Job Title: Program Director, Uganda GROWTH program
Organisation: Technoserve
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
About Organisation:
TechnoServe (TNS) is an international non-profit international development organization founded in 1968. Its mission is to help entrepreneurial men and women break the cycle of poverty by building businesses that create jobs, income, and economic opportunities for their families, their communities, and their countries.
Program Overview:
Building on the successes of TechnoServe’s Horticulture Market Acceleration Program (HortiMAP), Growing Resilience and Opportunities for Wealth Through Horticulture (GROWTH) will deepen farmer ownership and drive lasting transformation in Uganda’s horticulture sector.
Over five years, GROWTH will support 200,000 smallholder farmers to engage in profitable and resilient horticulture markets. The program will increase and stabilize farmer incomes, reduce post-harvest losses, enhance food security, and create thousands of new jobs across value chains. At a systems level, it will expand access to affordable finance, strengthen compliance with food safety standards, and improve market linkages across domestic and regional trade. GROWTH is rooted in a farmer-led approach that leverages participatory planning, so that farmers and their organizations will define their priorities, shaping interventions that reflect local needs.
GROWTH aligns with the Dutch Embassy’s Multi-Annual Country Strategy 2023–2026, contributing to food and nutrition security, sustainable land use, private sector growth, and climate adaptation. It also supports the Netherlands’ broader ambition to connect aid and trade, facilitating partnerships between Dutch and Ugandan enterprises in areas such as irrigation, seed systems, and cold chain solutions. GROWTH will be a EUR 13 million investment over five years.
Job Summary: TechnoServe seeks a Project Director to provide overall technical and administrative leadership and expertise over the program.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Leading overall implementation and management of the anticipated program, from inception to close-out
- Providing strategic guidance, leadership, management, and general technical oversight of the program
- Serving as the primary liaison with EKN, the Ugandan government, and all other counterparts, implementing partners, and stakeholders involved with the program
- Brokering relationships between market actors, including: SHFs, Producer Organizations, buyers, exporters, and financial institutions
- Recruiting, leading, managing, and supervising implementation teams comprising long- and short-term team members and consortium partners
- Continuously developing operational efficiencies and driving innovations in delivery, ensuring that the program meets established objectives and targets and delivers Value for Money
- Serving as spokesperson for the program and presenting its work regionally/globally
- Supervise and mentor the Senior Management Team (SMT), including Finance & Operations, Horticulture Production, Horticulture Marketing, Access to Finance, Social Dynamics, and Participatory Planning Managers
- Ensure cross-cutting priorities (climate resilience, inclusion, governance, food safety) are fully integrated into program components
- Identifying and communicating critical program learnings
- Identifying issues and risks related to implementation in a timely manner, suggesting appropriate program adjustments
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Agricultural Economics, or another relevant field, and at least 12 years of experience in relevant private sector or development programs, Or a Master’s degree plus 8 years of relevant experience.
- Significant program management experience in commercial agriculture, agribusiness development, access to finance, market access, trade facilitation, and partnership development using participatory stakeholder engagement approaches
Preferred Qualifications:
- Additional qualifications that would make a candidate more desirable. We seek candidates who bring experience with:
- Leading complex horticulture or other agriculture programs in Uganda and/or other rural areas Sub-Saharan Africa is strongly preferred
- Demonstrated expertise in horticulture, value chains, access to finance and agribusiness
- Influencing and collaborating with senior management of agribusinesses (input suppliers, producer organizations, processors, traders, etc.), financial institutions, and other private sector actors to achieve partnership results
- Experience implementing a farmer-centric participatory planning approach, that ensures that SHFs are the primary beneficiary and the key drivers of delivery models
- Proven track record of managing multi-partner consortia and building strong relationships with government, private sector, and donors.
- Deploying a broad variety of catalytic financial instruments, including credit facilities, matching grants, and access to commercial finance, and a demonstrated understanding of the need to make these resources inclusive for all
- Designing and implementing inclusive models that integrate women and youth (farmers, entrepreneurs) and successfully removing structural barriers that bar entry from entering or thriving in agricultural value chains
- Designing and implementing climate-smart approaches that improve the resilience of value chain actors and agricultural sectors as a whole
- Implementing consumer and producer facing campaigns to promote food safety and nutritious diets
- Implementing large, complex programs funded by the Government of the Netherlands
Required Languages:
- Fluency in English required. Understanding of Luganda, Swahili, and other native languages is an advantage.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Strong interpersonal and communications skills and ability to effectively motivate and manage teams
- Ability to work under tight deadlines while managing multiple tasks and activities
- Ability to develop well written, cohesive analyses and reports
- Understanding of capacities and constraints of smallholder farming and agribusiness development
- Ability to clearly communicate a high level strategy to internal and external stakeholders, while driving execution of a workplan and achievement of short-term milestones. Ability to use adaptive management principles to make strategic, data-driven decisions in the face of uncertainty and complexity
- Supervisory Responsibilities:
- Typically, 4 to 5 senior level staff including tech specialists, financial directors and M&E staff. Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams is desired.
- This position is open to Ugandan nationals only and is subject to donor approval.
How to Apply:
All applicants who wish to join Technoserve in this capacity should apply online at the link below.
For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or find us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
Level of Education: bachelor degree
Work Hours: 8
Experience in Months: 144