Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Lead

One Acre Fund is seeking a Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Lead to accelerate the transition from imported synthetic fertilizers to sustainable crop nutrition for smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa.

What it offers

• A 2-year contract with benefits including health insurance and housing.
• Opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a long-term career with regular feedback, mentorship, training, and career reviews every six months.

Who can apply

• Relevant academic background in Agronomy, Soil Science, Plant Nutrition, Microbiology, Agroecology, or a related field.
• Experience developing and/or managing farm system transition pathways, with consideration of diverse cropping systems, sustainable plant protection, nutrient cycling, and integrated soil fertility management.
• Familiarity with the latest advances in sustainable plant nutrition—particularly biological solutions—and soil science, including promising products, services, and practices.
• Familiarity with agricultural research, experimental design, analysis, and interpretation of results.
• Strong project management skills and experience leading complex initiatives with diverse stakeholders.
• Experience navigating agricultural regulatory or product registration pathways in Sub-Saharan Africa is a plus.

What you'll do

• Build and maintain a database of alternatives to imported, synthetic fertilizers through desk research, key informant interviews, performance data, supplier conversations, and product adopters.
• Create a prioritization framework based on factors like mechanism of action, cost, yield impact, profitability impact, quality of evidence, farmer feasibility, logistical feasibility, and supply chain stability.
• Drive forward a multi-year R&D strategy, translating it into an action plan and meeting targets in agricultural research, government relations, supplier engagement, logistics, and supply chain.
• Support R&D leads to ensure high-quality trial design, execution, analysis, and dissemination of results.
• Engage with suppliers to refine products for smallholder farmers, suggest trials, propose new formulations, and address supply chain constraints.
• Proactively engage suppliers to expedite research, demonstrate efficacy, and achieve product registration.
• Manage internal stakeholders, lead working groups, provide regular updates, and maintain relationships through 1:1 meetings.
• Liaise with Government Relations colleagues to advocate for policy changes that promote the registration and farmer access of viable alternative products.

How to apply

• Applications are reviewed and processed on a continuous basis until a hire is made.
• Application Deadline: 08 September 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. Report any suspicious communication to globalhotline@oneacrefund.org.

Good to know

• Job Location: Kigali, Rwanda, or flexible in any of our countries of operation.
• One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role, but nationals of (or those with an extensive professional background and work history in) our countries of operation are preferred.
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to the organization’s mission. One Acre Fund is 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.