Senior Director - SNNP Region

Position:                                  Senior Director - SNNP Region

Term of Employment:           One year with possibility of extension

Duty Station:                          Hawassa   

Required Number:                One

Application Deadline:           December 01, 2022

 The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government Institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATI envisions to be the leading center of innovative solutions for the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030.

The Institute focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Sidama, South-West, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great teamwork to achieve excellent results. 

At ATI, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

Position Summary: 

 The Senior Director will lead the ATI Regional Team and will have a primary responsibility of closely engaging with ATI senior management to plan and implement a portfolio of integrated initiatives towards increasing efficiency in crop production, marketing value to agriculture and livestock produces while striving for operational excellence in finance, procurement, logistics and human resources management. The Senior Director shall primarily collaborate and closely work with the Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and Livestock Resources and shall engage with all strategic regional stakeholders including the regional hierarchies of the zonal, woreda and kebele offices. The Senior Director will seek to strengthen the collaboration and capabilities of federal and regional institutions. The ideal Senior Director will be passionate about his/her work on improving the lives of rural people, particularly smallholder households. S/he must possess a deep familiarity with Ethiopia’s socio-economic and political environment and Ethiopian agricultural systems. Also, s/he must possess deep familiarity and extensive knowledge of agricultural extension system and institutions operating in the sector. The Senior Director will lead and oversee all programmatic functions such as clusters, and other projects and administrative (Finance, audit, procurement, logistics and HR) while integrating the regional office work with that of the ATI headquarter.

He/she will also work closely with other Senior Directors at ATI in order to leverage and maximize synergies across different programs. To this end, he/she will support and guide implementation plans and strategies along priority program areas in his/her oversight He/she must possess and be able to demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills and relationship building abilities. As part of the Senior Management Team, the Senior Director supports the steering of ATI’s broader strategy to agricultural transformation and supports evidence-based decision-making.

This position will report directly to the ATA’s Deputy CEO and will be based in Hawassa with frequent to regions.

 MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The main responsibilities of the Senior Director include but are not limited to the following:

 Leadership

• Lead ATI’s Regional Team and engage with the Regional Bureau of Agriculture and Livestock Resources, and other relevant regional and federal institutions in the implementation of ATI’s targets and deliverables
• Develop thought partner relationship with ATI’s SMT in the development of organizational strategies, policies and procedures to enhance organizational capacity and capabilities
• Articulate ATI’s vision, mission, values, strategic initiatives, programs and plans to the regional presidents, regional cabinets and other implementation partners   
• Effectively manage the regional programmatic as well operational component of the regional office
• Ensure the strengthening and operationalization of transformation platforms
• Align strategies and programs with regional priorities to deliver increased results in effectively impacting the agricultural sector  
• Support effective cross-sector and public-private stakeholders' coordination and problem-solving issues at the regional and federal level, including alignment of ATA’s priorities with other national and regional strategies and programs
• Provide effective timely upward reporting to the Regional Transformation Council, chaired by regional presidents as required
• Provide effective timely upward reporting to the ATI’s CEO, Deputy CEO, and Senior Management and leadership on programmatic and operational issues
• Ensure effective regular communication and reporting with the various government offices, and key public, private and development partner stakeholders
• Lead the regional enhancement program while instilling a transformational mindset to regional staff and beyond
• Participate in SMT discussions and provide strategic input, contributing to decision-making and the direction of the organization

Project Management

• Ensure stakeholder coordination, planning, reporting, problem-solving, and implementation support activities are seamlessly executed
• Ensure annual plan and established KPIs are met at the regional level for nationwide impact Ensure effective capacity-building support to Regions on issues related to ATA Initiative
• Lead process of performance management from the Kebele, Woreda, cluster, regional levels in connection with annual plans and regional targets
• Lead process of work plan development and is responsible for execution to meet set KPIs at agreed timeline and budget

Operations

• Ensure regional budget utilization is according to the plan
• Optimize organization resources to drive impact on smallholder farmer’s livelihood
• Ensure both financial and operational standards are maintained to meet government and partners’ audit requirements
• Commit in people development plan to ensure the regional office is staffed with only high caliber staff

• Master's degree or above in Agricultural sciences, Economics, Agribusiness, Business Management, or other relevant fields.

• At least Fourteen (14) years of professional experience supporting areas such as

o    planning and implementation of agricultural growth programs and projects

o    market-led value chain development and upgrading activities (preferably including project management of large-scale agricultural development, agro-processing and/or agribusiness focused initiatives)

o    Obtaining operation excellence in organization capacity building

o    Lead diverse staff and ensure staff development plan

o    Manage budget and activities and ensure audit requirement is met

o    Ensuring value for money is achieved and driving impact in the agriculture sector

• Good experience of working at Federal, regional and civil society or private sector sectors.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills including thorough knowledge and understanding of various regional level and federal level institutions; extensive experience in facilitating dialogue with relevant public and private stakeholders

• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and reporting skills.

• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service.

• Ability and willingness to shoulder responsibilities under hectic conditions (in terms of overlapping assignments that may happen occasionally).

• High senses of responsiveness and ability to thrive in a fast-moving environment, with an emphasis on high performance, teamwork, accountability and results.

• Experience in working with multi-cultural teams preferred.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with highly collaborative working style.
• Fluency in English and Amharic required; fluency in one of the regional language(s) is a must