Malawi Farmer Behavior & Extension Design Lead

The role

The Agronomy & Extension Lead will own the implementation of Malawi's extension strategy using HCD and SBC approaches. They will translate agronomic recommendations into practical support for farmers and manage a team to strengthen extension delivery.

What you will do

• Co-design and maintain a multi-year strategy aligned with Malawi's impact priorities and farmers' needs.
• Build agronomy and extension priorities into the Field Operations seasonal calendar and training cascade.
• Strengthen the technical capability of Field Managers and Field Officers through training and coaching.
• Develop, test and refine agronomic recommendations using Human-Centred Design and farmer feedback.
• Translate technical recommendations into simple guidance for field teams and farmers.
• Design extension approaches using group training, demonstrations, coaching and digital channels.
• Analyze results across farmer groups and locations to identify necessary changes to approaches.
• Set clear goals and decision-making responsibilities for the team.
• Coach direct reports and strengthen the team's technical expertise.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Agricultural Systems, Agricultural Extension, Sociology, Anthropology, Design or a related field
• At least 5+ years of relevant professional experience in Agricultural Extension, Human-Centred Design, Social Behaviour Change Campaigns, or Rural Marketing
• Experience developing, testing or scaling agronomic recommendations or rural extension interventions
• Technical judgment to assess agronomic evidence and translate it into recommendations
• Ability to understand farmer constraints and create practical interventions
• Comfortable using qualitative and quantitative evidence to make decisions
• Strong Excel skills
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple seasonal workstreams
• Ability to make complex technical information simple and persuasive
• Ability to work across Field Operations, Innovations, MEL and government-facing teams
• Ability to set high standards and coach others
• English required

Nice to have

• Experience working in the agricultural sector, ideally with smallholder farmers
• Experience using adult-learning, instructional-design, SBCC or human-centered design approaches
• R or Stata

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Housing
• Comprehensive benefits

Before you apply

• Role is only open to citizens or permanent residents of Kenya, Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Applications are reviewed and processed on a continuous basis until a hire is made

About the company

One Acre Fund equips 5.5 million smallholder farmers to make their farms more productive. The organization provides farm supplies, credit, training, and other agricultural services across nine countries.