Country Director – Mali

About myAgro:

myAgro is an award-winning non-profit social enterprise based in West Africa. We have developed a mobile savings model that allows farmers to invest their own funds in high-quality seed, fertilizer, and agricultural training to increase their harvest and income by 50-100%. Our North Star is to help 1 million farmers by 2026 lift themselves out of poverty. Learn more from myAgro’s founder and CEO here. We recently received a prestigious Audacious Prize to accelerate myAgro’s reach in the next 5 years. Join a winning team that is changing the lives of hardworking farmers across West Africa.

About the Role:

myAgro is launching its search for the next Country Director in Mali.  We’re looking for an experienced Country Director or General Manager with substantial business operations, people management and leadership experience, to lead a dynamic young team across Mali for myAgro’s next phase of growth. You will oversee a team of 300+ people across 2000 villages in Mali. Your role as Country Director is to build out your management team and drive towards operational excellence while improving organizational sustainability and impact per farmer.

This is not a typical Country Director role! You will have minimal administrative and fundraising responsibilities. We need leaders who love getting mud on their boots while they visit farmers’ fields and thinking strategically on how to improve execution at a scale from 100,000 farmers to 600,000 over the next 5 years.  We need leaders who think coaching and team development is a core function of their role and love to see their people succeed in new & challenging ways. We need experienced professionals who will help lead myAgro’s strategy and team to greater heights of impact and scale.

We welcome leaders with an acute commercial mindset and well-developed business and operational acumen, along with effective and sharp communication skills, who thrive in a fast-paced, agile environment.

In a country with major climate change effects, poor network connectivity, spotty electricity and relatively low levels of infrastructure and agricultural industry, this is not going to be easy. That’s why we need you.

Key responsibilities: You will…

• Inspire and lead the Mali program; embody our values and model how to succeed at myAgro.
• Lead the team to achieve operational excellence through implementing reliable processes and frameworks.
• Lead, build and retain a high performing and engaged team of senior management. Make important staffing decisions, contributing to hiring and onboarding across every department.
• Drive sustainable program growth to reach our ambitions to: – double the customer base, plant 700k trees and be on a solid path to increasing revenues for farmers.
• Manage away distractions and help teams and the country prioritize work.
• Communicate with and listen to team members, peers and other parties.
• Maintain collaborative relationships with key stakeholders and partners (i.e., government)

Key skills and experiences: You have…

• Bilingual fluency in French and English.
• 3+ years as Country Director or similar work scope (e.g., managing multiple departments, complex business operations).
• Strong commercial mindset and business acumen: Commercial sales experience is highly desirable.
• Strong operational experience: Experience planning or overseeing implementation and improvements (not innovation, but consistency and predictability)
• Talent attraction, development and coaching experience: You have proven ability and success in spotting, developing and retaining internal talent for current and future needs.
• Leadership development experience: Experience creating an enabling environment for delegation; setting leaders up for success. Ability to set clear priorities and boundaries, particularly around innovation, so that the team focuses on its core mission.
• Communication skills: You have highly developed interpersonal and communication skills, and the ability to employ a range of internal communication strategies to drive engagement and performance.
• Team building: You create a cohesive team environment. You promote a collaborative and supportive culture that is inclusive, while also allowing for necessary autonomies.

 Key Behavioral Competencies: You are…

• A strategic thinker and hands on ‘do-er’ and implementer.
• Able to demonstrate poise and gravitas.
• Comfortable with and, ideally, thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Someone who strives for excellent execution.
• A self-starter: you have high self-awareness and high emotional intelligence.
• A collaborator and highly relational: you’re mature and confident in maintaining great relationships internally and externally with farmers, government and other stakeholders.
• A direct, succinct and effective communicator. You communicate clearly and directly. You participate in strategic discussions, bringing strategic insight from the field to the conversation.
• Critical thinker and decision-maker: You take a 360 approach to draw on intuition, data, risk and experience to make and influence decisions.
• Inclusive: You listen inclusively and create an enabling environment for women leaders. You also display confidence without being authoritarian.

Appointment details

Location: Bamako, Mali. The role is open to candidates from the ECOWAS region.

Salary: 4,497,661 CFA Net Monthly salary

Benefits:

• Quality health insurance for you and your family. 100% coverage for the team member and family
• Annual flight benefit – $4,000
• Professional Development- $500 a year; exec coaching support
• 24 vacation days annual
• The opportunity to make a difference for farmers every day!
• Career development opportunities: the role has a natural pathway to larger CD positions or regional positions.

How to apply

Closing date: 17th September 2023

To apply please click ‘apply for job’

As part of the application process kindly submit your CV and a cover letter, preferably in MS Word. All application documents (cover letter and CV) should be submitted in English.

Need help submitting your application? Please email us at [email protected]

Should you require access to information in a different format to facilitate your application please contact us via [email protected]

Please name your submitted files with the following reference: MYAG_CDM

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