Systems and Finance Associate , Bungoma, Western Magharibi, Kenya

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 than 1,000 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

Your primary objective will be to analyze, understand and improve financial systems (inventory tracking, procurement process, client management system, etc.), set-up systems in new regions/countries, and standardize systems across the organization. We are seeking exceptional professionals with a long-term career interest in international development. You will serve in a career-track position working on financial systems improvements and creation. As part of a rapidly growing organization, you will be a key member of a small team responsible for managing our financial systems and the 50+ finance staff members who interact with them, and providing critical input on One Acre Fund's finance strategies. This role will report to the Finance Director.

Typical tasks will include:

- Systems Standardization. The Systems and Finance Associate will work across countries to take the best aspects of each countries financial systems and apply those across the organization. Standardization of processes, tools and trainings around inventory, accounting, procurement, client management and any other financial system is critical to our scale.

- Build finance function in new regions/countries. As we expand geographically, the systems and finance associate will be responsible for helping the operations team in a new country build the finance infrastructure using learnings from all the other countries.

- Systems Improvements. The Systems and Finance Associate will help identify opportunities to improve our financial systems and work with the rest of the finance team to upgrade them across the organization. This could include procurement process, inventory management, or any other area the Systems and Finance Associate helps to identify.

Qualifications

We are looking for somebody truly extraordinary for the Systems and Finance Associate role. This is not a stint in Africa – this is an extremely competitive posting for a career-track role. Only 3% of applicants make it to a phone screen. Therefore, please do NOT respond unless you fit these criteria:

• Confident with numbers; general familiarity with finance systems preferred.
• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work.
• Experience managing financial controls or systems. Examples include professional work experience managing an inventory data system, upgrading an accounting system, or creating policies and procedures for a procurement department.
• Top-performing undergraduate background (include GPA and test scores on your resume).
• A willingness to commit to living in rural areas of East Africa with frequent travel.
• Fluent English and conversational French required.
• Computer skills: highly competent in Excel (required); working knowledge of Access.
• Ability to cook/ laugh/ extraordinary patience – all desirable

Location: this job will be located in Western Kenya with frequent travel to Rwanda and Burundi.

Preferred Start Date: flexible

Compensation: Modest starting salary + significant benefits. This is a career-track role with meaningful salary increases and long-term placement with One Acre Fund for high performers.

Benefits: Health cover, immunizations, flight, room and board.

Career development: One Acre Fund will make significant ongoing investments in your career development through real-time mentoring, quarterly career reviews, and opportunity for increasing responsibilities that will challenge you and help you grow.

Sponsor International Candidates: Yes

To Apply

Email cover letter and resume to jobs@oneacrefund.org (Subject line: Systems and Finance Associate Search + name of the site that referred you)