Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) Careers

Position description 

• At PxD, Research Managers have opportunities to work closely with PxD and affiliated researchers and substantially contribute to PxD's research programs that test new ideas and measure their impacts. 

Responsibilities may include 

• Identify learning objectives and resources available for one or more individual projects and manage the implementation of research activities, ensuring that projects adhere to appropriate rigor, policies, timelines, and budgets
• Develop and implement new research ideas and projects that support PxD’s programs and partners 
• Guide teams on the use of evidence-based approaches, and ensure that PxD maintains the standards for technical appropriateness and rigor
• Interpret and contextualize external and internal evidence and insights for PxD programs
• Oversee data management and analysis for research projects, and survey creation and implementation
• Oversee documentation of research activities, research results, and rationale for decisions made
• Develop and track research project budgets and staff resourcing needs
• Manage relationships with partners and stakeholders
• Responsible for developing and ensuring compliance with IRB protocols and relevant in-country research permission requirements
• Contribute to funding proposals and project reports
• Contribute to PxD’s institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts
• Contribute to internal and external communications to disseminate research findings including briefs, blogs, reports, and presentations
• Contribute to the strategic planning and global functioning of the organization
• Provide close mentorship and guidance to Associate level staff

Qualification and experience in the following domains are likely to be important

• Master’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, public policy, or a closely related field 
• Professional experience working on at least two large projects involving design and management of rigorous research and/or evidence-based program in developing countries
• Adept at consuming large amounts of academic and scientific literature as well as other technical information, synthesizing key findings, and applying takeaways to program and research design
• Deep understanding of economics and randomized evaluations
• Excellent knowledge of Stata or R or similar software for data analysis
• Strong grasp of the research & program life cycle and ability to supervise all activities on the ground
• Experience managing program and/or research staff
• Experience managing partnerships with an implementing organization
• Understanding and application of research ethics for human subjects in the social sciences
• Excellent organizational skills, detail-oriented, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Fluency in English. Demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to work under time pressure and solve problems creatively

Position description

• At PxD, Research Associates have opportunities to work closely with PxD and affiliated researchers and substantially contribute to PxD's research programs that test new ideas and measure their impacts.

Responsibilities may include 

• Support the implementation of research activities for one or more workstreams with moderate oversight
• Carry out day-to-day basic data management, including cleaning and merging datasets to prepare them for analysis 
• Produce accurate and organized summaries of data including basic analysis for descriptive statistics and simple regression analysis 
• Support primary data collection, including enumerator training and running high frequency data checks
• Maintain project documentation, including experiment registry entries
• Carry out literature reviews and other desk research when research questions and basic structure are provided
• Fill in frameworks provided with specific information to identify program insights
• Draft survey and focus group discussion instruments when structure and concepts are provided
• Support PxD’s institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts
• Contribute to internal and external communications to disseminate research findings including briefs, blogs, reports, and presentations
• Support IRB protocol development
• Contribute to funding proposals and project reports
• Assist with partner relations and working with external stakeholders for implementation of field operations

Qualification and experience in the following domains are likely to be important 

• A bachelor’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, public policy, statistics, or a closely related field
• Strong understanding of economics, econometrics, and familiarity with randomized evaluations
• Excellent knowledge of Stata or R or similar software for data analysis
• Experience working on field research in economics in developing countries
• Experience in using SurveyCTO or a similar program for survey design
• Understanding of research ethics for human subjects in the social sciences
• Excellent organizational skills, detail-oriented, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Fluency in English. Demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work under time pressure and solve problems creatively

About this role

We are looking for an ambitious, organized, and highly motivated development professional to help us build partnerships and secure funding from a range of partners to scale our impact in serving smallholder farmers and their families across the globe.

We have been busy setting out an exciting new year 4-year strategy and identifying the high-priority programs we believe will best serve our users (smallholder farmers in East Africa and South Asia), and helping us to thrive as a global non-profit harnessing technology, data science, and research to empower people living in poverty to improve their lives.

With a development strategy now in place, you will play an integral part in shaping our development plans in the US and beyond, with a focus on securing programmatic and flexible funding from a range of partners, from trusts, and foundations to philanthropists, and governments to bilateral funders.

