Technical Director - Feed the Future FORK

Job Description

Proposal Summary:

Land O’Lakes Venture37 is preparing for an anticipated USAID Notice of Funding Opportunity “FORK” with a potential procurement release in early 2024. The purpose of the Global FORK bid is to transform local food processing to sustainably and equitably increase access to and affordability of safe, nutritious foods for women and children. Its objectives include: strengthening business and technical practices of food processors; strengthening linkages between food processors and the broader business ecosystem for nutritious foods, including smallholder producers and domestic and regional markets; and increasing the sharing and uptake of knowledge, learning, and tools to support local food processors of safe, nutritious foods.

FORK will be a global program overseeing connected projects in multiple countries of varying size, scope and complexity. At times, the program in total may vary in size from $30 million to $80 million.

Position Summary:

The Technical Director will provide technical leadership direction of the program across multiple countries, ensuring an integrated vision among different components and actors. S/he will provide strategic vision and technical oversight to team members and implementing partners. This will include overseeing strengthening the technical capacity of implementing partners and local partners to transform their local food processing sector. S/he will identify issues and risks related to program implementation in a timely manner and suggest appropriate program adjustments. The position will be based in one of our project locations in Southern or Eastern Africa.

The Technical Director will report to US based Project Director. The position is subject to the availability of funds and approval by USAID.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Lead technical planning and program implementation, ensuring programming is evidence-based, grounded in global best practices and utilizes the most up-to-date guidelines, tools, and approaches.
• Lead technical capacity strengthening efforts to program staff, global counterparts, and local program partners.
• Contribute to the development of a model for the adoption, replication, and scale up of key food processing high impact practices regionally and in target countries.
• Support monitoring and reporting of project progress to ensure quality, timeliness, and completeness of activities, interventions, and technical deliverables.
• Assist program leaders in rapidly identifying and addressing any food safety technical issues related to project implementation.
• Synthesize and disseminate evidence-based results and lessons learned through reports, working groups, workshops, and regional platforms.
• Contribute to project learning and knowledge management by collaborating with donors, communities of practice, global organizations and coalitions, host governments, technical working groups, and implementing partners to share and discuss progress, achievements, and challenges.
• Ensure programming advances gender equity and equality and the meaningful engagement of adolescents/youth, women, and other underserved and underrepresented groups in program design, implementation, monitoring, and sustainability planning.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Degree in a relevant field such as food science, nutrition, agribusiness, international development, finance, economics, or other relevant or equivalent field.
• Seven (7) years of experience implementing international donor-supported programs, including extensive work experience with agribusiness, and enterprise development.
• At least five (5) years in agribusiness, nutritious agri-food processing, MSMEs and private sector development and project management roles with similar scope, size, and complexity.
• Demonstrated expertise in food processing, nutritious foods, agri-food development, safe use and handling, food loss and waste, and experience with metrics around food and market systems.
• Experienced in providing training, coaching, mentorship, and capacity strengthening in food processing, food safety and quality.
• Previous experience working with USAID and other donors, governments, and diverse sets of public and private sector food system stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across projects, be flexible, and creative and successfully lead an intercultural team in complex development contexts.
• Excellent interpersonal and written and oral presentation skills in English.
• Ability to travel internationally for up to 25% of the time.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• An advanced degree (e.g. MA/MS, PhD) in food science, agribusiness, international development, economics, international trade, business management, or other relevant field.
• Previous experience serving as Chief of Party, Deputy Chief of Party or Technical Director on a US Government-funded project.
• Additional fluency in French, Spanish or other language.

The position described above is contingent upon activity award.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. No phone calls will be accepted.

Land O’Lakes never requests money or payment from candidates for any position type. Please report any such requests to Land O’Lakes.

Land O’Lakes Venture37 is an equal opportunity employer and an organization striving to help global communities thrive through agriculture. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or veteran status, among other factors. Our culture values a diversity of voices. So bring us your unique experiences, your workstyle, and your dreams — they’ll only make us stronger.

About the Organization

Land O’Lakes Venture37 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit helping communities around the world build economies by strengthening agriculture from farm-to-fork, helping businesses grow, and linking farmers to markets. Since our start in 1981, we have been leveraging nearly 100 years of expertise in crop inputs, agricultural insights, dairy and animal nutrition from our close affiliate, Land O’Lakes, Inc., a farmer-owned agribusiness committed to fulfilling its purpose of feeding human progress.

Our team is made up of nearly 350 employees who are committed to market-led approaches, and passionate about collaborating locally to create lasting inclusive economic growth. By unlocking the potential of agriculture for nearly 40 years, the lives of more than 3 million people have been transformed through nearly 300 programs in more than 80 countries.