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.