
2. Communication
   • Proactively and effectively communicate up to the division director and country leadership, down to departments, across to other sets of leaders.
   • Ensure People Departments are collaborating effectively with individuals, teams and divisions outside of the people division. Set-up appropriate systems of communication to keep everyone moving together.
   • Participate in global people work and collaborate with other country programs.
3. Management & Training
   • Serve as direct or secondary management line to 1-3 key people departments in Kenya. These departments could include: Corporate Operations, Human Resources, Training, Recruitment, Analytics, and Infrastructure. Management will include oversight, weekly reporting meetings, performance reviews and development, strategic direction and support.
   • Personally lead training sessions for senior staff members.
4. Team & Culture
   • Serve as a leader and role model to the Kenya team at large. This should include a consistent demonstration of One Acre Fund core values, modeling a sustainable work/life balance, investing in the development of your team, and investment in team culture.
   • Keep the pulse on team feedback, concerns, and upcoming events that might be destabilizing
   • Actively contingency plan and mitigate risk areas that could destabilize staff or operations.
5. Execution of Strategic Initiatives
   • Ensure that everything the People Division does adheres to world-class standards of execution.
   • Set KPI’s and metrics to measure success.
   • Regularly solicit feedback from the wider team and other departments.
   • Spending and Budgeting
     • Participate, together with departments, in annual budgeting process; anticipate spending for the year based on annual plans.
     • Regularly review actual spending against planned spending. Keep all departments operating to maximum efficiency and within planned budget.
6. Outside & External

• Occasionally host key external visitors and donors to One Acre Fund.
• Research and understand key best practices in functional work areas at other organizations.
• Think strategically about potential partnerships and learning opportunities from other organizations.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager will invest 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. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications

We are seeking an exceptional professional with 4+ years of work experience a demonstrated passion for international development. Candidates fitting the following profile are strongly encouraged to apply:

• HR/Talent management experience.
• Strong people management experience (at least 3 years of managing a team of highly skilled workers).
• Strong leadership experiences with the demonstrated ability to lead a team to accomplish its goals.
• High Emotional Intelligence: Self-regulation and empathy in particular.
• A true team player: You’ll be willing to do whatever it takes to help the Kenya team.
• Excellent judgment in sensitive people issues, management skills, creative problem solving.
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral.
• 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 of demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.
• Language: English required. Swahili-speakers strongly preferred.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible, although flexible for the right candidate

Compensation

Commensurate with experience

Benefits

Health insurance, room and board, transport, immunizations

Sponsor International Candidates 

Yes

East Africans are strongly encouraged to apply

go to method of application »

Job Description
One Acre Fund has tested many different insurance products and services since our inception, always with the goals of providing a meaningful safety net for smallholder households and ensuring our ability to continue serving farmers in the event of catastrophe. We offer micro-insurance to most clients, with products ranging from crop (or input) insurance to funeral insurance to health insurance. At a high level, insurance is key to minimizing organizational risk inherent in microfinance and in agriculture. The role of the Insurance Associate/Manager is to coordinate all of our insurance work, assess and improve our insurance offerings, and support relationships with insurance providers. Specifically, this person’s responsibilities will include:

• Design and manage One Acre Fund’s “crop-insurance” portfolio in order to provide a reliable safety net for farmers in the event that climatic conditions lead to major yield losses, and do so in a way that is in line with One Acre Fund’s goals of driving towards financial sustainability. (~70% of role)
  • Research & Analysis.
    • Conduct a review of all historical and current policies, proposals, and analyses for One Acre Fund. Scope historical and current insurance policies in tropical agriculture and identify successful examples that could apply to One Acre Fund’s context.  
    • Create and maintain a centralized resource for all insurance information.
  • Product Design
    • Collaborate with field teams to research and understand farmers’ perceptions of climate-related risk, levels of resilience, and basic needs corresponding to various levels of shock.
    • Determine the optimal insurance parameters for each country of operation, and design and test micro index-insurance or loan-forgiveness models using historical weather and yield data for each program. Products must be adoptable by smallholder farmers and impactful in the protection they provide.
  • Expertise & Advising
    • Act as an effective advisor during internal insurance conversations and as a knowledgeable representative with third-party insurance providers and external partners.
    • Support program operations in the development of policies, procedures, and training materials for insurance implementation.
    • Serve as One Acre Fund’s link to developments in crop insurance strategy and theory.  Stay up to date with programs around the world and apply best practices to One Acre Fund’s strategy.
  • Support One Acre Fund leadership to understand the full landscape of insurance products that are relevant to the organization. (~30% of role)
    • Assess options for field-facing products and services like funeral/death insurance and health insurance. Help individual programs decide which policies may be best for their clients, negotiate terms with insurance providers, and support field teams with operationalizing these products.
    • Evaluate risks related to, and insurance against, global organizational risks like assets, currency, repayment, etc.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager will invest 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. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications

We are seeking an exceptional professional with 3+ years of work experience, a demonstrated passion for international development, and a strong knowledge of actuarial principles. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Strong background in a quantitative field such as finance, econometrics, engineering, or environmental science, including 2-5+ years experience or equivalent advanced degree.
• Experience with actuarial modeling, preferably with index-insurance or micro-insurance product development.
• Fluency with crop insurance trends and innovations.
• Understanding of agricultural risks (e.g. expertise in plant physiology) and/or experience in tropical agriculture is desirable.
• Collaborative nature and excellent communication skills. This position will require liaising with a wide range of internal and external partners, so clear and open communication is critical.

• 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 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: Fluency in English required.

Preferred Start Date

Early 2017

Compensation

Commensurate with experience.

Benefits

Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room and board.

Sponsor International Candidates 

Yes

East Africans Encouraged to Apply.