Field Operations 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 Burundi program, founded in 2011, operates under the local brand Tubura. Our team of 1,980 staff serves close to 600,000 hard-working farmers across all five provinces - Gitega, Butanyera, Buhumuza, Burunga, and Bujumbura. Our headquarters in Muramvya is supported by four regional offices in Gitega, Ngozi, Muyinga, and Ruyigi, as well as a small support office in Bujumbura.

About the Role

As a Program Associate, you will have the opportunity to learn from field operations and to help improve our program. Your proposed initial role will focus on execution of our core program as well as general program innovation, but the exact makeup of your work will depend on staffing and program needs, as well as your own interests.

Responsibilities

Operations management

The FOP Associate will focus on delivering services to farmers. He/She begins as generalists, with overall responsibility for executing our program within a given region of operation in Burundi. Over time, He/she can continue to grow as a general leader, potentially managing Field Operations for an entire country. He/She may also choose to specialize, for example in designing and rolling out training programs.

Program associates also build the infrastructure necessary to sustain and scale the program. These teams proactively remove barriers to scale across a wide range of areas, processing millions of payments made by farmers, communicating with farmers through tens of millions of SMS messages, recruiting hundreds of new staff each year, and physically transporting more than 20,000 tons of agricultural inputs to various delivery sites. Program Associates also drive continuous improvements to accelerate growth, for example by implementing mobile money system integration at the country level.

Core program execution and operations management

• Own end-to-end execution of the core program across an assigned region and functional area (exemple of core activities can be farmers training, enrollment, distribution, repayment, expansion…), ensuring services reach farmers on time and at quality.
• Ensure seasonal objectives and KPIs are communicated and in line with country and department priorities, monitor performance against them, and intervene where results deviate.
• Ensure operational processes are documented, standardized and cost-efficient, and that spend stays within budget.

Project and portfolio management

• Lead a portfolio of 1–3 medium-to-large projects from design through field execution, defining objectives, work plans, timelines and success measures with limited manager support.
• Coordinate delivery across departments (Impact, Systems, Logistics, Business Operations, People) and with external partners, keeping stakeholders aligned and decisions timely.
• Produce analysis, post-mortems and reporting that inform leadership decisions on whether to continue, scale or discontinue an approach.

Team management and development

• Manage and mentor a team of direct reports (Senior Field Directors, Specialists, Coordinators) and the wider structure beneath them, driving both performance and professional growth.
• Recruit, onboard and develop staff using One Acre Fund's experiential recruitment approach, and progressively delegate as the team strengthens.
• Maintain performance follow-up systems and remove day-to-day barriers so field teams can consistently deliver quality service to farmers.

Innovation and continuous improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve farmer impact, program quality or cost efficiency, and translate them into structured trials or pilots.
• Design and run trials with field teams and farmers, analyze results, and recommend refinements to products, training or the operating model.
• Champion adoption of improved systems, tools and ways of working across the department, ensuring changes are embedded and sustained.

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:

• Project management: Able to design and lead medium-to-large projects with a high degree of independence, navigating ambiguity with limited manager support.
• Planning and prioritization: Creates and executes work plans independently. Work is characterized by a high degree of collaboration, higher visibility, and longer-term impact on the team and department.
• People management and coaching: Able to recruit, develop and manage a multi-level team, set clear performance expectations, give effective feedback, and progressively delegate as deputies grow.
• Data analysis: Strong analytical ability, using data to drive decisions and monitor performance against KPIs.
• Communication and stakeholder management: Strong written and verbal communication, with the ability to influence without authority and coordinate across country teams, global departments and external partners.
• Innovation and process improvement: Leads innovation and process improvement within the department, from identifying opportunities through to embedding change.
• Budget and resource management: Able to build an annual budget, monitor budget versus actuals, and identify cost-efficiency opportunities without compromising program quality.
• Judgment and execution: Able to make interpretive decisions with incomplete information in a fast-moving field environment, and to keep detail-heavy operations on track.
• Technical proficiency: Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills and comfort with the digital systems used to run operations at scale.
• Languages: English required; French strongly recommended; Kirundi preferred.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Muramvya, Burundi

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility

This role is only open to citizens or permanent residents of Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Application Deadline

03 December 2026.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.