Innovation Capture Associate (Rural Kenya and Rural Rwanda)

Post: Innovation Capture Associate

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 six 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

Rapid organization growth translates into great career opportunities for our staff. We invest heavily in careers – we want to develop our next group of country directors, R&D directors, and partnership leaders.

As a fast–growing, multinational organization, One Acre Fund places great importance on sharing knowledge and best practices across borders and continents. To help stream line and systematize this function, we are looking for a dedicated associate to focus on these tasks. The knowledge management associate will:

• Become intimately familiar with our processes for hiring, training and evaluating field staff, executing core field operations and piloting new and innovative agricultural trials and help standardize these activities through a series of manuals and on–line training materials;
• Capture new improvements to our model, and write those improvements into our operating materials;
• Help to manage innovation. Serve as a shared knowledge center for our innovation team throughout Africa and the US to both store best practices and access our standardized materials;
• Work with our program staffers in Africa to create organizational–wide knowledge sharing procedures; and
• Spend approximately 3 weeks per month in rural Kenya and 1 week per month in rural Rwanda (or vice–versa).

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. 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 exceptional professionals with 2 to 5+ years of work experience, and a demonstrated long–term passion for international development. They will serve in a career–track position that combines both field and management experience.

We are looking for truly extraordinary candidates 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. Only 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 (i.e. high level consulting assignments, starting a field program in a developing country, leading a conference, starting a business).
• 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 rural areas of East Africa for at least two years – this is a long–term, career–track role. The ideal candidate will have at least one year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.
• Professional/technical skills – prior experience working in the field of knowledge management is desirable, but not required; strong technical skills required.
• Language: English required; French highly desirable
• Ability to cook/laugh – desirable

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 cover, 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