One Acre Fund East Africa Talent Associate

Most of the world's poor are farmers, representing the largest and most uniform group of poor people in the world. One Acre Fund is a successful, rapidly growing NGO in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi that is innovating a new way of helping farm families to achieve their full potential. Instead of giving handouts, One Acre invests in farmers to generate a permanent gain in farm income. We provide farmers with a "market bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market access. Our program is proven impactful – every year, we weigh thousands of harvests and measure more than 100% average gain in farm income per acre. We have laser-like focus on generating better lives for the people that we serve.

We are growing quickly. In five years, we have grown to serve 130,000 farm families with more than1000 full-time field staff. In three more years, we will at least quadruple in size, while adding several new countries. Our approach has won widespread validation, winning grants from the highly competitive Echoing Green and Skoll Foundations, and the global Financial Times/ IFC award for "basic needs financing" in 2010 and 2011. Website: www.oneacrefund.org

Organization Description

Most of the world's poor are farmers, representing the largest and most uniform group of poor people in the world. One Acre Fund is a start-up NGO in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi that is innovating a new way of helping farm families to achieve their full potential. Instead of giving handouts, One Acre invests in farmers to generate a permanent gain in farm income. We provide farmers with a "market bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market access. Our program is proven impactful – every year, we weigh thousands of harvests and measure more than 100% average gain in farm income per acre. We have laser-like focus on generating better lives for the people that we serve.

We are growing quickly. In five years, we have grown to serve 130,000 farm families with more than 1000 full-time field staff. In three more years, we will at least quadruple in size, while adding several new countries. Our approach has won widespread validation, winning grants from the highly competitive Echoing Green and Skoll Foundations, and the global Financial Times/ IFC award for "basic needs financing" in 2010 and 2011. Website: www.oneacrefund.org

Job Description

One Acre Fund has an outstanding team of more than 1000 professionals who think big and set aggressive goals. To continuously stretch our performance and help farmers around the world, we need an army of the world's best and most dedicated development professionals. To reach those aggressive recruitment goals, we need a committed and dedicated East Africa Talent Associate to find the best local and international talent for our operations.

The East Africa Talent Associate will lead the charge to find a new wave of program staffers who we hope will ultimately be our future country directors, field directors, R&D directors, and partnership leaders. Simply put, the more quality program and field staffers we bring on board, the faster we can expand our program to help subsistence farmers around the world.

We are seeking a smart and dedicated self-starter to be based in Nairobi to recruit new field staff and administer many of the innovative talent initiatives that we currently offer. The East Africa Talent Associate will work closely with our Talent Team on the following projects:

Recruit International Staffers

• Network into the East African international development community to identify the best development professionals and cultivate those relationships in an effort to recruit new staffers.
• Organize and host events and panel discussions on careers in international development.
• Establish and cultivate relationships with organizations that bring international fellows and long term interns to Africa for fixed terms (i.e., Peace Corps).
• Our Talent Team recruits outstanding new staffers from around the globe and those staffers need to be "on-boarded" to our field operations. The Talent Associate will be the point person for handling the transition from candidate to full time staffer, including basic new country transition issues, visa processing, travel arrangements and support, etc.

Talent Retention

• We have quickly realized as an organization that retaining staffers for long periods of time (5+ years) is the best way to ensure we are delivering the best possible service to our client farmers. The Talent Associate will ensure that our current talent retention programs are utilized and run smoothly and will be tasked with coming up with new ideas in this vital area.

Recruit Local Staffers

• Build relationships with East African universities in an effort to reach and recruit their brightest new graduates for roles throughout our organization.
• Plan and host networking and recruitment events in East African development hubs.
• Work with our local HR teams to identify new and innovative ways to identify and recruit the best local talent – we have over 1000 local staffers and need to add thousands more in the next several years.

Career Growth and Development: One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through weekly mentorship and through regular 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. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications

We are seeking an exceptional professional with 1 to 5+ years of work experience, and a demonstrated long-term passion for international development. We are looking for a truly extraordinary candidate that will help take our organization to the next levels of impact and scale. This is not a short stint in Africa – this is a competitive posting for a career-track role. Fewer than 3% of applicants make it to a phone screen. Therefore, please only apply if you fit these criteria:

• Strong work experiences. Examples include a demanding professional work experience, or successful entrepreneurial experience (e.g. starting a field program in a developing country, leading a conference, starting a business, solid Peace Corps accomplishments).
• Internal drive. The candidate hired for this position will often work by themselves, and, therefore, must be a self-starter and one who can proactively complete tasks without constant oversight.
• Strong networking abilities.
• Experience making presentations to large audiences.
• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work.
• Top-performing undergraduate background (include GPA and test scores on your resume).
• Humility and personal stability. We have a fantastic and likeable team. We are looking for passionate professionals that combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service.
• A willingness to commit to living in East Africa for at least two years - this is a long-term, career-track role. We are looking for a candidate who truly enjoys all facets of recruiting and talent management and not a person who sees this job as an "in" to some other position with One Acre Fund.
• Travel – up to 50% within East Africa and possibly Europe.
• Language: French-speakers are particularly encouraged to apply.

Preferred Start Date: Flexible

Compensation: Starts very 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.

Career development: Quarterly management consulting-style career reviews and constant feedback. Your manager will invest significant time in your career development.

Sponsor International Candidates: Yes

To Apply

Email cover letter and resume to jobs@oneacrefund.org (Subject line: "E. Africa Talent Associate" + name of the site that referred you).