IMPACT VENTURES ASSOCIATE/MANAGER at One Acre Fund

Wanted

Exceptional leaders with 3+ years’ work experience (Associate) or 5+ years' work experience (Manager) to dream up, trial, and scale new businesses to generate impact for rural families.

Job Location

Associate: Rural East Africa (current markets of operation include Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Malawi).

Manager: Most managers work in our rural offices. In limited instances, certain managers will be based in capital cities with extensive travel (50%).

Duration

Minimum 2 years commitment, full-time job.

Organization Description

More than 75% of the world's poor are smallholder farmers, representing the largest and most uniform group of poor people in the world. Serving farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, One Acre Fund is a growing social enterprise that is innovating a new way of helping farm families to achieve their full potential. Instead of giving handouts, One Acre Fund invests in rural families to generate a permanent gain in income. We are growing quickly. Since 2006, we have grown to serve 400,000 farm families with more than 3,000 full-time field staff and we will serve 1 million farmers by 2020.  

Team and Job Description

The mission of the Impact Venture team is to dream up, trial, and scale new businesses to create positive impact for rural families. We invest in “moon shots” and other ambitious ideas to rapidly create impact for tens of millions of families. Examples of new businesses include:

• Retail Chains – we set up a chain of retail stores to sell impactful products to rural families. Retail fronts are a traditional, but effective means for marketing and selling goods to key populations of people.
• Seed Technology – improved seed varieties provide rural households with better returns than just about any other technology. We are running large scale, innovative marketing campaigns at the regional level to raise adoption of the best available seeds on the market. We are also investing in supply side opportunities to increase the quantity of seeds available to farmers.
• Government Services – we are partners with local, regional and national governments to improve the quality and impact of government services for rural families. These partnerships allow us to help deliver critical information and services to hundreds of thousands of families.
• Product Design – we are designing, prototyping, trialing, and producing new products for rural families. Initial categories of products include agricultural tools and household utility products.

We are seeking exceptional individuals to join this early-stage team to help us scale early stage ventures and dream up new opportunities. In general, team members focus on a single business at a time. We try to match team members with their passions as best as possible. Responsibilities for qualified candidates will include:

• Direct Trials and Support Rapid Scale to a Regional or National level. New team members are expected to own key operational functions and run trials to test key questions to help us create businesses which can generate significant impact and grow at a rapid pace. Example projects include:
• – an Associate on the Impact Venture team opened a series of stores in rural communities to sell key goods and services. The Associate hired and managed a growing team to run the operation, developed operational strategies to select store locations and organize store operations, and worked with global teams to develop inventory and cash tracking processes.
• – a Manager hired a team of 75 people to run a series of marketing trials to promote use of improved seed. Improved seed is proven to significantly increase yields at very little added cost. The Manager designed our messaging strategy and marketing materials and established partnerships with dozens of local private businesses to increase sales of improved seed in communities with very low adoption levels.
• – an Associate is running trials to test the efficacy of different mobile tools, from two-way SMS to IVR to mobile games. Our goal is to use these mobile tools to support our different business units to communicate with existing and prospective clients.
• Dream Big and Operationlize New Ideas – identify innovations to enhance new business units and contribute to organizational strategy in identifying new opportunities to pursue. Team members are expected to prioritize new ideas and figure out how to translate the best ideas into live trials and operations.
• Build and Manage a Team – hire, develop, and lead a team to effectively execute in the field. To grow fast, Associate and Managers need to be capable of hiring and leading large teams in short periods of time.
• Coordinate with External Partners – manage relationships with key partners who are relevant to our work. Partners could include executives at seed companies, representatives from solar companies, key officials in government ministries, etc.

Qualifications

We are seeking ambitious young professionals with 2 to 5 years of work experience, and a demonstrated long-term passion for international development. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• 3 – 6+ years of work experience.
• Demonstrated passion for, and preferably experience in, cultivating and developing new ideas and opportunities. We want people who are entrepreneurs at heart.
• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work
• Top-performing academic background.
• Independence and ownership. Associate and Managers will be expected to operate and grow operations with moderate oversight. We want team members who thrive with a lot of independence.
• Humility. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service.
• A willingness to commit to living in rural areas of East Africa. The ideal candidate will have at least one year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.
• Ability to cook / laugh – desirable.
• Language: English required.

Preferred Start Date

Flexible

Sponsor International Candidates 

Yes

East Africans strongly encouraged to apply.