Wanted Exceptional early career professional to
serve in a position that combines both business technology and management
experience in Africa.
Job Location Western Kenya/Rwanda.
Duration Minimum 2 years commitment, full-time
job.
Organization Description Most of the world’s poor are farmers,
representing the largest and most uniform gro
up of poor people in the world.
One Acre Fund is a growing NGO in Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania that is
innovating a new way of helping farm families to achieve their full potential.
Instead of giving handouts, One Acre Fund invests in farmers to generate a
permanent gain in farm income. We provide farmers with a “market
bundle” that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market
access. Our program is proven impactful – every year, we weigh thousands of
harvests and measure 50-100% average gain in farm income per acre. We have
laser-like focus on generating better lives for the people that we serve.
Job Description One Acre Fund relies on several
home-grown software systems to help us manage a lot of information. As we grow
our organization, we need to continually improve these systems and facilitate
the integration with third party tools. Currently our most important tools – a
program database and a finance database – are in SQL Server with MS Access as a
user interface. Our program database tool handles the enrollment of clients,
tracks farm supply orders, manages the delivery of seed and fertilizer to
clients, tracks millions of payments, and creates a wide variety of business
intelligence reports.
Given poor internet connectivity,
our databases use a distributed client/server model where field offices can
perform data entry and run reports offline while syncing with a central server
as needed. As we are growing, we are looking to:
- Scale our existing tools to capture a wide variety of
program configurations per country; - Provide central management and reporting tools while
maintaining a focus on field usability; - Move to SQL Server Reporting services with code
libraries in C# for sharing code between central web management tools and
offline client tools.
The Technical Associate will
initially be based in Western Kenya with an opportunity to relocate to other
countries. S/he will be responsible for the following:
- Field-facing mission-critical databases:
- Participate in the continued
development of mission-critical, custom databases which impact every
aspect of operations; - Assist with streamlining the
databases between different countries; - Develop reports and data entry tools
with an eye towards re-usability across countries; - Maintain a long-term perspective
when faced with urgent operational demands; - Focus on simplicity and usability
for our local staff; - Work together with our small team of
developers. - IT: Manage local staff for routine computer maintenance.
Assist with network management and client database installation and
troubleshooting. - Technology experimentation: Experiment with a variety of
technologies to improve operations. Investigate appropriate solutions for
database scaling and interacting with third party software providers. - Operational insight: Become familiar with every aspect
of our field operations and identify areas for improvement in the tools we
develop to support the field. - Other: There is a lot of “other” in a startup.
Career Growth and
Development One Acre
Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager will
invest significant time in your career development. We provide constant,
actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management
consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings,
where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft
roles that each person can be passionate about. Because of our rapid growth, we
constantly have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many
functions. This results in fast career growth for our staff.
Qualifications
A successful candidate will have
these traits:
- Solid programming skills.
- Knowledge of database concepts and SQL; experience with
SQL Server a plus. - Very strong self-manager. After an initial six-month
period of heavy mentorship, supervision will consist of one weekly
check-in. We need someone who is very well-organized and can manage their
work independently. - Work experience, or internship, in some professional
environment; ideally 2+ years of work experience. - Willingness to commit to the position for at least two
years; ideally some experience living in a developing country. - Mentorship ability: this post will likely involve
training and mentorship of local staff. - No ego or drama. We are looking for others that combine
strong leadership skills with a humble approach to service. Our expatriate
team lives in rural Kenya together in a group of houses and so we are
looking for emotionally stable and happy people. - Language: English required.
Preferred Start Date Flexible
Compensation Starts modest. However, this is a
career-track role with fast raises for performance, paying a meaningful salary
for long-term placement in developing nations.
Benefits Health insurance, immunizations, flight,
room and board.
Sponsor International
Candidates Yes
To Apply
Complete this form.
You will be prompted to submit your CV and cover letter. You may also be asked
to submit work samples for some positions. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
(RPCVs), please submit a copy of your Description of Service (DOS) in the
appropriate section.
