Career Opportunities at One Acre Fund - 2 Positions

Job Description

One Acre Fund will purchase over $60M worth of agricultural and non-agricultural inputs for direct sale to over 900,000 smallholder farmers in 2018. Through distribution of these goods and innovative trainings, we produce $129 of impact per farmer, of which, $27 can be attributed to the distribution of non-agricultural inputs such as solar lights, efficient wood-burning cookstoves, and storage materials. Access to these life-improving inputs electrifies households, allows farmers to store their grain, and gives farmers and their families the tools they need to grow themselves out of poverty.

We are looking for someone to play an integral role on our non-agricultural supply chain team by taking charge of procurement and end-end logistics for these life improving products. In this role, you will build rock solid supplier relationships, reduce importation costs, and stay in front of the regulatory environment in East Africa to deliver high quality goods on time at the feet of over 900,000 smallholder farmers.

Responsibilities of the Non-Agricultural Goods Supply Chain Specialist will include:

• Execute our Purchasing Strategy
  • Coordinate the sourcing, importation, and delivery of over 480,000 solar lights, 10,000 stoves, 100,000 tarpaulins, and 300,000 storage bags each year.
  • Stay at the forefront of regulations and policies surrounding the purchase and delivery of solar lights, cookstoves, and other plastics products throughout East and Southern Africa.
  • Build relationships with leaders in the plastics, solar, and cookstoves industry to stay at the forefront of shifts in the global industry.
  • Manage supplier relationships and coordinate between suppliers and in-country teams to deliver the best service possible to the farmers we serve.
  • Develop and maintain rock-solid service level agreements with our regional logistics suppliers.
• Define and Improve Processes
  • Improve existing supply chain mechanisms by building strong, long-term supplier relationships.
  • Identify and implement cost- and time-saving improvements from small process tweaks to major strategic changes.
  • Implement standardized practices to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and customer service.
  • Prevent fraud and corruption challenges along the procurement value chain.
  • Create quality assurance and process checklists to guarantee adherence to standard operating procedures
• Team Management
  • Mentor 2 or more supply chain staff to build leadership and project management skills. Coach direct reports on supply chain best practices including how to negotiate for best pricing and terms and build strong supplier relationships.
  • Work with multi-national staff and suppliers.
  • Identifying strong local talent pools for recruiting high quality supply chain staff.
  • Build Outstanding Communication Channels
  • Become familiar with One Acre Fund teams and structures to ensure your team is effectively supporting their internal clients.
  • Work closely with logistics and other internal teams to minimize delivered costs and reduce overall spend.
  • Deliver overall process transparency to your internal clients

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 exceptional professionals with experience in and a passion for procurement and supply chain. Experience in an entrepreneurial environment is a plus.

Candidates that meet the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• 3+ years of work experience in a demanding professional environment, preferably in positions where frequent cross-department communication was required
• Degree in Finance, Engineering & Logistics or related fields are encouraged to apply
• Strong quantitative reasoning and data presentation skills required
• Comfort working with moderately complex data sets and structuring clear, immediate comprehensible tables
• Some experience in or knowledge of procurement/supply chains functions preferred
• Creativity and strong problem solving skills. You don’t take no for an answer and constantly look for alternative solutions to problems.
• A passion for world class customer service
• Outstanding communication skills with suppliers, reports, peers and management
• Experience working internationally preferred
• Leadership experience at work or outside of work.
• Ability to work and make decisions independently
• Good oral and written communication skills
• Top-performing academic background

Language: English required and Swahili preferred

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Job Description

The Senior Legal Counsel will be an integral part of the Legal Department and work closely with country and departmental leadership to identify and manage legal risk for One Acre Fund. The Senior Legal Counsel will collaborate with other teams to streamline our processes, including contract review and negotiation for procurement and distribution of inputs to our farmers. You will also provide legal and regulatory advice to our innovations teams on new products and programs and help manage our internal investigations team. As part of our growing Legal Department, the Senior Legal Counsel will also advise on legal strategy, structure and compliance issues across countries.

Primary Duties And Responsibilities

As a growing organization, we are ready to hand over significant responsibility for specific, well-defined strategic initiatives to address risk as well as day-to-day management of legal transactional work to the person in this role. As such, we are seeking an exceptional lawyer with 5+ years of work experience, and a long-term career interest in international development. This professional will serve in a career-track position that combines transactional work with legal advising in a fast-paced entrepreneurial work environment. This role will report directly to the Chief Legal Officer.

In addition to the responsibilities outlined above, the Senior Legal Counsel will be responsible for the following:

• Provide legal advice on regulatory and legal matters for One Acre Fund’s field operations and innovations
• Review and draft major contracts as well as develop templates and standard commercial agreements across our different geographical and operational areas of work
• Support contract negotiation and collaborate with business teams on developing effective relationships with contractors and vendors
• Perform due diligence and risk assessment on all major transactions
• Maintain and manage relationships with outside counsel, vendors, and other organizational partners
• Support our internal investigations team as needed
• Advise human resources teams on employment law requirements
• Advise on and institute systems for external compliance
• Develop internal policies and standard operating procedures for managing legal and operational risk across different areas of business and operations
• Assist with general legal tasks as needed to meet departmental and organizational priorities

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 to 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.

Qualifications

We are seeking an extraordinary candidate who will help us take the organization to the next levels of impact and scale. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• 5+ years of legal work experience preferably as an associate/partner with an international law firm or international in-house legal team.
• Law degree from a top university and admitted to practice in at least one jurisdiction.
• High degree of professional flexibility and ability to coordinate many unrelated projects at the same time. You need to be very comfortable working across all areas where One Acre Fund needs legal support and mixing those areas on a daily basis.
• Highly professional and commercial approach to problem-solving. We operate as a business and need to facilitate transactions in a proactive and efficient manner.
• Proven ability to manage complex transactional work in a corporate, non-profit or in-house practice setting.
• A strong team work ethic and excellent people skills. We have a small, but great team and are looking for someone to collaborate with to achieve our organizational goals.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, including both verbal and written communication. You need to be an excellent and concise writer who can explain complex legal issues to non-lawyers a quick and accurate manner.
• A willingness to commit to living in an East African capital city with frequent travel to rural areas for at least two years – this is a long-term, career-track position and a great opportunity to step in as a senior legal member of a quickly growing team.
• The ideal candidate will have at least one year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.

Travel: while based in Nairobi or Kigali, this position will require some travel within East Africa, but likely no more than 25% depending on where you are based.

Language: English required, working proficiency in French is a plus.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Nairobi, Kenya; Kigali, Rwanda

Duration

Minimum 2 years commitment, full-time job