EAST AFRICA POLICY DIRECTOR

Wanted
Exceptional professional with 4 to 8+ years of work experience to help manage our increasing African government–facing organization.

Job Location
East African capital city, preferably Nairobi.

Duration
Minimum two year's commitment, full-time job.

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 non-profit 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.

Job Description
One Acre Fund stays in regular contact and collaborates with the Ministries of Agriculture in the countries where we work. There is significant programmatic benefit from maintaining regular contact with ministry officials. We also believe that there exist powerful opportunities to partner with the Ministries to both shape policy, and also implement effective policy, coordinated together with our significant field presence.

We are seeking a policy director to be based in East Africa, to help manage our increasing African government–facing organization. This person would collaborate together with our overall Policy and Outreach director, based in New York. There are several major duties:

Staff hiring/growth, management, and professional development:

• We currently have two national–level government relations analysts, and six local–level government relations analysts. This staff meets quarterly with well over 100 government officials, to keep them engaged in our work and to hear their feedback.
• In the next three years, we expect to at least double our staffing. The director will lead the search and selection process, to build a staff underneath them.
• We wish to re–invest in the day–to–day mentorship and career development of all of our government relations staff. The director will lead efforts to continually develop our staff.
• Management: we also hope to put additional structure and organization around our efforts, as our government work grows more complex over more countries.

Strategy setting and High–level conversations:

• The director will work with both our Policy and Outreach Director and our government relations analysts to set policy and risk management priorities for each country.
• The director will get personally involved in high–level conversations with important officials.
• The director will possibly help to support new country launches, and work closely with new host governments to establish good relations from the beginning.

Scope expansion:

• The Director will lead potential scope expansions. One idea is the possible expansion of regular networking to a broader network of policy–relevant civil society actors. Another idea is deeper government collaboration on a day–to–day basis, in the actual implementation of policy.

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 discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about. Because of our rapid growth, we constantly have new high–level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions and countries. This results in fast career growth for our staff.

Qualifications
We are seeking an exceptional professional with 4 to 8+ years of work experience. We are looking for truly extraordinary candidates that will help take our organization to the next levels of impact and scale. This is a competitive posting for a career–track role with minimum initial commitment of two years. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Experience managing and developing a team of people.
• Strong work experiences. We are looking for a former policy professional, economist, management consultant, or finance professional. Entrepreneurial and unstructured work experiences are also helpful
• Leadership experiences at work, or outside of work
• Top–performing undergraduate background (please include GPA and test scores on your resume)
• Humility and personal stability. We are looking for passionate professionals that combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service
• Professional/technical skills – very high levels of proficiency with PowerPoint, Excel and other software programs.
• Language: English required; French highly desirable.

Preferred Start Date
Flexible.

Compensation
Starts very modest and lower than the "traditional development" salary scale. However, this is a career–track role with fast raises for performance, paying a sustainable salary for long–term placement in developing nations.

Benefits
Health cover, immunizations, flights.

Career Development
Bi–annual management consulting–style career reviews, and significant investment in career development. Your manager will invest significant time in your career development.

To Apply

1. Complete this form.
2. Email cover letter and resume to jobs@oneacrefund.org (Subject line: "East Africa Policy Director Search" + name of the site that referred you).
3. If you are a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV), please submit a copy of your Description of Service (DOS).