Senior Program Manager at Precision Development (PxD)

Salary: Commensurate with experience
Position: Full-time, 12 month contract with potential for extension
Posted on: July 13, 2023
Application deadline: 10 am EAT, August 17, 2023 (applications may be reviewed as they are submitted)

PxD is looking for a driven, creative and independent person to join a high-performing, flexible and non-hierarchical team as Senior Program Manager for scaling up our program on Asset Collateralized Loans (ACLs) for water tanks among Kenyan dairy cooperatives. 

The successful candidate will oversee the strategic direction, development, and implementation of a viable financial and operational model to scale up the ACL program with dairy cooperatives in Kenya. The main responsibilities will include new partnership development and ongoing technical support with Kenyan dairy cooperatives and their associated SACCOs, developing a sustainable financing and operating model, and program management of human and financial resources. ACLs are a promising intervention with strong demand from farmers and cooperatives. If the initial scale up phase is successful, we would want to expand it to hundreds of Kenyan cooperatives and potentially explore scaling into other countries in the region.

The role will be based at PxD’s office in Nairobi with frequent travels within Kenya. Alternatively, a location closer to our program operations (Rift Valley) may be considered too.

Requirements: 

We think that people with a variety of backgrounds could be a good fit for this role, including experienced program managers in the development/financial inclusion sector.

Qualifications in higher education studies, such as a bachelor’s degree and/or master’s and experience in the following domains are desired:   

• Managing and implementing multifaceted inclusive development programs, preferably in Kenya / East Africa;
• Overseeing initiatives involving multiple stakeholders including the private sector, civil society, governments, and academics;
• Effectively leading teams of various backgrounds
• Translating evidence and research insights into practical recommendations on operational and product designs
• Fundraising for development programs
• Identifying when to seek sector-specific expertise, as needed, and manage consultants; 
• Working with cooperatives and/or SACCOs, preferably in Kenya / East Africa
• Developing or adapting financial products for low-income rural populations; 

Responsibilities (including but not limited to): 

• Develop partnerships with dairies and provide support to roll out the ACL model to their members
  • Identify dairy cooperatives in Kenya with their own capital that would be interested in offering ACLs for water tanks to their farmers, building on PxD team experience and existing awareness of the Kenyan dairy cooperative landscape.
  • Organize trainings for interested dairies to present the ACL model and share implementation materials and lessons learned to date.
  • Provide on-going support and training to the dairies to help them roll out successfully the product to their members.
• Develop a financing and operating model for offering ACLs at scale in Kenya
  • Identify the different types of donors and investors, their requirements and key outcomes of interest, and which operating model at scale would work best for them. Potential types of capital to explore include concessional financing, commercial financing, and outcome-based financing.
  • Investigate financial and legal requirements for setting up a successful lending model at scale, engaging with financial and legal experts in Kenya as needed, to ensure compliance within the rules and regulations of Kenya.
  • Establish and ensure the sustainability of the financial set-up, including identification of the financial entity that would act as the lender to the dairies.
• Developing the next pool of interested dairies that will need access to capital
  • Utilize existing organizations that have access to a large number of dairies to present ACLs for water tanks and engage preliminary discussions.
  • Once dairies have expressed their interest, assess their capacity to offer ACLs for water tanks (financial and legal structure, size, experience with financial products, interest from their members, etc - using external experts).
  • Organize workshops to generate interest in ACLs among new dairies.
• Program development and management
  • Identify and lead on new funding and partnership possibilities and contribute to developing funding proposals.
  • Develop and implement detailed work plans for all activities under the program, including identification of responsibilities for different staff who contribute to the program. 
  • Develop mitigation plans to reduce risks and take corrective actions to remedy any deviation from the work plans.
  • Manage all human and financial resources related to the program including field staff.
  • Develop program budget and ensure activities adhere to planned resource allocations.
  • Oversee collection and reporting of regular program monitoring data.
• Prepare internal and external project reports and other stakeholders communications.
• Contribute to sharing lessons learned with PxD wider organization.

We need someone who has a selection of the following experienced skills: 

Program and project management; partnership development with community-based organizations; financial product development; strategic fundraising; program monitoring; stakeholder management; team leadership; communication (written and oral) - with fluency in English (required) and Swahili (preferred); the ability to find ways of solving or pre-empting problems.

The successful candidate must have a strong interest in and commitment to PxD's mission to leverage technology to improve the lives of the poor at scale.

Key results:

• Operating model developed with funding secured for operations and initial capital to offer ACLs at scale in Kenya
• Technical support provided in order for ACL program to be rolled out to at least three additional dairies with their own capital in the first year
• Pipeline of at least 100 dairies identified that are interested in receiving support from PxD to roll out ACLs for water tanks, both with and without capital, for the short-term and medium-term