The Senior Technical Director for Rural Economies and Agricultural Livelihoods (REAL) provides leadership and management to the QuIL REAL Team in alignment with the overall strategic direction of Corus International. The QuIL team includes expertise across a variety of technical areas critical to livelihoods, economic development, health and well-being. This position reports directly to the Vice President, QuIL. The incumbent must be a passionate and visionary leader in rural agricultural development, energetic supporter and inspiring manager.

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The competencies required to be successful in this position include a theoretical and practical understanding of rural economies and agricultural livelihoods, with deep expertise in agricultural market systems. Key activities in this role include:

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• Supporting the mobilization of resources through the design of country, regional and global strategies and programming, integrating innovative approaches and applied best practice;

• Maximizing impact in country programs by supporting innovative programming and developing core tools and guidance for best practice, and providing demand-driven support to field-based program & project implementation to help country teams deliver maximum impact;

• Drawing out the experience, knowledge, and evidence generated by field programming and identifying ways to disseminate across programs and externally as a contribution to the global evidence base.

• Represent the organization in external technical fora to enhance the organization's technical stature and recognition in the rural development community. 

 

Responsibilities: 

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Technical

• Provides technical oversight and support to agricultural livelihoods and economic development programs

• Leads global strategic thinking on agricultural livelihoods and economic development for the organization

• Supports Country Teams to design and develop country level strategies in rural economies, agriculture, and livelihoods (REAL); provides senior technical expertise in market systems approaches and best practices.

• Conceptualizes and leads efforts to document and share best practices and innovations in agricultural livelihoods and economic development programs throughout the organization

• Facilitates the dissemination of global best practices to field staff and in field programs.

• Ensures knowledge management in agricultural livelihoods and economic development at an organizational level

 

Business Development

• Supports resource mobilization for livelihoods and economic development by identifying opportunities and cultivating partnerships in support of technical vision.

• Undertakes leadership role in proposal development in concert with Business Development Team, analyzing and recommending bid decisions, and conceptualizing teaming, technical approaches, and cost strategies to maximize competitive advantage.

• Serves as proposal leader and/or technical writer, providing vision and leadership to proposal team, and mentoring and supervising the application of best practices for livelihoods and economic development.

 

Representational

• Represent the organization to donors, implementing organizations, host country governments, project stakeholders, and counterparts in the public and private sectors.

• Develop and maintain relationships with potential donors and partners with a high degree of independence.

• Identify opportunities to raise Corus International's profile in rural development through participation in conferences, strategic meetings, public speaking engagements, and publications.

• Participate as the Corus International representative in technical working groups to ensure program and institutional representation in the international rural development and agricultural livelihoods community.

 

Supervision and Management

• Manages and provides oversight to direct reports; trains and mentors staff; conducts/participates in QuIL team management and administrative responsibilities (meeting participation, supervision, etc).

 

Qualifications: 

• Master's degree in international development or PhD in a related field

• At least 15 years of professional experience in livelihoods and economic development

• At least 5 years of experience as a technical advisor in agricultural market systems.

• At least 5 years of field experience, preferably in Africa, Asia or Latin America

• At least 5 years of direct line management and supervisory experience

• Demonstrated experience leading successful livelihoods and economic development proposal design and development

• Strong working knowledge of USG, DFID, and other international donor priorities.

• Demonstrated ability to solve complex technical problems in a timely and successful manner.

• Demonstrated capacity to present technical material in peer-review journals and international conferences

• Demonstrated versatility and integrity as well as leadership, mentorship, management, organizational, and decision-making skills.

• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.

• Ability to work in French and/or Spanish in addition to written and spoken native English fluency.

• Strong writing skills; established relationships with key international partners, including donors, academic and technical experts in livelihoods and economic development.

• Ability to influence in teams where you might have responsibility but not ultimate authority.

• Willingness to travel 25% of the time.

 

To Apply: qualified applicants should submit a cover letter highlighting fit for the position and resume to recruitment@broderickhaightconsulting.com with the subject line "Corus - Senior Technical Director, REAL”

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About Corus International

We are a family of organizations who believes that those who were born into impossible circumstances deserve the possibility of a better life. The Corus International family includes Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health, Charlie Goldsmith Associates, Ground Up Investing, IMA Innovations and LWR Farmers Market Coffee. Our dedicated experts around the globe work together to bring life-saving aid and long-term hope to even the most fragile corners of the world and in the most challenging of circumstances. We connect disciplines, approaches and people because we know that the more collaboration we can efficiently achieve, the wider, more systemic impact we can create. It’s belief and action, in harmony.