Rwanda Shop Director – One Acre Fund

JOB DESCRIPTION

One Acre Fund, known in Rwanda as TUBURA, partners with the government to deliver agricultural extension services to farmers in every village nationwide. We also sell inputs and other products like solar lights, directly to farmers, with a flexible financing schedule, through our “Core program.” Furthermore, the Rural Retail team partners with pre-existing Agrodealers, with the objective of improving farmer harvests in the area.

About the PartnerShops program, of Rwanda’s Rural Retail team

The PartnerShops program (“PShops” for short) consists of many individual partnerships, between TUBURA and various Agrodealers. The partnership program is then run out of the Agrodealer’s shop. TUBURA’s role is to conduct field mobilization for harvest-improving inputs as well as for high-quality solar lights; to improve the in-store customer services; to deliver extension training at the shop; and to offer credit to farmers who need it. We are currently expanding our program to achieve one PartnerShop in every sector of Gicumbi – for a total of 20 partners and 20 shops
The Shop Coordinator  will be responsible for the success of our Gicumbi district operations of the Partnership Shops program.

>> Success will be apparent when:

• Farmers stop our field team in the street to thank them for helping to improve their harvests and their lives…
• Our Agrodealer partners are all happy
• Operations are running smoothly
• Your team is performing their duties and all shops are hitting their target

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Supervises field execution of program activities, both in-the-field and in-store; spends a majority of days “in the field” to ensure a deep understanding of our farmers, our program, and our partners
• Connects day-to-day work with the vision and goals of the PartnerShop program
• Manages the Gicumbi field team of 25 people. Directly manages 5 Shop Managers , and indirectly an additional 20 Shop Officers.
  • Supports in delivery of onboarding training
  • Regularly re-trains and coaches all staff, especially the Supervisors
  • Supervises Managers to accomplish shop-level targets, through a weekly meeting(s). Helps to problem-solve issues at shops which are not meeting targets; to set field team priorities; and to hold the team accountable to work-plans and targets.
  • Helps Managers to identify their field visit priorities. This is important since Supervisors each manage 4 shops and officers, and thus have less than one day per week to visit each officer.
  • Regularly evaluates Managers performance and coaches them to improve, so that they execute all activities as planned.
  • Conducts bi-annual performance evaluations for the Shop Managers , and supports them to make progress against stated goals
  • Creates an inclusive work environment, where staff at all levels feel empowered to contribute ideas
• Coordinates with important field stakeholders, including District leaders
• Serves as the highest-level contact person for our Agrodealer partners, if/when they need to escalate an issue above the Shop Managers
• Discusses weekly with the field team, digging to really understand in depth our performance results; then, on a weekly basis, provides field reports to HQ including not only an explanation of current results and KPIs analysis, but also a summary of next steps already planned in the field
• Makes recommendations about the best ways to meet field goals, through check-ins with their manager and also by attending occasional/monthly meetings at Kigali with the HQ team
• Ensures the smooth and timely operations of Gicumbi shops, through your Managers , by verifying officers respect required processes – including submission of sales data, requests for re-stocking of shop materials, and submission of payment requests
• Supports the growth of our team: supervises Managers in the hiring of casuals; may help HQ team to hire officers; and supports in onboarding of new field team members
• Identifies instances where tools are needed to make the field team’s jobs easier or to improve our results. Creates and field tests such materials (for example KPI collection tools, or agenda for monthly partnership meetings) – with support of their manager.
• Proactively asks for support from their manager, on difficult problems or decisions – via weekly “check-ins”
• Sees themselves as the ultimate owner of their own professional development, working with their manager to drive forward their careers

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

We are seeking an exceptional manager with 3+ year(s) of work experience, ideally including experience working in rural areas. A demonstrated passion for our mission is also important to us. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Strong work experiences. Examples include a demanding professional work experience, or successful entrepreneurial experience, e.g. starting an agribusiness, leading a conference, or success in a well-respected private or public institution.
• People management experience and ability to motivate people, required
• Demonstrated experience managing medium to large projects, required
  • Goal-oriented and detail-oriented, with an eye to assessing where activities are not meeting expectations
  • Skilled in creating comprehensive implementation plans that will get us to our goals
  • Ability to identify priorities, based on goals vs. current results
• Finished secondary school at a minimum; bachelor’s degree or some university experience preferred
• Field work / rural work experience, preferred
• Skilled in getting to the root cause of a problem, both by conversation + questioning, as well as by direct observation
• Has a problem-solving mindset; able to propose solutions for field problems, as well as to broker compromises between different stakeholder groups
• Excellent written and verbal communicator, Kinyarwanda
• Intermediate written and verbal communicator, English
• Willingness to be honest and open about challenges and mistakes
• Commitment to position and to living in Gicumbi for at least 2 years
• Technical skills: proficiency in Microsoft Office, including basic analysis in Excel; comfortable discussing numbers, averages, and percentages

PREFERRED START DATE

ASAP

JOB LOCATION

Gicumbi, Rwanda

COMPENSATION

Commensurate with experience

DURATION

Full-time job

BENEFITS

Health insurance, paid time off

SPONSOR INTERNATIONAL CANDIDATES

No; Must have existing rights to work in Rwanda.

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. 

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