At PxD, the Development Manager works with the central development team, our country teams across the world, and members of the leadership team to support the development and delivery of PxD’s income generation activities. You will play an important role in advancing our Development objectives, working closely with colleagues across our teams.

You will report to the Director of Development and work closely with colleagues across the organization on activities such as donor identification, proposal development, and relationship management of partners.

Assignment responsibilities (including but not limited to):

•  Support and lead on the development plan and its execution for the US market (and beyond) with senior leadership, setting clear objectives, targets, and deliverables for securing funding and partnerships for the region
• Build a strong pipeline of prospective donors and partners interested in supporting our global work through donor research, identification, and the cultivation of leads
• Build relationships with potential donors and partners through proactive outreach via event networking, meetings, and e-mails
• Working closely with colleagues from around the organization to develop and deliver, bespoke and compelling funding proposals
• Work with the Director of Development to secure annual and multi-year funding from a range of US-based sources (government, bilaterals, foundations, philanthropists, and the private sector).
• Work with the development team on global partnerships and opportunities
• Account management of some current funders, providing an exceptional partner experience with high levels of retention and growth for each partnership via quality reporting, communications, and partnership plans.
• Meet targets and track data including the number of proposals submitted, conversion rates, return on investment, and income targets.
• Managing the pipeline and all stages of the partnership journey (soon to be on Salesforce)
• Work with the finance team on contracting and financial management, and ensure PxD fundraising activities are compliant with the fundraising regulatory environment
• Generate new ideas for business development tools and funding streams
• Attend networking and events across the region, staying informed on key trends and building key relationships with important stakeholders
• Support donor reports and management
• Manage discrete projects as assigned 
• May supervise junior staff

 Qualification and experience in the following domains are important 

• Proven experience at Manager-level in business development, fundraising, or a similar position in the US
• A track record of successful revenue generation of US$500k+ in the non-profit sector from various income sources – trusts and foundations, government, and private sector.
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of business development and fundraising functions in a non-profit environment
• Knowledge of the funder landscape in the international development sector in the US
• Ability to manage communications and relationships with funding partners
• Experience in managing relationships via a CRM system (ideally Salesforce)
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Strong people management skills
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills
• Ability to focus and deliver on strategic priorities
• Ability to work effectively with tight deadlines and under pressure
• Strong decision-making, problem-solving and analytical skills 
• Excellent with numbers, budgeting, and financial planning
• A Bachelor's degree or an industry-relevant equivalent qualification

Position description 

At PxD, the Manager, Business Development works with the business development team, our country teams, and members of the leadership team to support the development and delivery of PxD’s income generation activities. 

Responsibilities may include

• Provide high quality support to all aspects of business development and fundraising at PxD
• Identify and develop proposals
• Promote organization-wide prospecting by sharing opportunities across teams as appropriate
• Ensure PxD fundraising activities are compliant with the fundraising regulatory environment
• Contribute to building systems and efficient ways of working to guide PxD’s business development and fundraising into the future
• Build relationships with potential new donors and partners. Support donor reports and management
• Manage discrete projects as assigned 
• May supervise junior staff

Qualification and experience in the following domains are likely to be important 

• Proven experience at Manager-level in business development, fundraising , or a similar position
• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
• Strong people management skills
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills
• Ability to focus and deliver on strategic priorities
• Ability to work effectively with tight deadlines and under pressure
• Ability to manage communications and relationships with funding partners
• In depth knowledge and understanding of business development and fundraising functions in a non-profit environment
• A track record of successful revenue generation performance in the non-profit sector
• Knowledge of the funder landscape in the international development sector, especially in Africa and Asia
• Strong decision-making, problem-solving  and analytical skills 
• Excellent with numbers, budgeting, and financial planning
• A Bachelor's degree or an industry-relevant equivalent qualification

We are looking for a driven, creative and independent person to join a high-performing flexible team as Program Associate. The successful candidate will play a critical and exciting role of helping PxD manage programs, and streamline and iterate services and products to maximize impact, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.

