Senior Lead, Agriculture Development
Key Responsibilities Agriculture Program Leadership
Provide cross-country strategic direction and leadership for agriculture program design and implementation.
Lead/support assessing specific new context in the country and provide strategic directions for specific region.
lead/contribute to the development/revisions of RTV methodology on a regular basis to ensure it cutting edge and world class in delivering program outcomes.
Oversee integration of RTV’s agriculture methodology across different contexts while ensuring adaptability to local conditions.
Lead adoption of climate-smart and sustainable farming practices, crop diversification, and value chain development.
Ensure quality control and consistency of agricultural interventions in both direct implementation and partner-led projects.
Partner Support and Capacity Building
Guide and support implementing partners to effectively apply RTV’s agriculture methodology.
Provide technical backstopping, training, and mentorship to partner organizations and their field teams.
Assess overall performance of the agricultural designs quarterly, semi-annually, and annually to constantly adapt and improve.
Establish systems for regular partner reviews, learning exchanges, and joint accountability mechanisms.
Program Design and Innovation
Collaborate with the VENN team on program design, needs assessments, and evidence-based interventions.
Integrate new insights, technologies, and innovations into agricultural interventions.
Ensure project designs are realistic, feasible, and aligned with soil, water, and climate conditions across different regions of project implementation.
Ensure project designs are adaptive to unique environmental, climatic, and contextual variations, with evidence of significant and continuous design improvements that strengthen project outcomes.
Procurement and Quality Assurance
Provide technical guidance on agricultural input procurement, seed verification, and quality control.
Review and approve partner and vendor reports to ensure compliance with standards.
Support transparent procurement processes and contract management for agriculture-related services.
Coordination and Partnerships
Represent RTV in regional and international forums on agriculture and rural development.
Strengthen linkages with governments, research institutions, NGOs, and private sector actors in agriculture value chains.
Build regional knowledge-sharing platforms for continuous improvement and scaling of agriculture interventions.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting
Ensure collection and analysis of agriculture program data to measure outcomes across countries.
Provide regular cross-country reports on progress, challenges, and lessons learned.
Support development of learning briefs, case studies, and technical documentation for knowledge management.
Team Management & Leadership
Provide direct supervision to agriculture leads across countries.
Support team capacity building, mentorship, and performance management.
Foster a culture of learning, innovation, and accountability within the agriculture team and with partners.
Qualifications, Skills & Experience.
Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Agronomy, Agricultural Economics, Agriculture Extension, Rural Development, or related field.
Masters/Postgraduate degree in one of the above fields is required.
Minimum 5 years’ experience in agricultural program leadership, with at least 1 year in a senior management role.
Strong technical expertise in smallholder farming systems, soil health, pest/disease management, and climate-smart agriculture.
Proven experience managing agriculture programs across multiple countries or regions.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively with implementing partners, government stakeholders, and private sector actors.
Strong project management skills including planning, budgeting, and reporting.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and negotiation skills in multicultural settings.
Willingness to travel frequently across countries of operation.
High levels of integrity, professionalism, and alignment with RTV’s mission and values.