Supervisor: CEO
Location: Remote/Flexible within Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, United States
Start Date: ASAP
Contract: Full-Time Employee
Travel: 35%
About Acceso:
Acceso (www.acceso.org) is a social enterprise that is revolutionizing food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean to put smallholder farmers first. Acceso’s mission is to create fundamental and lasting positive economic change in the lives of rural smallholder farming families. Our entrepreneurial model provides smallholder farmers with a sustainable way to participate in formalized markets, enabling them to work themselves out of poverty with dignity and to prosper. Acceso currently operates a portfolio of three social businesses in Colombia, Haiti, and El Salvador and an agtech tool (Extensio) founded in Mexico. Across our agribusinesses, we have impacted more than 35,000 smallholder farmers and farm workers, generating more than $80m in farmer income to date.
About This Role:
The Director, Programs will lead the design, development, partnerships, and execution for all Acceso programs across all existing and new markets. This includes ag-tech, agri-programs (integrated training, credit, inputs and commercialization), community training farms, market-linked reforestation, locally sourced feeding and local alliances. This role also will oversee piloting, testing and deployment of all Acceso innovations (such as new seed varieties, mechanization, solar-powered irrigation systems and other ag-tech) as well as gender and climate-smart agriculture programming and strategy.
The Director, Programs primary responsibilities include:
- Lead design and development of all Acceso programs and partnerships across all existing and new markets.
- Ensure excellence, standardization and integration of all Acceso programs across all existing and new markets.
- Evaluate and continuously improve deployment of all Acceso programs and partnerships across all existing and new markets to drive maximum economic impact for beneficiaries with year-on-year organizational efficiency improvements.
- Oversee all program innovations development and testing prior to integration and full deployment into Acceso programs.
Key Responsibilities:
- Program Design (40%)
- Oversee the design of Acceso programs including training methodologies, templates, dashboards, staff and participant incentives, scoring matrices, partner selection criteria, and more.
- Facilitate the successful transition between program design and program execution including interim and/or mobilization support for the start-up of new programs.
- Perform annual strategic planning and resourcing plans for programs across all Acceso countries.
- Ensure integration and standardization of all program design and innovations across all Acceso countries.
- Program Management (50%)
- Oversee all program management including project plans, execution and administration.
- Develop and implement strategies that will maximize the synergies among program areas across all Acceso countries.
- Work with staff to develop performance measurements across all programs, to ensure consistent, high-quality evaluation and goal setting for all program teams.
- Monitor programs and lead program staff in analyzing program results.
- Identify, build, and cultivate key partnerships tied to program execution including drafting partnership MOUs or agreements, as necessary.
- Prepare and submit annual program budgets for review and approval as necessary; effectively manage budget, regularly review, report on, and ensure compliance within program budgets.
- Define and execute strategic ag-tech growth plan in terms of financial planning, user/partner growth, and strategic new content modules.
- Recruit key roles required for programs; support onboarding and training of new roles as it relates to programs.
- Lead and/or provide guidance to teams or sub-teams on program execution.
- Identify and provide training and development opportunities for the program team, based on guidance and in coordination with Acceso’s CAO.
- Support development of processes and training of team members to capture and report on program data.
- Develop and deliver regular program reports to project teams to improve performance, efficiency and impact.
- Program Innovation (10%)
- Lead ag-tech team across all areas of business development, content creation, and technology in order to achieve annual targets
- Ensure that innovative processes (behavioral change, user testing, etc.) are implemented across all Acceso programs
- Oversee piloting, testing and deployment of all Acceso innovations (such as new seed varieties, mechanization, solar-powered irrigation systems and other ag-tech).
- Lead and integrate gender and climate-smart agriculture programming and strategy.
Qualifications
- BS or BA in Business Administration or relevant area required. Master Degree in business, finance, public administration, policy or related fields a plus.
- Required: 10+ years of experience in a management role, or other experience particularly related to program design, oversight, reporting and team management.
- Preferred: 5+ years experience leading multi-million dollar agriculture and/or livelihood programs or country operations in Latin America or the Caribbean.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities; data-driven.
- Excellent project management and organizational skills.
- Experience with budget oversight and planning.
- Financial and social analysis and reporting skills.
- Technical skills in agronomy, gender and/or livelihood program design.
- Proficiency in MS Office, including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
- Familiarity with Farmforce, Extensio or other survey and data management and ag-tech software.
- Mission driven and personal commitment to improving the lives of smallholder farmers.
- Business acumen; entrepreneurial.
- Ability to build trust and positive relationships; collaborative.
- Highly organized with excellent time management skills.
- Drive and ability to work independently, work well under pressure and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
- Ability to travel ~35% of the time, with occasional periods of higher or lower travel needs.
- Language Skills: Full Fluency in Spanish and English required. French a plus.
Application Instructions:
To apply, please submit your CV/Resume and Cover Letter (all in English) via the application form below.
For more information about Acceso and careers with us, please visit Acceso.org/careers.
Acceso is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.