Tupande Agricultural Research and Extension Associate

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund equips 5.5 million smallholder farmers to make their farms more productive. Across nine countries that together are home to two-thirds of Africa's farmers, we provide high-quality farm supplies, tree seedlings, accessible credit, modern agronomic training, and a wide range of other agricultural services. On average, this model enables any farmer to increase their income and assets on supported land by more than 35 percent, while permanently improving their resilience. This is all made possible by our team of 9,000+ full-time staff, drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. To learn more, please see our Why Work Here blog post.

Our Kenya program, founded in 2006, operates under the local brand Tupande. Close to 500 staff in our Kakamega headquarters support 1,747 field staff and serve more than 1 million farmers. In Nairobi, around 50 staff support global functions like procurement, recruitment, government relations, and communications

About the Role

Seeking an exceptional agronomy and research professional with 2+ years of experience to pilot innovative agricultural solutions, drive scalable trials, and maximize farmer impact and yield outcomes.

Responsibilities

Strategy & Vision

• Align trial and project objectives with Tupande’s strategic vision
• Set a clear burden of proof for trials/pilot/projects, measure outcomes against that burden of proof, and make recommendations for whether the trial/pilot should be implemented at scale

High Value Crop (HVC) Agronomic Support

• Offer full agronomic support for high value crops, including seasonal monitoring and support. 
• Work with a trials team to run trials that drive up overall farmer yield, quality and impact for all key HVCs. 
• Work with Extension and HVC teams to ensure effective staff training and adoption of recommended HVC agronomic practices, ensuring high quality output and yield for all HVCs. 

Automation 

• Work with Ag Research Lead and Extension lead to develop and trial key automations that drive overall farmer agronomic practices adoption, yield, extension quality and farmer impact. 

Trial/Pilot Design and Management

• Design, manage, and coordinate trials and design processes, focusing principally on initiatives that increase Tupande’s impact, scale, and sustainability. 
• Apply Human Centered Design methods, maintaining a design focus on Tupande farmers.
• Drive quantitative rigor by applying statistical methods to design and analysis that allow critical questions to be answered clearly.
• Create detailed project plans that allow for seamless execution of complex operations.
• Develop a deep understanding of Tupande systems and processes in order to make smart trial design and execution choices. 
• Clearly document all stages of the trial planning process, to allow staff in other countries or future years to understand the work and the findings come out of every trial.

Communication & Coordination

• Coordinate closely with departments across Tupande’s in-country and global teams
• Manage collaboration with Regional and Systems teams whenever relevant

Management & Training

• May manage several junior staff members and ensure consistent and high quality professional development for all direct reports
• Effectively utilize human resources to drive forward especially complex projects

Spending and Budgeting

• With manager support, create a budget for trials/pilots/projects
• Regularly review monthly actual spending against planned spending. Keep all projects operating to maximum efficiency and within the planned budget.
• Make financially sound project recommendations that take into consideration Tupande’s long-term sustainability.

Career Growth and Development

We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You'll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You'll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in agronomy, agriculture and related fields.
1. Crop protection and pesticide regulatory familiarity (PCPB, MRLs, PHIs) preferred.
2. Experience managing high value crops preferred.
• Exceptional project management and stakeholder management skills. 2 years of experience managing complex projects and coordinating across multiple teams.
• Leadership and people management experience at work.
• Demonstrated ability to drive to results.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate an abstract idea into a concrete action plan
• Data analysis skills and experience with setting up both qualitative and quantitative trials
• Prototyping and experience in Human Centered Design are preferred
• Strong data analysis skills: Excel required; experience in STATA or R a plus
• Humility. We are looking for passionate professionals who combine strong leadership skills with good humor, patience, and a humble approach to service to join our growing family of leaders.
• Language: English required; Swahili strongly preferred

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Kakamega, Kenya. 

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Contract Duration

3 years

Eligibility

This role is only open to citizens or permanent residents of Kenya 

Application Deadline

11 February 2027. Please note that we hire on a rolling basis which means that applications are reviewed and processed on a continuous basis until a hire is made.

One Acre Fund never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the interview process. Official One Acre Fund emails will always arrive from an @oneacrefund.org address. Please report any suspicious communication here ([email protected]), but do not send applications or application materials to this email address.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to our organization's mission and purpose. One Acre Fund aspires to build a culture where all staff feel consistently valued, represented, and connected – so that our team can thrive as professionals, and achieve exceptional impact for the farmers we serve.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.