Strategy and Research Analyst / Manager at

Job Description

We are looking for driven, strategic problem-solvers dedicated to social impact to join One Acre Fund’s Internal Consulting Team (ICT). ICT is responsible for sharpening the organization’s strategy and for supporting other One Acre Fund teams at key junctures where additional analytical resources could have an outsized impact for the organization. Above all we are seeking skilled professionals capable of delivering high-quality work in a flexible and independent manner, supporting teams across the organization on a wide range of project types.

A Sample Of Recent Internal Consulting Team Work Includes

• Shaping One Acre Fund’s expansion strategy - To help One Acre Fund hit its ambitious farmer growth targets, two analysts were challenged to develop a rigorous and scalable approach to program expansion that could be rolled out across all countries. This new approach involved quantitative and qualitative analysis, field survey design and analysis, financial modeling, as well as a political and security risk assessment. The work was adopted by in-country Field Operations teams and is bringing OAF closer to achieving its 2020 target of reaching one million farmers.
• Conducting a Kenya program health check-up - A manager recently conducted a “health check-up” of our Kenya program in order to proactively identify and resolve risks to that program's ambitious goals, independently examining a number of programmatic areas including management quality, hiring standards, and team culture and morale. The final prioritized list of synthesized takeaways and actionable recommendations will give the Kenya leadership team additional visibility into program pain points, and will ultimately improve the program’s overall efficiency, while having a positive influence on staff experience.
• Building a customer protection dashboard - To better understand how well we are doing protecting our clients, team members collaborated to develop a customer protection dashboard. They used an online software to summarize results in real-time from numerous customer protection surveys that captured data at a national, district and site level. The dashboard has enabled our in-country Field teams to more easily roll-out targeted interventions to improve our customer protection practices and ensure we truly are putting farmers first.
• Coordinating the Country Directors Working Group - Our Country Directors meet periodically in a working group that generates coherent guidance for country programs and shares cross-country knowledge. An ICT manager sets the working group’s agenda, structures topic discussions and decisions, and helps to connect the group to org-wide goals.
• Championing organizational wide Objective Key Results (OKRs) - Every year, One Acre Fund uses a strategy-setting methodology known as Objective Key Results (OKRs) to help set annual goals at the organizational and team level. ICT managers played a central role in the initial adoption and subsequent rollout of OKRs across the organisation. Over the past two years, a manager has worked with other members of ICT to coordinate OKR-setting across the organization, culminating in an organization-wide Town Hall where org-wide OKRs are shared and annual targets are set against them.

We Are Hiring For Two Different Levels

Analysts take full ownership of projects, from planning through execution and follow-up. They manage anywhere from 2-5 projects at any given time, are typically responsible for at least one other team-specific initiative, and are expected to be able to tackle any type of project – from quantitative modeling to primary research – with a relentless focus on solving the problem at hand. Experienced Analysts are sometimes also asked to take on direct management responsibilities for one of our Strategy & Research Specialists and help grow them into exceptional Analysts.

Managers do the same type of critical work as Analysts, plus meaningfully invest in building staff capacity—both within our team and across the organization. Managers are often responsible for launching key initiatives across multiple countries, managing the roll out of high-priority programs in several departments, and maintaining close working relationships with some of our senior leaders.

Career Growth and Development

A core value at One Acre Fund is continual growth. Your supervisor will invest significant time in your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through daily discussions as needed, weekly mentorship sessions, and quarterly management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one coffee chats where we discuss career goals and work collaboratively to craft career paths that each person can be passionate about. Because of One Acre Fund’s rapid growth, we often have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions, resulting in fast career growth for our high-performing staff.

Qualifications

We are looking for extraordinary professionals who will help take One Acre Fund 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 looking for candidates with a proven track record of solving complex, ambiguous problems in a structured way (e.g., management consultants, research managers, business analysts). Ideally 2-3 years of experience for analysts, 3-5 years of experience for managers.

Ultimately, we are looking for the ability to take a complex question, identify the most efficient route to a useful solution, and structure the work into manageable milestones
We also look for leadership experiences, in or outside of work, particularly in roles that demonstrate relationship management and driving results
Bonus for previous work experience directly serving executive-level leadership

Professional/technical skills

Analysts are expected to have advanced proficiency in bothExcel and PowerPoint. Experience with other professional programs (e.g. R, STATA, Access) is a plus
Managers should have demonstrated experience in project management, capacity building, and professional development of others

Outstanding responsiveness to feedback: we firmly believe that ability to act on both reinforcing and redirecting feedback is the fastest way to grow. As a team, we give and expect to receive open and frank feedback, both to our reports and to our managers. Candidates should exhibit an ability to take feedback as a chance to improve, and know how to give feedback in a constructive manner.
Humility: in everything One Acre Fund does, we put farmers first. We do this by approaching our work and individual growth with humility, efficiency, and compassion.
Language: English fluency required; proficiency in any languages spoken in East Africa is a bonus

Preferred Start Date

Flexible

Job Location

East Africa capital city, with preference for Nairobi, Kenya. However, strong candidates could be based in Kigali, after an initial 3-6 month period in Nairobi.

Duration

Full-time, open-ended contract with a minimum of 2 years commitment.

Compensation

Starts modest, though enough to have a comfortable quality of life. This is a career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary for long-term placement.

Benefits

Health insurance, immunizations, flight, room and board.

Sponsor International Candidates

No

East African applicants strongly encouraged to apply.