Director, Market and Food Systems

SCOPE AND PURPOSE:

The Director for Market and Food Systems is responsible for providing leadership, expertise, oversight and capacity building in market and food systems for the international programs division. This position will provide technical guidance on NCBA CLUSA's inclusive market and food systems approach to international development projects and initiatives. The approach emphasizes analyzing and designing interventions in the underlying systems that drive market outcomes. Through facilitation-based, stakeholder-led approaches, the development of value chains, market, food systems and business opportunities will help disadvantaged and historically underserved people and communities to gain access to job opportunities and to earn a higher and more secure income.

As a member of the International Team, this position works collaboratively across all practice areas and with the business development team providing strategic and technical leadership to develop winning proposals.

Important note about the Salary Range for this position.

NCBA CLUSA conducts a salary analysis for each job it advertises to ensure fair compensation. The salary offered is based on their experience and qualifications, and it is aligned with the pay equity of current employees holding similarly graded positions. This ensures that salary offers are both equitable and consistent across the organization.

ESSENTIAL AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

• Provides strategic and technical market and food systems development leadership for the international programs' division, providing expertise and guidance at headquarters and in the field. In addition, this position leads Chiefs of Party and senior field technical staff in the developing a vision and strategy and ensure the quality of project interventions.
• Leads and/or conducts market and food systems analyses. This includes designing project strategies, facilitation activities, mentoring, technical guidance, and periodic updates to market and food systems analyses, for business cases and intervention plans in selected sectors to improve impact.
• Leads program and international division-wide initiatives in thought leadership priority topics.
• Leads the development of market and food systems assessments, community mapping, training curriculum, business support activities and beneficiary outreach, while creating mechanisms to prepare partners and relevant staff to implement activities.
• Provides leadership for the implementation of market facilitation activities. This includes identifying and engaging with private and public-sector partners, applying creative tools for disbursing donor funds to private sector actors, negotiating partnerships, monitoring agreements, and making changes where necessary.
• Engages with the business development team and supports with a business development strategy to expand our market and food system portfolio in Africa and elsewhere. Works with the BD and program teams to identify and generate new business opportunities including positioning, capture planning and partnership development.
• Serves as proposal subject matter expert and technical lead for market and food systems when writing and providing technical inputs to the project design. This includes integrating technical and financial aspects, best practices, program solution models and other resources as appropriate.

ADDITIONAL AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

Conducts desk and field market and food systems research and competition analyses.

• Supports proposal management activities.
• Coordinates research to capture lessons learned and best practices from projects.
• Utilizes superior writing skills and technical expertise to author articles and thought pieces, provides review and substantive editing to interim and technical reports, and develops technical proposals.
• Advises NCBA CLUSA leadership on development trends, strategies, and global opportunities especially in area(s) of market and food systems, value chain analysis, finance, marketing, input supply, extension, supply chain management, etc.
• Identifies, builds, and manages collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments, and other stakeholders.

QUALIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully the individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and abilities required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individual with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCES

• Master's degree in Economics, Business, International Development, or related field preferred.
• Minimum 15 years of relevant program and technical work experience in business, agriculture, or policy area in the international development sector, including a minimum of 10 years' experience in market and food systems and economic growth.
• Minimum 8-10 years' experience working on donor-funded international projects with demonstrated experience managing and implementing economic growth , market and food systems development programs funded by large institutional donors; USAID and USDA projects preferred, as well as a thorough knowledge understanding of compliance with respective donor rules and regulations.

• Demonstrated success in writing winning proposals leading and/or contributing to new business development including bid/no-bid vetting, proposal design, proposal writing, market intelligence and development of external partnerships.

• Demonstrated experience and technical knowledge in market and food systems development related work, such as leading market systems analyses and studies, facilitating stakeholder consultation sessions, strategy development, and developing/managing private sector partnerships.

• Demonstrated ability to productively build and maintain relationships with senior-level colleagues, government agencies, NGOs, private sector groups, and other donor organizations, internationally based consultants, and sub-contractors.

• Demonstrated private sector experience and knowledge of the role of private sector actors, the functioning of markets and the opportunities for inclusive economic growth for NCBA CLUSA's geography of operations.

• Demonstrated familiarity with current trends in systems thinking as applied to market development.
• Demonstrated experience in the design and/or delivery of training and technical assistance such as designing for systemic change, complexity-aware monitoring, analytical tools, or consultation processes for getting to root causes.

• Experience with evidence-based learning opportunities and leveraging insights for program and organizational performance improvement. Demonstrated thought leader and innovator in market systems.
• Demonstrated experience in successfully managing and overseeing large donor-funded international projects.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills, including a proven ability to mentor staff, and collaborate with partners from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
• Capacity to design, lead and facilitate participatory workshops, seminars and training session that engage market actors in a meaningful way.
• Proficiency using MS Windows and MS Office products including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, including Web Conferencing Applications.

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS: Excellent communication skills and fluency in English. Proficiency in Spanish and/or French a plus.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: 25% travel required, including international travel. Ability to work in the field for extended period (up to a month).