Zambia Business Operations Associate at One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund supplies smallholder farmers with the agricultural services they need to make their farms vastly more productive. We provide quality farm supplies on credit, delivered within walking distance of farmers’ homes, and agricultural trainings to improve harvests. We measure our success by our ability to make farmers more prosperous: On average, farmers harvest 50 percent more food after working with One Acre Fund.

We are growing quickly. We currently serve more than 800,000 farm families in Eastern and Southern Africa, with more than 7,500 full-time staff, and we aim to serve 1 million farm families by 2020.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Business Operations department, or BizOps, is responsible for both client facing and non-client facing back office aspects of our program. This includes a Client Data Management team who ensure timely and accurate client repayment and order data, a Customer Engagement team who ensure excellent customer service through a call center and SMS services, and a Field Audit team who aim to prevent and catch fraud by conducting investigations in the field. The BizOps Associate will lead a combination of these teams within the BizOps department in order to implement projects critical to the organization’s continued growth

The BizOps Associate will work closely with our core field operations on a daily basis and will support the growth of our client base by building, developing, and motivating a team with a focus on efficient process design, considered structure, and ambitious achievements. This role will require a high-level of responsibility and we need someone who can effectively meet goals and deliver results through coordination and communication, process design and implementation, team building and leadership development.  The BizOps Associate will manage a growing team across a growing geographic area and support the roll out of products and services at both mature and testing stages.

The BizOps Associate will also play an important role in key operational changes. For example, we are planning or implementing a transition in several of our country programs to direct farmer mobile repayments. Implementing the systems behind a transition of thousands of rural farmers from cash to mobile money will be a key project requiring the BizOps Associate’s support.

The ultimate goal of this position is to build remarkable teams, design and then implement thoughtful, measurable, efficient processes that can run and scale with minimal attention as the BizOps Associate grows to meet ever evolving, new, and exciting opportunities.

Recent BizOps Accomplishments:

• This year, BizOps supported the Rwanda program’s scale up away from cash repayment to a system based on mobile money. 50% of our program will be using this system this year and we plan to scale to 100% in a year. This meant designing, implementing, and managing new BizOps repayment assignment and reconciliation processes at scale while continuing to support normal field-based operations.


• In one season, the Rwanda Customer Engagement team has seen a 50% increase in client calls to our hotline. We also implemented a new call management system to better track client calls in order to give more timely and accurate responses.


• Last season, the Rwanda Client Data Management team entered farmer contract records in 5 weeks, including double-data entry to drive accuracy. During delivery of products to clients throughout the season, our data was proven to be 99.9% accurate.

Typical projects/tasks include but are not limited to:

• Staff Management & Development: Manage and develop team of 6+ team members. Managing and developing the structures and individual talent of the team will be your most important role.


• Client Data Management: Integrate programmatic rules and trials such as prepayment deadlines, client penalties, variable deadlines, new products, etc.


• Customer Service: Help to develop a world-class customer service team and processes to ensure that customer inquiries are addressed in a timely manner.


• Client Protection: Ensure our program meets global client protection standards, through both proactive and reactive processes. You will also collaborate closely across departments with our Field Operations, Logistics, and Technology teams to promote client protection.

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.

We are seeking an exceptional professional with 2+ years of work experience and ideally a demonstrated passion for our mission. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Strong work experiences. Examples include a demanding professional work experience, or successful entrepreneurial experience


• Leadership experience at work, or outside of work, including management of direct reports
  
  Advanced Excel and/or other data analysis skills


• Top-performing undergraduate background, masters is a plus


• Demonstrated leadership experience at work, or outside of work, enthusiasm for learning, and openness to feedback.


• Ability to build teams and collaborate with colleagues from diverse backgrounds.

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