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Malawi Innovations Supervisor (Fixed-Term)

Zomba, Malawi

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

Supervise 3-6 officers in a given region to ensure that agronomic field trials and buybacks are correctly implemented.

Responsibilities

Team Management & Performance

  • Directly supervise and manage the daily activities and performance of 3-6 JL2 Innovations Officers.
  • Plan and align weekly officer calendars, including timing of trial activities and number of farmers per activity based on planting dates.
  • Own the full performance management cycle: set and track KPIs, conduct performance reviews, and make recommendations
  • Run structured weekly team meetings to review field progress, align on priorities, and reinforce protocol.
  • Identify officer development needs and coordinate additional support or coaching with your manager.

Field Supervision & Coaching

  • Conduct regular field visits (1–3 days per week) to ensure correct implementation of trials across all officers in your area of work.
  • Visit all officers on a rotating basis, prioritizing officers with weak performance or complex trials.
  • Work alongside officers and farmers during trial implementation and monitoring activities.
  • Observe officer performance in the field, with specific focus on activity execution and data recording accuracy, and provide immediate, actionable feedback.
  • Engage directly with farmers to assess understanding of trials, gather feedback, and identify issues early.
  • Provide agronomic advice to farmers and coach officers on effective farmer engagement and extension techniques.
  • Document field visit findings and actions as part of the weekly report.

Trial Quality Assurance & Technical Oversight

  • Conduct regular field audits to ensure 100% compliance with trial protocols and buyback quality standards.
  • Verify correct farmer training and data collection by officers.
  • Address protocol deviations and quality gaps promptly through coaching and corrective actions.
  • Identify and mitigate risks to trial success (e.g. weather, farmer dropout, protocol drift) before they affect the research plan.

Project & Process Management

  • Lead regional sub-projects of moderate complexity, such as pilots for new agricultural practices or rollout of updated digital data collection tools.
  • Proactively identify inefficiencies in trial or buyback workstreams (e.g. payment delays, warehouse congestion, data issues).
  • Work closely with internal teams, including Logistics and BizOps, to coordinate produce movement from the field, support farmer payment reconciliation processes.

Data Management & Reporting

  • Monitor data dashboards and resolve data-related issues in collaboration with officers and relevant teams.
  • Collect, analyze, and submit weekly KPIs, including interpretation of trends and performance gaps.
  • Prepare and submit a weekly report every Monday covering team performance, farmer feedback, field observations, and planned activities for the coming week.
  • Escalate critical issues to the manager promptly, accompanied by clear analysis and proposed solutions.

Communication & Internal Representation

  • Serve as the primary link between the field team and HQ, ensuring accurate and timely flow of information.
  • Represent field priorities, realities, and data trends to the Agricultural Research Senior Lead and other stakeholders.
  • Provide clear, evidence-based updates in internal meetings to support decision-making and planning.

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:

Knowledge

  • Diploma or degree in Agriculture, Rural/Community Development, or a related field.
  • Good understanding of smallholder farming and working in rural communities.
  • Experience leading or supervising field staff, including planning work and checking performance.
  • Practical experience in agricultural trials, farmer trainings, surveys, or buybacks.
  • Experience working directly with farmers and understanding their challenges.
  • Basic knowledge of field operations, such as logistics, produce collection, or payments, is an added advantage.

Technical skills: 

  • Agronomy: expected to make sound agronomic decisions in trial/survey implementation
  • Experimental methods & best practices: articulate & demonstrate understanding of best practices in sampling and error/bias minimisation (when implementing trial/experiment/survey or collecting data)
  • Spreadsheet use: building simple models/trackers/dashboards using simple formulas for tracking/planning/prioritizing
  • Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office and Google Workspace
  • Data & statistical analysis: independently clean data and using tools like pivot tables
  • Soft skills: meeting/group facilitation and Writing.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Zomba, Malawi

Benefits

Health insurance, paid time off 

Contract Duration

1 Year

Eligibility

This role is only open to citizens or permanent residents of Malawi.

Application Deadline

24 May 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.

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