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.

Our Kenya program, founded in 2006, operates under the local brand Tupande. Close to 500 staff in our Kakamega headquarters support 1,747 field staff and serve more than 1 million farmers. In Nairobi, around 50 staff support global functions like procurement, recruitment, government relations, and communications.

About the Role

Unique opportunity to lead value chain growth in Market Access, shaping strategy, building markets, and driving farmer impact. Own sourcing, partnerships, and expansion while working with strong peers. Great role for entrepreneurial, high-growth talent.

Responsibilities

The Strategy and Operations Associate is an essential part of the Kenya Tupande team and part of one of the largest social enterprises in Africa. Tupande serves over 830,000 clients in Kenya. Tupande’s vision is to “transform every farming community in Kenya by delivering sustained food security and pathways to prosperity.” Our culture code guides us in how we seek to achieve this vision.

This role is an opportunity to directly drive results, advise senior leadership, shape the organisation’s culture and make your colleagues better at their jobs. You will report directly to the Deputy Lead of the Market Access (Soko) team and execute critical strategic projects needed in order to achieve Tupande’s vision. Examples of projects include developing the avocado value chain, defining the processing and market access strategy, and establishing a processing facility.

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:

• You bring exceptional project management and stakeholder engagement skills; prior experience in management consulting, international development, or private-sector experience (3+ years preferred) is an added advantage.
• You thrive in fast-evolving environments with limited playbooks, and you’re comfortable designing systems, processes, and partnerships from the ground up.
• You learn new value chains quickly — from processing to markets to finance, procurement, logistics, and data — and can connect these pieces into coherent operating models.
• You move fluidly between strategic thinking and hands-on field execution, shifting from high-level planning to solving practical challenges on the ground.
• You work well with stakeholders: you understand different teams’ motivations and can align diverse groups toward shared goals.
• You manage ambiguity with ease, balancing multiple priorities such as field pilots, cross-team coordination (Aggregation, Logistics, Sourcing, Finance), and ensuring timely delivery across many moving parts.
• You are comfortable with frequent travel across Kenya for field research, supplier engagement, and pilot oversight.
• You use data and sound business judgment to guide decisions and shape recommendations.
• At a minimum, a Bachelor’s degree is required for this position. Post-graduate degree preferred.
• Language: English required, Swahili a plus

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Kenya

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility

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

• Lead value chain growth in Market Access, shaping strategy, building markets, and driving farmer impact.
• Own sourcing, partnerships, and expansion.
• Execute critical strategic projects needed in order to achieve Tupande’s vision.
• Develop the avocado value chain.
• Define the processing and market access strategy.
• Establish a processing facility.
• Advise senior leadership.
• Shape the organisation’s culture.
• Make colleagues better at their jobs.
• Design systems, processes, and partnerships from the ground up.
• Connect value chain pieces (processing, markets, finance, procurement, logistics, data) into coherent operating models.
• Move fluidly between strategic thinking and hands-on field execution.
• Work well with stakeholders, aligning diverse groups toward shared goals.
• Manage ambiguity and balance multiple priorities.
• Conduct field research, supplier engagement, and pilot oversight.
• Use data and sound business judgment to guide decisions and shape recommendations.

• Project management
• Stakeholder engagement
• System design
• Process design
• Partnership building
• Value chain analysis
• Strategic thinking
• Field execution
• Data analysis
• Business judgment
• Swahili (a plus)

• Bachelor’s degree (minimum)
• Post-graduate degree (preferred)
• Exceptional project management and stakeholder engagement skills
• Prior experience in management consulting, international development, or private-sector experience (3+ years preferred) is an added advantage
• Thrives in fast-evolving environments with limited playbooks
• Comfortable designing systems, processes, and partnerships from the ground up
• Learns new value chains quickly
• Moves fluidly between strategic thinking and hands-on field execution
• Works well with stakeholders
• Manages ambiguity with ease
• Comfortable with frequent travel across Kenya
• Uses data and sound business judgment
• English required
• Swahili a plus