Director, Global Agriculture and Market Systems

Background

iDE is an international nonprofit dedicated to combating poverty in the developing world not through handouts, but by helping rural households access the tools and knowledge they need to increase their income and improve their health and well-being.

iDE has 41 years of experience and programs in 12 countries in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia, and Central America.

iDE's vision, to catalyze the power of entrepreneurship to allow millions of people to lift themselves out of poverty, is ambitious and bold.

We need a person who is, first and foremost, passionate about this vision.

The person selected for this position will work within the Programs team, which comprises Nutrition, WASH, Climate and Resilience, and Agriculture.

The Director of Global Agriculture and Market Systems will also work closely with other technical teams, including GESI, MERL, and iDE’s Innovation Lab as well as support teams such as Finance, Operations, and Communications and Marketing.

The Director of Agriculture and Market Systems will focus on building strong relationships with each of the country offices and support thought leadership in the agriculture and market systems spaces both internally and externally on behalf of iDE..

iDE is embarking on its new 10-year impact strategy with an explicit focus on powering women entrepreneurs to foster prosperity in their communities.

This position holds a strategic role within iDE to ensure that our agriculture and market systems work through entrepreneurs is impactful and can be scaled across the organization.

Essential Job Duties

LEADING PROGRAMMATIC VISION

• How we create impact today
• Lead the vision and global strategy for our Global Agriculture and Market Systems work;
• Provide strategic guidance and direction for the Agriculture and Markets Systems team members across the global organization;
• Collaborate with Programs and other technical colleagues to develop a technical nexus impact strategy;
• Support the customization of nested logical frameworks and nested theories of change under iDE’s global theory of change to achieve the impact strategy;
• Support country teams to develop and refine localized strategies aligned with iDE’s overall programmatic impact strategy;
• How we create impact tomorrow
• Keep on top of emerging best practices, research, and innovation;
• Identify priority areas for research and innovation;
• Identify and lead the development of strategic areas for impact (e.g. carbon credits, crop insurance, post-harvest, digital tools, AI);
• Develop knowledge management strategy for agriculture and market systems work.

ENSURING TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE

• Overall quality assurance of iDE’s technical approaches
• Ensure technical excellence of iDE's agricultural markets and market systems work;
• Proactively sharing knowledge on current best practices;
• Provide guidance on how to apply best practices to agriculture programming;
• Lead development and maintenance of revised environmental policy;
• Delivery
• Lead the development of the agriculture team. Identifying strategic needs to deliver transformative impact and building a team to support the delivery of this work;
• Ensure the delivery of high-value agriculture expertise and support to country offices;
• Lead the technical oversight of major and multi-country projects and programs from an agricultural markets perspective;
• Lead key initiatives in the Programs team;
• Revenue Generation pipeline - alignment a nd delivery
• Work closely with Fund Development (business development and fundraising) to ensure integration of current strategies in their donor prospecting strategies and in proposals;
• Lead agriculture and markets input for strategic funding opportunities;
• Lead technical writing for strategic proposals;
• Quality of service delivery - globally and within each country, in partnership with key implementation teams
• Provide technical management support to programs
• Collaborate with Finance and Operations on issues related to quality delivery.

BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS FOR IMPACT

• Position iDE as a leader in innovation and impact
• Lead iDE's thought leadership in agriculture and market systems development;
• Secure presentations at strategic conferences and other external events;
• Elevate technical experts from across the organization;
• Lead the publishing of learnings that catalyze action (e.g. op-eds, blog posts, white papers, peer-reviewed journal articles);
• Cultivate transformational impact partne rships
• Identify and qualify potential strategic partners;
• Connect vetted partners with country teams;
• Foster ongoing relationships with key partners;
• Strategic support for business development
• Lead the development of resource material for business and fund development teams (context, strategies, technical approaches);
• Collaborate or lead on technical approach conceptualization for targeted bids;
• Participate in donor calls.

FACILITATING CROSS-COUNTRY LEARNING

• Learning from within iDE
• Identify, document and share key learnings from implementation;
• Identify and lead the delivery of proactive and reactive opportunities for cross-departmental collaboration that enhance iDE's impact and / or efficiency;
• Lead development and execution of cross-learning and sharing strategy for agriculture and market systems programming across iDE;
• Facilitate connections between technical staff;
• Create and lead spaces for learning and sharing;
• Learning from outside iDE
• Identify opportunities for technical professional development for country office colleagues.

Requirements

• Alignment with iDE’s mission, values, and approaches;
• A strong background in Agriculture, Development, Markets, Economics, or Business;
• 5+ years in a senior management role;
• The ability to travel to any of iDE’s country offices;
• Self-starter;
• Demonstrated excellence in developing and executing a strategic vision with consequential scope within an organization;
• Demonstrated experience in visioning, building and managing a team;
• Experience effectively managing technical experts;
• Strong ability to effectively lead and collaborate in cross-functional teams;
• Proven ability to win trust and collaborate effectively with other senior leaders in a matrix-based organization;
• Proven ability to catalyze high-impact results;
• Desire to drive progress as iDE evolves its market-based approach to solving development challenges;
• Ability to communicate clearly and persuasively in oral and written presentations;
• Strong interpersonal skills with high emotional intelligence, and the ability to communicate effectively across language and culture barriers;
• 8 years or more of practical project management experience;
• Demonstrated connection to sector stakeholders - especially potential iDE partners and / or funders related to market-based approaches across technical departments (Nutrition, Climate, Design, WASH, GESI, MERL);
• A sharp mind and multi-focal intelligence;
• Resourceful, proactive, and tenacious;
• Patient, adaptable, and flexible;
• Multi-country field experience is strongly valued;
• Willing and able to work variable hours, often taking calls in the early mornings or late evenings to align with country office and HQ time zones;
• Ability to balance competing priorities and pivot to respond to time-sensitive requests and needs when required;
• International travel is required. Willing and able to travel in areas with minimal infrastructure or services (will have a lot more fun if this is seen as a perk).

BEHAVIORS AND VALUES

• Demonstrates empathy, humility, authenticity, and respect in the workplace;
• Willingness to ask questions and seek feedback;
• Excellent problem-solving and creative thinking abilities;
• Ability to work independently and prioritize effectively;
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and across multiple time zones and languages;
• Excellent verbal, intercultural and interpersonal communication skills;
• Enthusiastic with a sincere interest in the mission of the organization.

LANGUAGE / MATHEMATICAL AND REASONING SKILLS

• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
• Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers, and the general public;
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide into all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
• Ability to compute rate, ratio, and per cent and to draw and interpret bar graphs;
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form;
• Fluency in English is required, including strong writing and verbal skills. Proficiency in Portuguese, French, Spanish, Khmer or Bengali is an asset.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

None required

Benefits

Diversity Statement :

iDE takes pride in our talented and diverse workforce. Minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Hiring, promotion, and compensation of employees are conducted without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, or age.