Zambia Research and Data Lead (Fixed-Term)

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund equips more than 4 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 her income and assets on supported land by more than 40 percent, while permanently improving her climate resilience. This is all made possible by our team of 8,000+ full-time staff, drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions.

In Zambia, our focus is on agroforestry. We provide farmers with a package of different tree varieties and the training they need to create an additional source of income while strengthening their resilience in the face of a changing climate. The tree package provides farmers with a range of benefits, from medicinal use to food and timber. In the longer term, we also plan to help farmers generate income through the carbon credit market. We are headquartered in Kabwe and operate throughout the Central Province, including Chibombo, Chisamba, Kapiri, and Luano districts, where most people rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. To learn more about our work, look at our Zambia program blog.

About the Role

As the Zambia Research and Data Lead, you will oversee strategic Data, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning projects. You will use our central data warehouse to make data-driven recommendations that increase farmer impact and improve our daily operations such as client adoption and repayment collection. You will support internal agronomic and agroforestry research efforts, including providing oversight on One Acre Fund research stations. 

You will report to the Senior MEL Regional Manager.

Responsibilities

• You'll work with internal and external agricultural and forestry scientists to conduct crop and agroforestry impact assessments and research trials. 
• You'll indirectly supervise a team of enumerators (50+), MEL field managers (4) while working with the Impact and Field department. 
• You'll develop qualitative and quantitative surveys, conduct field testing, and refine data collection. 
• You'll perform data analysis of operational data (enrollment, repayment, spatial) and generate reports to draw meaningful conclusions and actionable insights. 
• You'll will work directly with country leadership, global data science, and global MEL to ensure recommendations are understood and acted upon.
• You'll help build a data-driven culture within One Acre Fund Zambia.

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:

• 3+ years of experience, a demonstrated passion for data and research, and strong knowledge of statistics.
• A Bachelor’s degree or higher in a quantitative field such as statistics, mathematics, data science, business analytics, economics, finance, engineering, computer science or a relevant science degree. 
• Essential Skills: Predictive modeling and analytics, documentation skills, with the ability to translate business needs into technical solutions
• Important Skills: Data modeling, Intermediate understanding of SQL to write queries with large relational datasets, Programming Languages- basic programming knowledge, such as Python, Stata, R or similar
• Nice-to-have Skills: Experience using Dataiku, experience and comfort with geospatial analysis, experience in agriculture/ agroforestry/ forestry/ or remote sensing.
• The experience and willingness to teach others and advise on organizational data decisions

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

70% rural work (Central Province - Kabwe) for the first 6 months followed by 30% rural / 70% capital (Lusaka) going forward

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Contract Duration

5 years (Renewable)

Eligibility

One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role. However, nationals of (or those with an extensive professional background and work history in) our countries of operation are preferred.

Application Deadline

17 December 2024

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 (globalhotline@oneacrefund.org), 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.