Tupande Agricultural Research and Extension Associate

About

One Acre Fund seeks an agronomy and research professional to pilot agricultural solutions, run scalable trials, and improve farmer impact and yield outcomes for its Tupande program. The role is based in Kakamega on a three-year fixed-term contract and requires at least two years' experience managing complex projects across multiple teams. Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of Kenya. Terms of service: Fixed-Term Duty station: Kakamega, Kenya Contract duration: 3 years Benefits: Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

How to apply

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

Responsibilities

• Align trial and project objectives with Tupande’s strategic vision.
• Set a clear burden of proof for trials/pilot/projects, measure outcomes against that burden of proof, and make recommendations for whether the trial/pilot should be implemented at scale.
• Offer full agronomic support for high value crops, including seasonal monitoring and support.
• Work with a trials team to run trials that drive up overall farmer yield, quality and impact for all key HVCs.
• Work with Extension and HVC teams to ensure effective staff training and adoption of recommended HVC agronomic practices, ensuring high quality output and yield for all HVCs.
• Work with Ag Research Lead and Extension lead to develop and trial key automations that drive overall farmer agronomic practices adoption, yield, extension quality and farmer impact.
• Design, manage, and coordinate trials and design processes, focusing principally on initiatives that increase Tupande’s impact, scale, and sustainability.
• Apply Human Centered Design methods, maintaining a design focus on Tupande farmers.
• Drive quantitative rigor by applying statistical methods to design and analysis that allow critical questions to be answered clearly.
• Create detailed project plans that allow for seamless execution of complex operations.
• Develop a deep understanding of Tupande systems and processes in order to make smart trial design and execution choices.
• Clearly document all stages of the trial planning process, to allow staff in other countries or future years to understand the work and the findings come out of every trial.
• Coordinate closely with departments across Tupande’s in-country and global teams.
• Manage collaboration with Regional and Systems teams whenever relevant.
• May manage several junior staff members and ensure consistent and high quality professional development for all direct reports.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in agronomy, agriculture and related fields.
• Crop protection and pesticide regulatory familiarity (PCPB, MRLs, PHIs) preferred.
• Experience managing high value crops preferred.
• Exceptional project management and stakeholder management skills.
• 2 years of experience managing complex projects and coordinating across multiple teams.
• Leadership and people management experience at work.
• Demonstrated ability to drive to results.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate an abstract idea into a concrete action plan.
• Data analysis skills and experience with setting up both qualitative and quantitative trials.
• Prototyping and experience in Human Centered Design are preferred.
• Strong data analysis skills: Excel required; experience in STATA or R a plus.
• Humility.
• Language: English required; Swahili strongly preferred.
• This role is only open to citizens or permanent residents of Kenya.