Senior Technical Specialist, Agriculture and Livelihoods

Counterpart International is seeking a full-time Senior Technical Specialist with at least ten years of experience (3+ in an overseas location) managing and / or advising the development of agriculture, livelihoods and rural economic development programming. The successful applicant will spearhead innovative business development initiatives, provide direction and support to ongoing programming, develop methodologies, and represent Counterpart in various technical fora. The candidate should have strong technical depth and expertise agriculture, livelihoods and other related fields. Experience with USAID-funded programming and proposal development is essential. Strong writing and representational skills, combined with ability to lead innovation and drive opportunities, are a must for this position.

 Duties and Responsibilities:

 Technical Assistance and Capacity-building

• Provide direct technical assistance, training and other analytical services to ongoing programs;
• Identify constraints in staff and other stakeholder know-how, and solutions for addressing them;
• Lead an initiative to build capacity and awareness of livelihoods and agricultural programming for all staff across the organization;
• Work with staff and external partners to generate research, case studies and lessons learned documentation;
  • Present Counterpart programming in relevant conferences and forums.
  • Mentoring of staff.

 New Program and Proposal Development

• Lead and support the implementation of positioning strategies, including the cultivation of partners, events, publications / materials, etc;
• Identify new funding opportunities in agriculture and livelihoods;
• Author concept papers and promote them to potential funders;
• Lead major proposal preparation efforts;
• Provide relevant technical authoring, review and/or support to other concepts and proposals.

 Strategy and Representation

• Ongoing identification and elaboration of strategic themes for leadership in the livelihoods and agriculture community;
• Identify and follow-up on strategic partnerships with businesses, consulting firms, government, and other NGOs, both in Washington and at the country level;
• Conduct and/or oversee country-level strategy development initiatives;
• Donor representation;
• Organize presentations and events, engaging relevant networks, agriculture and livelihoods communities of practice;

 Qualifications:

 Required

• Masters degree in agriculture, agribusiness, business or other related field;
• Minimum of ten years previous work experience in international economic development programs, including 3+ years experience in an overseas location;
• Technical background and experience in livelihoods, agriculture, agribusiness, and rural economic development.
• Familiarity and experience with USAID, and other public and private donors;
• Excellent presentation and proposal writing skills;
• Team-oriented, innovative self-starter able to take initiatives from start to finish with an emphasis on quality;
• 33% travel to developing country locations.

 Preferred

• Proficiency in Spanish, French and/or Arabic

 EOE M/F/H/V