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.

About the Role

We are looking for a collaborative country leader with a track record of building high-impact agribusinesses or NGO operation in complex environments, to serve as Country Director for One Acre Fund DRC

You will steward a 30M programme, with the aim of serving 30,000 farmers within 3 years across Western DRC. This role combines external leadership with internal stewardship, requiring the ability to forge strong government and donor relationships, while also building high-performing internal systems and teams.

You will lead a dedicated team, growing a small pilot program to a regional scale. You will guide the programme's strategic direction, ensure compliance with national and donor frameworks, and represent One Acre Fund at the highest levels with partners, institutions, and funders.

This role is ideal for someone with strong people and stakeholder management skills, a long-term vision for rural development, and a drive to operate with humility, rigour, and execution excellence in a complex context.

Responsibilities

You will report to the regional leadership team and directly manage DRC's senior staff. You will be accountable for the strategy, partnerships, team, and performance of our country programme.

Strategy & Growth (vision, planning, new initiatives)

• Lead One Acre Fund's strategic direction in DRC, aligning long-term goals with country context, organisational values, and funding opportunities.
• Guide the design of new interventions and continuously improve programme quality and cost-effectiveness.
• Foster a culture of execution excellence, farmer service, and innovation.

Partnerships & Advocacy (government, donors, NGOs)

• Serve as One Acre Fund's primary representative with the Government of the DRC, especially the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, and other decentralised authorities.
• Ensure alignment of programme activities with national strategies and regulations, and cultivate relationships with key technical and political stakeholders.
• Represent One Acre Fund in external forums and strategic events.
• Support in-country relationships with bilateral and multilateral donors, foundations, and other key partners.

Programme Excellence (operations, compliance, M&E)

• Provide overall leadership for a $30M programme, ensuring farmers consistently receive world-class services that drive measurable impact.
• Safeguard excellence in compliance by upholding organisational policies, national regulations, and donor requirements, creating a culture of integrity and accountability.
• Shape and adapt programme strategy using a rigorous, data-driven approach, balancing innovation with operational discipline to deliver sustainable results at scale.

People & Culture (team leadership, talent pipeline)

• Lead the DRC team of 15+ staff (and growing), setting a culture based on accountability, collaboration, and professional growth.
• Mentor senior staff, build a strong “deputy layer,” and ensure the programme attracts and retains diverse top talent.

Finance & Risk (P&L oversight, risk mitigation)

• Guarantee alignment with funder requirements across all programme operations.
• Manage risk across legal, operational, and reputational areas.
• Maintain oversight of programme budgets and ensure strategic allocation of restricted and unrestricted funding.

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:

We are looking for professionals with 10+ years of work experience, including senior leadership in a dynamic and fast-growing organisation. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Proven experience managing cross-functional teams and external partnerships in the development or environment sector.
• Fluency in French and English (C1 minimum); ability to represent the organisation in high-level meetings in both languages.
• Strong strategic thinking skills and ability to link long-term vision to execution.
• Effective communicator with excellent stakeholder management abilities.
• Familiarity with rural development, agroforestry, climate finance, or similar sectors
• Experience working in the DRC or similar contexts is strongly preferred.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Contract Duration

2 Years

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

15 July 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 (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.

Your journey to leading impact at one of Africa’s leading social enterprises starts here.

Agriculture is one of Africa’s leading employers, engaging 46% of the population, with smallholder farmers producing 80% of the continent’s food. We have made it our life’s work to make these smallholder farmers more prosperous. One Acre Fund is a non-profit social enterprise headquartered in East Africa, and we exist to help smallholder farmers grow more food and earn more money. By 2030, we will be serving over 10 million farmers, generating $1 billion in impact along the way.

If you’re reading this, we believe you could be a part of that growth.

The Future Leaders Program is a 12-month program designed to provide high-potential, impact-driven professionals such as yourself the opportunity to get hands-on experience with some of our most impactful work, coupled with targeted mentorship and professional development. Simply put, the Future Leaders Program is an accelerated path to where your career ambitions and potential impact meet.

If you meet these requirements, then apply below!

You should have:

1. The right to work in one of our existing countries of operation (Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, Burundi, or Malawi). We are unable to sponsor a work permit.
2. A bachelor’s degree or higher.
3. 2-4 years of relevant work experience
4. Working proficiency in English, with fluency in one of our program country languages (Swahili, Kirundi, Amharic, Chichewa, French, etc.) is desired.

And have an aptitude for:

1. Exceptional project management and stakeholder engagement skills.
2. Quickly translating strategy memos into structured project plans.
3. Designing systems, processes, and partnerships from the ground up.
4. Using data and sound business judgment to guide decisions and shape recommendations.
5. Some experience in or exposure to social enterprises, agriculture and/or rural development programs is advantageous, but not required.

Note: One Acre Fund cannot support a work permit for this role, all candidates must have the right to work in one of our program countries

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.

About the Role

We believe that new technology is critical to building the most effective rural distribution network on the African continent. Today, we reach over 1.6 million farm families and we aspire to serve more than 10 million households in the coming decade. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer, you will lead the development of our technology, focusing on a mobile tech transformation: providing our field staff with the mobile-based tools to reach more farmers; developing scalable, direct communication channels with farmers to improve customer service; and digitizing and decentralizing data collection tools to speed up data flows and improve efficiency.

We are looking for someone with the technical experience to bring this vision to life; the Director of Engineering will transform our technology into a core organizational strength, working through several development teams that cross our tech stack

Responsibilities

• Own the tech stack and overall architecture and strategic direction: You will guide our team to work toward a common vision of our tech stack, ensuring a robust solution across all of our technical needs whether back-office, client-facing, or business intelligence needs.
• Lead efficient delivery of impactful software products: Provide detailed, hands-on guidance for tech projects based on an intimate understanding of our clients and internal users. Maintain a robust and well-documented architecture, balancing elegant design with practical requirements across our functional needs.
• Leverage Talent into an Agile Center of Excellence: Support a talented team to work at their best - support Agile processes that go beyond scrum ceremonies to drive efficiency and excellence in all areas. Use new technologies to support the velocity and quality of deployments.
• Develop Leaders and Build Team: Manage a leadership team of ~5 senior-level direct reports, and increase career growth and performance across the division.
  • Grow the careers of leaders across the tech division through weekly check-ins and workshops, ongoing development feedback, and regular career reviews.
  • Provide technical mentorship to the team.
  • Lead recruitment efforts to ensure we are building our team with top talent.
  • Set clear performance expectations and support the team to build itself as a center of excellence.

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:

• 10+ years of industry experience with 5+ years leading and managing technology teams.
• Experience working with mobile technology solutions.
• Passion for providing hands-on execution guidance for large teams.
• Experience managing Agile software engineering teams successfully deploying solutions to support complex processes.
• Experience translating complex customer needs into high-quality tech solutions that deliver impact.
• Experience with our tech (C# .Net Core, CouchBase, React Native, and Kubernetes) and our tooling landscape (GitHub, JIRA, and Azure DevOps).
• Humility. We are looking for a passionate professional who combines a focus on excellent performance with good humor, patience, and a service mindset interested in joining our family of leaders.
• Language: English is required in all locations.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Nairobi, Kenya; or Kigali, Rwanda (these two locations are preferred but we are open to locations within our program countries)

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

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

9 February 2026

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.