We see both the iteration and scalability as exciting differentiators for PxD's work, putting us at the cutting edge of work in the development space on how to achieve sustained impact at massive scale. You will work in a non-hierarchical team and be immersed in a start-up culture. You will have the freedom to try new ideas and will see your work pay off quickly, with a real impact on how much, and how quickly, we can reach more of the world's poorest people and help them to transform their lives.

Responsibilities (including but not limited to)

Program/project management and coordination

• Work with Program Leadership and other colleagues in scoping, designing and piloting new process improvements and products.
• Interface between our tech, research, and program teams to design and iterate on products, including spending time with frontline staff and farmers in the field to ensure that our products are closely aligned to user needs.
• Responsible for project documentation and implementing successful integration into standard operating procedures.
• Assist in managing partner relations and working with external stakeholders for implementation of programme operations.

Strategy & people management

• Contribute to the development, execution and monitoring of project OKRs and lead a regular and consultative process for the prioritization of project improvements.
• With technology and leadership teams, assign and communicate prioritization of various technology development tasks, identify areas for improvement or streamlining, train/mentor non-technical staff on using and operating products.
• Supervise and mentor junior staff including field associates, technical staff, enumerators, among others.
• Contribute to our internal culture as we grow.

Qualification and experience in the following domains are important

• Entrepreneurial, data-driven, and motivated to build and refine operational and programmatic processes.
• Humble, curious, and user-oriented, with enthusiasm to spend time in the field designing with and for our users.
• Experience in a multi-faceted role, with the ability to balance and prioritize across multiple projects and stakeholders.
• Strong writing and oral communication skills in English, with attention to detail and advanced writing and presentation skills.
• Willingness to travel to project sites in Kenya.
• Some understanding of PxD’s approach to research and behavioral economics
• Experience with SQL, Stata or R strongly preferred.

Position description
At PxD, Research Associates have opportunities to work closely with PxD and affiliated researchers and substantially contribute to PxD's research programs that test new ideas and measure their impacts.

Responsibilities may include 

• Support the implementation of research activities for one or more workstreams with moderate oversight
• Carry out day-to-day basic data management, including cleaning and merging datasets to prepare them for analysis 
• Produce accurate and organized summaries of data including basic analysis for descriptive statistics and simple regression analysis 
• Support primary data collection, including enumerator training and running high frequency data checks
• Maintain project documentation, including experiment registry entries
• Carry out literature reviews and other desk research when research questions and basic structure are provided
• Fill in frameworks provided with specific information to identify program insights
• Draft survey and focus group discussion instruments when structure and concepts are provided
• Support PxD’s institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts
• Contribute to internal and external communications to disseminate research findings including briefs, blogs, reports, and presentations
• Support IRB protocol development
• Contribute to funding proposals and project reports
• Assist with partner relations and working with external stakeholders for implementation of field operations

Qualification and experience in the following domains are likely to be important 

• A bachelor’s degree in economics, agricultural economics, public policy, statistics, or a closely related field
• Strong understanding of economics, econometrics, and familiarity with randomized evaluations
• Excellent knowledge of Stata or R or similar software for data analysis
• Experience working on field research in economics in developing countries
• Experience in using SurveyCTO or a similar program for survey design
• Understanding of research ethics for human subjects in the social sciences
• Excellent organizational skills, detail-oriented, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Fluency in English. Demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work under time pressure and solve problems creatively

Position description 

At PxD, Operations Associates work closely with the HR Operations group, and with members of the leadership team, to support the organization's rapidly growing operations. 

Responsibilities may include 

• Provide general operational and logistical support 
• Update and maintain logs and trackers (including: insurance, advisory group, board) 
• Prepare and files, forms, contracts, and other documents, as required. Support records management efforts 
• Support the organization’s HR Operations initiatives (including recruitment and retention efforts, onboarding and offboarding processes, and DEI efforts)
• Maintain excellent relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Support internal and external communications, as needed
• Support PxD’s institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts

Qualification, skills and experience in the following domains are likely to be important 

• Experience in a professional business environment 
• Good organisational and time management skills
• Good communication and listening skills
• Must be detail and solutions-oriented
• Ability to work under pressure
• Strong ability to maintain integrity and confidentiality, and to handle sensitive information with maturity and professionalism
• Ability to work with an international and diverse team
• Bachelor’s degree, diploma or equivalent work experience

Location: Preference for Nairobi, Kenya or Ahmedabad, India, with current and ongoing work authorization

Salary: Competitive

Posted on: July 22, 2022

Application deadline: July 29, 2022, 2pm EAT/4.30pm IST (applications may be reviewed as they are submitted)

PxD is looking for a driven, self-motivated and independent person to join a high-performing, flexible and non-hierarchical team as Operations Associate.

