Innovations and Growth Lead

About

The Innovations & Growth Lead will sit on the Ethiopia leadership team, report to the Country Director, and shape strategy and field delivery toward the programme's 2030 tree-planting, farmer-impact and revenue objectives. The role leads innovators and M&E specialists, manages learning agendas and field trials, and requires at least seven years of relevant emerging-market project, operations or social-enterprise experience. Duty station: On-site in Addis Ababa or Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, with regular visits to our field areas of operations (around 35% of the time).

How to apply

Apply online through the official advert page on One Acre Fund careers.

Responsibilities

• Translate our strategy into action: Lead multi-year impact strategies and translate them into specific field interventions across the organization.
• Drive the "Learning Agenda": Define annual critical questions. You will decide which new services or products enter our pipeline based on scale and ROI, then set SMART objectives. For example, explore the possibility of adding high-value trees.
• End-to-End Trial Management: Design multi-year impact models, oversee the full lifecycle of field trials, empower and coach the impact team to research and implement impactful activities, from hypothesis and budgeting to operational workflows and staff training to translating it into actionable reco
• Evidence-Based Decision Making: Partner with our Monitoring & Evaluation teams to analyze trial data and drive "Go/No-Go" recommendations for the Country Director.
• Champion the professional evolution of your direct reports, providing the coaching and clarity needed to turn high-level organizational vision into rigorous, field-level results.

Qualifications

• A proven track record with a minimum of 7 years of experience in managing complex projects or operations, or social enterprise programs in emerging markets, e.g., in agricultural innovation, extension, research & development, marketing, product development, consulting or MEL in agriculture, public h
• Experience identifying strategic gaps and designing "Learning Agendas" - knowing exactly which questions we need to answer through field trials before committing to a national-scale rollout.
• Field-First Mindset: Significant experience living and working in rural or "last-mile" settings, with a deep understanding of the associated operational challenges.
• Experimental Design & "Piloting" Mindset: Proven ability to design and execute field trials or pilot programs. You understand how to set up a "test vs. control" environment to see if a new intervention actually drives impact, you understand KPIs and success metrics and you have the judgment to adjus
• Evaluation Frameworks: Analyze qualitative/quantitative field data, and turn raw results into a "Go/No-Go" recommendation for leadership. A plus if experience working with Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) teams to design surveys.
• Experience managing large teams (5-10+ team members) and delivering projects successfully.
• English required, Amharic preferred.