Senior Manager, Agriculture-led Growth

Senior Manager, Agriculture-led Growth

IESC is a leading U.S. nonprofit organization that fosters private sector development in the economically developing world. Since 1964, we have delivered lasting solutions that have resulted in more than 1.5 million jobs in 137 countries. We partner with businesses, farmers, entrepreneurs, and the public sector to sustainably build capacity, improve productivity, create jobs, and grow enterprises.

We are currently recruiting a Senior Manager for our Agriculture-led Growth Practice Area. The Senior Manager will play a central role in overseeing implementation of programs in the portfolio, and supporting new business efforts to grow the portfolio.

Reporting to the Associate VP & Practice Lead for Agriculture-led Growth, the Senior Manager will have technical and operational responsibilities related to the implementation of existing agricultural development programs and will provide technical and strategic new business support for opportunities in the pipeline. The Senior Manager supervises Program Associate(s) to support operational implementation of programs in the practice area. It is anticipated that the Senior Manager will travel up to 20% of the time for both program and new business purposes. This is a Washington D.C based position with flexible working arrangements (remote locations will be considered). We will be interviewing qualified candidates on a rolling basis as applications are received.

Program Management

The Senior Manager will be responsible for the home office management of programs as assigned in the practice area and will:

• Support field office leadership to deliver technical solutions to meet program objectives in compliance with client agreements and regulations, and IESC policies & procedures.
• Support the development of program technical deliverables including work plans, monitoring, evaluation and learning plans, quarterly reports, and annual reports in coordination with the field-based program staff.
• Manage international and local consultants, and sub-recipients/subcontractors, including technical review of deliverables.
• Respond to client requests and questions and ensure timely submissions of consents, approvals and/or waivers.
• Manage the financial relationship between the field and the home office including managing and monitoring budget forecasts, approval and review of cash requests, field expense reports, and budget review, as well as coordinate pipeline and accrual submissions.
• Support knowledge management within the Agriculture-led Growth practice area including drafting learning articles, topic papers, and/or success stories, and organizing webinars or in-person events to share lessons learned.
• Attend industry networking events to integrate best practices and lessons learned into Agriculture-led Growth programs.
• Supervise and mentor Program Associate(s), including oversight of program support and fostering professional development.

New Business

The Senior Program Manager will be responsible for supporting new business initiatives for the Agriculture-led Growth Practice Area and will:

• Work closely with the AVP, and IESC’s New Business team in the capture and preparation of relevant bid opportunities.
• Conduct field-based capture trips to gather information for anticipated procurements, including the identification of key stakeholders, local partners, local staff, cost information, and to support the articulation of a cohesive technical approach to respond to client objectives.
• Support AVP and New Business team in international and local teaming discussions.
• Develop specific sections of a proposal following release of a procurement, including cost, technical, management, and/or organizational qualifications as needed.

Qualifications

• B.A. or B.S. required, Masters preferred, in business, economics, agricultural sciences, international development or a related field.
• Experience with USAID or USDA Cooperative Agreements and/or USAID Contracts is required.
• Experience with agricultural development programming expected.
• Minimum of seven years of experience in international development, preferably including experience working on agricultural program(s) in a developing country.
• Experience participating in new business efforts for USAID and/or USDA agricultural development procurements preferred.
• A passion for international agricultural development, and a keen interest in designing effective, impactful, and sustainable solutions to achieve objectives.
• Knowledge of USAID’s market system approach, resilience framework, climate smart agriculture (CSA), and private sector engagement (PSE).
• Prior supervision experience, and strong budgeting experience.
• Excellent writing skills is required, preferably with technical writing experience
• Ability to prioritize among multiple competing requests.
• Self-starter, detail-oriented, thorough, and well-organized.
• Fluency in English required, additional languages a plus.

IESC is an equal opportunity employer.

Please apply here.