Agricultural R&D Manager

The role

This role leads the country program Ag R&D strategy execution, trial execution, and standardization of research designs. The manager optimizes the research pipeline to improve smallholder farmer yields, profits, and soil health through technical guidance and research-backed recommendations.

What you will do

• Provide technical guidance for the development and implementation of strategies to deepen farmer impact.
• Develop recommendations to improve profitability and sustainability of fertilizer use.
• Develop recommendations for adoption of erosion-mitigation practices and soil health improvement.
• Serve as the regional technical expert for urgent field challenges or trial anomalies.
• Provide technical leadership for research methodologies and execution.
• Execute and provide oversight for analysis of trials, surveys, and other data.
• Establish standardized efficiency metrics and KPI tracking systems across operating countries.
• Participate in stage-gate processes to evaluate innovations.
• Design training materials and conduct regional workshops on trial design and data analysis.
• Collaborate with universities, CGIAR, NARES, seed companies, and donors.

Required qualifications

• Fluency in agronomy, physiology, G x E x M, and major pests of crops widely cultivated in operating areas.
• Ability to translate technical agronomy into practical recommendations for field teams and farmers.
• PhD with 3 years experience in applied agricultural sciences or MSc with 5 years experience in applied agricultural sciences.
• Experience in designing and managing on-station and on-farm trials with smallholder farmers.
• Knowledge of parametric and non-parametric statistical analysis techniques and visualizations.
• Familiarity with predictive and classification machine learning algorithms.
• Track record of establishing project management frameworks, KPI tracking, and R&D efficiency metrics.

Nice to have

• Nationals of (or those with an extensive professional background and work history in) our countries of operation are preferred.

Benefits

• Health insurance
• Housing
• Comprehensive benefits

Before you apply

• One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role.
• 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, tree seedlings, credit, training, and other agricultural services across nine countries.