The successful candidate will work closely with the HR Operations group, and with members of the leadership team, to support the organization’s rapidly growing operations. 

Responsibilities (including but not limited to): 

• Provide general operational and logistical support 
• Update and maintain logs and trackers (including: insurance, advisory group, board) 
• Prepare and files, forms, contracts, and other documents, as required. Support records management efforts 
• Support the organization’s HR Operations initiatives (including recruitment and retention efforts, onboarding and offboarding processes, and DEI efforts)
• Maintain excellent relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Support internal and external communications, as needed
• Support PxD’s institutional knowledge management and internal learning efforts

Qualification, skills and experience in the following domains are important:  

• Experience in a professional business environment 
• Good organisational and time management skills
• Good communication and listening skills
• Must be detail and solutions-oriented
• Ability to work under pressure
• Strong ability to maintain integrity and confidentiality, and to handle sensitive information with maturity and professionalism
• Ability to work with an international and diverse team
• Bachelor’s degree, diploma or equivalent work experience

We seek a Head of Product Development to ensure our product-market fit and improve our user-service impact. The role will ideally be based in one of PxD’s countries of operation but could be located anywhere with a sufficient overlap in the working day.

Responsibilities (including but not limited to):

In this role, you will lead the capture of ideas, feature needs, evidence-based learnings and market knowledge and use those to generate impactful product and service designs. You will liaise in the development of those products and participate in the ongoing improvement of services that maximize the scale and depth of adoption and impact of PxD’s programs, globally.

You will do this by:

• Collating a shortlist and pipeline of potential new ideas, services, features, or workflows
• Working with country teams, professional groups, and the new programmes team to develop proposals
• Participating in the early-stage design and development of new services or features and various special projects as appropriate
• Working with Country Directors and programme teams to improve effectiveness of services by identifying opportunities and helping teams to focus on priorities
• Working with our Research, Data and Engineering teams to bring these designs to life
• Supporting, mentoring, and coordinating the work of current and future PxD Product Managers
• Providing initial Product Development Management support for very early-stage services that do not yet have a team hired, where needed
• Driving a human-centred approach and impact focus throughout product design and development processes
• Participating in user discovery, user research, and design thinking among new and existing product teams, through advice, consultations, workshops, etc., with the goal of achieving superior product-market fit
• Supporting ideation and experimentation around alternative approaches to content, leading to high engagement and adoption

Key deliverables: Setup a common product design and development focus within our global teams and get agreement to a pipeline and roadmap of new features, services, workflows, and user experiences; Operationalise our product design and development strategy globally

We need someone who has (or can quickly develop) the following skills:

• Team and project management skills
• Entrepreneurial with a problem-solving mentality
• Good stakeholder management and engagement skills
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate, influence and generate confidence, trust, and respect
• Keen to learn and maintain flexibility of approach
• Ability to simplify and explain complex issues to a range of audiences
• Understanding of research and evidence
• Able to implement effective systems to monitor performance
• Ability to encourage innovative ideas to drive improvement
• Resilient, reliable and outcome focused.

We think that people with a variety of backgrounds could be a good fit for this role, including product managers and engineering managers. Qualification and experience in the following domains would also be useful (but isn't required):

• Science or engineering related discipline
• Marketing, Business Administration or Entrepreneurship
• Service design, UX and user engagement

How to apply:

To apply, please visit the PxD website and use the online application form to submit a CV, a covering statement, and brief responses to the screening questions. Applications may be reviewed as they are submitted, until the application deadline.

PxD is committed to building an inclusive and diverse organisation. We don’t make decisions based on gender, gender identity, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other personal characteristics that are unrelated to the role. We understand that everyone has different lifestyles, and we accommodate flexible working to make sure you are as productive and happy as you can be. We will use any personal data you provide for recruitment purposes only.