ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION INSTITUTE

Vacancy Announcement

Position:                                    Senior Director 

Term of Employment:              One year with possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):                        Bahri-Dar             

Required Number:                   One

Application Deadline:             January 15, 2025

Background

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), formerly known as the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), is a strategy and delivery-oriented government institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, which is a key contributor to the country’s GDP, exports, and workforce. The ATI’s work is centred on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers (SHFs) across the country for improved income, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability. The ATI works to transform the agriculture sector in Ethiopia by conducting policy and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support and capacity building, coordinating.

platforms to better integrate partners and projects and designing and directly leading several innovative/pilot interventions.

The Institute joins forces with various stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, farmers, and development partners, to support the implementation of agricultural development programs and initiatives. In addition, the ATI collaborates with national and international partners to facilitate knowledge exchange and learning opportunities. The Institute plays a crucial role in generating and disseminating information to support evidence-based decision-making in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector.

Our Culture 

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated, and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results.  At ATI, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Directors will lead the ATI Regional Team and will have a primary responsibility of closely engaging with ATI senior management to plan and implement a portfolio of integrated initiatives towards increasing efficiency in crop production, marketing value to agriculture and livestock produces while striving for operation excellence in finance, procurement, logistics and human resources management. The Senior Director shall primarily collaborate and closely work with the Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and Livestock Resources and shall engage with all strategic regional stakeholders including the regional hierarchies of the zonal, woreda and kebele offices. The Senior Director will seek to strengthen the collaboration and capabilities of federal and regional institutions. The ideal Senior Director will be passionate about his/her work on improving the life of rural people, particularly smallholder households. S/he must possess deep familiarity of Ethiopia’s socio-economic and political environment and Ethiopian agricultural systems. Also, s/he must possess deep familiarity and extensive knowledge of agricultural extension system and institutions operating in the sector. The Senior Director will lead and oversee all programmatic such as clusters, and other projects and administrative (Finance, audit, procurement, logistics and HR) functions while integrating the regional office work with that of the ATI headquarter.

He/she will also work closely with other Senior Directors at the ATI in order to leverage and maximize synergies across different programs. To this end he/she will support, and guide implementation plans and strategies along priority program areas in his/her oversight He/she must possess and be able to demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills and relationship building abilities. As part of the Senior Management Team, the Senior Director supports the steering of the ATI’s broader strategy to agricultural transformation and supporting evidence-based decision-making.

This position will report directly to the ATI’s Deputy Director General and will be based in Bahir Dar with frequent to regions.

MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBLITIES

Leadership

• Plan and coordinate the Regional Transformation Centre’s activities based on the overall direction of Head Quarter.
• Lead ATI’s Regional Team and engage with the Regional Bureau of Agriculture and Livestock Resources, and other relevant reginal and federal institutions in the implementation of ATI’s regional targets and deliverables.
• Develop thought partner relationship with ATI’s SMT in the development of organizational strategies, policies and procedures to enhance organization capacity and capabilities.
• Articulate ATI’s vision, mission, values, strategic initiatives, programs and plans to the regional presidents, regional cabinets and other implementation partners
• Effectively manage the regional programmatic deliverables and play problem solving roles in the regional office.
• Ensure the strengthening and operationalization of transformation platforms, and effective budget utilization.
• Align strategies and programs with regional priorities to deliver increased results in effectively impact the agricultural sector.
• Support effective cross-sector and public-private stakeholders’ coordination and problem-solving issues at the regional and federal level, including alignment of ATI’s priorities with other national and regional strategies and programs.
• Provide effective timely upward reporting to the Regional Transformation Council, chaired by regional presidents as required.
• Provide effective timely upward reporting to the ATI’s DG, Deputy DG, and Senior Management and leadership on programmatic and operational issues.
• Ensure effective regular communication and reporting with the various government offices, and key public, private and development partner stakeholders.
• Lead the regional enhancement program while instilling transformational mindset to regional staff and beyond.
• Participate in SMT discussions and provide strategic input, contributing to decision-making and the direction of the organization.
• Ensure stakeholder coordination, planning, reporting, problem solving, and implementation support activities are seamlessly executed.
• Ensure annual plan and established KPI’s are met at the regional level for nationwide impact Ensure effective capacity-building support to Regions on issues related to ATI Initiative.
• Lead process of performance management from the Kebele, Woreda, cluster, regional levels in connection with annual plans and regional targets.
• Lead process of work plan development and responsible for execution to meet set KPI’s at agreed timeline and budget.

Project Management

Operations 

• Ensure regional budget utilization is according to plan.
• Optimize organization resources to drive impact on small farm holder’s livelihood.
• Ensure both financial and operational standards are maintained to meet government and partners audit requirements.
• Commit in people development plan to ensure the regional office is staffed with only high calibre staff.