Malawi Farmer Behavior & Extension Design Lead

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 Malawi program, founded in 2016, provides more than 670,000 farmers with quality farm supplies and training. Our office in Malawi is located in Zomba, in the country’s south. One Acre Fund works in Malawi’s southern region, which has the highest concentration of smallholder farmers in the country.

About the Role

The Agronomy & Extension Lead will own the implementation of Malawi’s extension strategy, using HCD and SBC approaches to translate agronomic recommendations into simple, practical and adoptable support for farmers. The role will strengthen extension delivery, training and communication content, and use farmer feedback and impact data to continuously improve our approaches. They will work closely with Field Operations and Innovations to turn validated research into scalable farmer-facing solutions.

Responsibilities

The role combines technical agronomy leadership with the design and management of a practical, farmer-centered extension system.

Own Malawi's agronomy and extension strategy

• Co-design and maintain a multi-year strategy aligned with Malawi’s impact priorities and farmers’ needs.
• Turn the strategy into annual OKRs, budgets, seasonal plans and clear ownership across teams.

Embed extension in Field Operations execution

• Build agronomy and extension priorities into the Field Operations seasonal calendar, training cascade, field tools and performance routines.
• Strengthen the technical capability of Field Managers, Field Officers and other delivery partners through training-of-trainers, coaching and practical support.
• Create clear feedback and support channels so field teams receive timely technical answers and can share implementation challenges and farmer responses.

Own the process of qualitative technical agronomic recommendations

• Use Human-Centred Design, farmer feedback and impact data to develop, test and refine agronomic recommendations.
• Work with Innovations, MEL and global technical teams to assess recommendations against local evidence, farmers’ realities and government guidance before they are scaled.
• Conduct formative research to understand farmers’ needs, behaviours and barriers to adoption.

Design farmer-centered extension and behavior-change interventions

• Translate technical recommendations into simple, memorable and actionable guidance for field teams and farmers.
• Develop extension approaches that use the right mix of group training, demonstrations, coaching and digital channels.
• Use the findings to design, test and improve extension approaches and communication content.
• Apply adult-learning, behavior-change and human-centered design approaches to understand barriers to adoption and ensure content works for different farmer profiles.

Monitor adoption, learning and impact

• Analyze results across farmer groups, locations and delivery channels to identify where recommendations or delivery approaches need to change.
• Lead seasonal learning reviews and maintain clear records of lessons and decisions to continue, adapt or stop interventions or crop offerings.

Build and manage a high-performing team

• Set clear goals, roles and decision-making responsibilities, and hold the team accountable for timely, high-quality delivery.
• Coach direct reports, strengthen the team’s technical expertise and support staff to take on greater ownership.

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:

Technical Expertise

• A bachelor's degree in Agronomy, Crop Science, Agricultural Systems, Agricultural Extension, Sociology, Anthropology, Design or a related field;
• Experience working in the agricultural sector, ideally with smallholder farmers, is strongly preferred.
• At least 5+ years of relevant professional experience in Agricultural Extension, Human-Centred Design, Social Behaviour Change Campaigns, or Rural Marketing, with experience applying these approaches in the agricultural sector
• Demonstrated experience developing, testing or scaling agronomic recommendations or rural extension interventions.
• Experience using adult-learning, instructional-design, SBCC or human-centered design approaches is strongly preferred

Core skills

• Technical judgment: Able to assess agronomic evidence, identify limitations and translate it into responsible recommendations.
• Farmer-centered design: Able to understand farmer constraints and create practical interventions that improve understanding and adoption.
• Data and learning: Comfortable using qualitative and quantitative evidence to make decisions; strong Excel skills required, with R or Stata as an advantage.
• Strategy and project management: Able to prioritize, build critical paths and keep multiple seasonal workstreams on track.
• Communication: Able to make complex technical information simple and persuasive for field teams, farmers, leaders and external partners.
• Collaboration and influence: Able to work across Field Operations, Innovations, MEL and government-facing teams without relying solely on formal authority.
• People leadership: Able to set high standards, coach others and build a healthy, accountable team culture.

Cultural Fit & Communication

• Value Alignment: Deeply aligned with One Acre Fund values: Farmers First, Work Hard, Grow Through Feedback, and Own Your Results.
• Communication: Clear, compelling written and verbal style with a strong eye for data presentation and visual design (English required).
• Commitment: Willingness to relocate and commit to living in Africa (Malawi) for at least two years for a long-term career track.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Zomba, Malawi

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility

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

Application Deadline

16 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.