Precision Agriculture for Development - Senior Project Manager

Precision Agriculture for Development, Inc. (PAD) seeks a Senior Project Manager to support PAD research, operations, and scale-up activities by overseeing projects across geographies in India and Bangladesh, in collaboration with state governments, social enterprises, and other key partner organizations. PAD was established with a keen eye towards rigorous evaluation and constant experimentation.

Organization background :

PAD is a US-based non-profit organization with a mission to support smallholder farmers in developing countries by providing customized agricultural information and services that increase productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability. PAD is pioneering a model for agricultural extension: delivering farmers personalized agricultural advice via their mobile phones. PAD implements this model in collaboration with partner organizations and gathers evidence on its impact. PAD aims to improve the lives of 100 million farmers in developing countries with its services.

The initial phase of PAD's work consisted of testing the impact of similar mobile phone-based agricultural extension services in multiple contexts across the developing world. That research found that while careful attention to design and context and careful evaluation was critical, mobile phone-based agricultural extension could increase adoption of appropriate farm management practices, yields, and incomes, with point estimates suggesting a benefit cost ratio of 10/1. Based on our initial evidence around a proof of concept technology, PAD began working with partners capable of scaling and further testing this approach, while simultaneously continuing to build its own research efforts.

A key element of our approach is helping partners with wide reach - such as governments, contract farming organizations, telecommunications firms, agribusiness, and NGOs - to design, build, evaluate, and improve customized mobile phone-based agricultural advisory systems. We help partners structure and improve their service offerings through incorporation of the latest availability technologies and data as well as insights from behavioral economics and social learning theory. Taking a global approach, we bring experience on what has worked elsewhere to every engagement and continue to optimize to local contexts using A/B testing and rigorous evaluation.

PAD currently has operations in four countries (India, Kenya, Pakistan, Ethiopia), is advising a partner in Rwanda, and is working towards new endeavors in Bangladesh, Ecuador, and Uganda. These opportunities have allowed PAD to reach over 510,000 farmers by Q2 2018, both with our own services and research efforts as well as through partnerships.

In India, PAD is operational in the states of Gujarat, Odisha, and Karnataka, with advanced explorations in UP, West Bengal and Bihar.

PAD's senior leadership team includes professors and global experts in technology and development with considerable combined experience in sub-Saharan Africa and India as well as deep expertise in data sciences and monitoring and evaluation. The board includes Professor Michael Kremer (Harvard University), Professor Shawn Cole (Harvard Business School), Professor Daniel Bj- rkegren (Brown University), and Heiner Baumann (Harvard Business School alum, former McKinsey).

PAD's India team consists of alumni from Harvard, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIT-Kanpur and Delhi College of Engineering with experience in management, research, and building start-ups.

Responsibilities :

The Senior Project Manager will be responsible for the following main tasks:

- Actively engage and supervise the implementation of various projects, including developing work plans and tracking progress, designing and launching new services to farmers, implementing improvements to existing systems, managing focus group discussions and other data collection activities, supporting research activities, and writing reports;

- Work closely with PAD team members and our partner organizations to launch new projects;

- Participate in developing project proposals;

- Maintain excellent relationship and communication with our partners to ensure the success of our projects;

- Support the dissemination of project results via presentations and reports;

- Support planning and hiring of required team for different projects

- Manage 3-4 staff members; and

- Manage project budgets and timelines.

Qualifications and experience :

a. Required

- A master's degree in business, management, economics, public policy, or a related field

- At least 5 years- experience managing projects preferably in the developing world

- Experience of managing a diverse team

- Strong writing and oral communication skills in English

- Experience speaking and giving presentations in public

- Ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholders

- Strong understanding of data analytics and statistics

- Willingness and ability to work under tight timelines, and willingness to travel to project areas and internationally

- Ability to work independently and with minimum supervision

- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to lead the team of diverse professionals

b. Desired

- Experience and ability to work in multicultural settings

- Experience in smallholder agriculture and the developing world

- Familiarity with impact evaluation method

- Consulting or other private sector experience

- Fluency in at least one Indian language (Hindi, Gujarati, Oriya, Kannada, Bengali, etc.)

c. Position details

- Full time

- Locations: Bangalore or Bhubaneswar, India, with frequent travel to rural areas and different states based on project requirement

- Compensation: commensurate with experience