Technical Associate

Wanted
Exceptional early career professional to serve in a position that combines both business technology and management experience in Africa.

Job Location
Western Kenya/Rwanda.

Duration
Minimum two year's commitment, full-time job.

Organization Description
Most of the world's poor are farmers, representing the largest and most uniform group of poor people in the world. One Acre Fund is a start–up non-profit in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi that is innovating a new way of helping farm families to achieve their full potential. Instead of giving handouts, One Acre invests in farmers to generate a permanent gain in farm income. We provide farmers with a "market bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market access. Our program is proven impactful – every year, we weigh thousands of harvests and measure more than 100% average gain in farm income per acre. We have laser–like focus on generating better lives for the people that we serve.

Job Description
One Acre Fund relies on several home-grown software systems to help us manage a lot of information. As we grow our organization, we need to continually improve these systems and facilitate the integration with third party tools. Currently our most important tools – a program database and a finance database – are in SQL Server with MS Access as a user interface. Our program database tool handles the enrollment of clients, tracks farm supply orders, manages the delivery of seed and fertilizer to clients, tracks millions of payments, and creates a wide variety of business intelligence reports.

Given poor internet connectivity, our databases use a distributed client/server model where field offices can perform data entry and run reports offline while syncing with a central server as needed.  As we are growing, we are looking to:

• Scale our existing tools to capture a wide variety of program configurations per country;
• Provide central management and reporting tools while maintaining a focus on field usability;
• Move to SQL Server Reporting services with code libraries in C# for sharing code between central web management tools and offline client tools.

The Technical Associate will initially be based in Western Kenya with an opportunity to relocate to other countries. S/he will be responsible for the following:

• Field-facing mission-critical databases:
  • Participate in the continued development of mission-critical, custom databases which impact every aspect of operations;
  • Assist with streamlining the databases between different countries;
  • Develop reports and data entry tools with an eye towards re-usability across countries;
  • Maintain a long-term perspective when faced with urgent operational demands;
  • Focus on simplicity and usability for our local staff;
  • Work together with our small team of developers.
• IT: Manage local staff for routine computer maintenance. Assist with network management and client database installation and troubleshooting.
• Technology experimentation: Experiment with a variety of technologies to improve operations. Investigate appropriate solutions for database scaling and interacting with third party software providers.
• Operational insight: Become familiar with every aspect of our field operations and identify areas for improvement in the tools we develop to support the field.
• Other: There is a lot of "other" in a startup.

Qualifications
A successful candidate will have these traits:

• Solid programming skills;
• Knowledge of database concepts and SQL; experience with SQL Server a plus;
• Very strong self-manager. After an initial six-month period of heavy mentorship, supervision will consist of one weekly check-in. We need someone who is very well-organized and can manage their work independently;
• Work experience, or internship, in some professional environment; ideally 2+ years of work experience;
• Willingness to commit to the position for at least two years;  ideally some experience living in a developing country;
• Mentorship ability: this post will likely involve training and mentorship of local staff;
• No ego or drama. We are looking for others that combine strong leadership skills with a humble approach to service. Our expatriate team lives in rural Kenya together in a group of houses and so we are looking for emotionally stable and happy people.

Preferred Start Date
Flexible

Compensation
Entry-level nonprofit position.

Benefits
Modest health coverage.

Career Development
Quarterly management consulting-style career reviews, and significant investment in career development. This post reports to the Technology Lead, who will spend significant time on your career development, and assist top performers with future placements in either the private sector or in the developing world.

Sponsor International Candidates
Yes

To Apply

1. Complete this form.
2. Email cover letter and resume to itjobs@oneacrefund.org (Subject line: "Technical Associate Search" + name of the site that referred you).
3. If you are a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV), please submit a copy of your Description of Service (DOS).