Program Director - Food Processing

About TechnoServe:

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of business and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.

The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development.

But they face many challenges: low literacy, lack of access to jobs and markets and unpredictable political dynamics. For many women and young people, the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff, people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are amazing…when incomes increase and living conditions for families get better, they can access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off.

Program Overview:

Soybean, Sesame, Tomato and Ginger are high-valued agrifood value chains with the potential to create jobs at scale, improve local food production for import substitution, while also strengthening Nigeria’s export market. Women play a critical role in post-harvest and processing activities in soybean, sesame, tomato and ginger value chains, especially in handling, drying, sorting, milling, packaging, and vending. However, they bear the brunt of post-harvest losses up to 26 - 50% of the produce due to inadequate drying and storage, limited transport, and lack of access to appropriate processing tools and markets.

TechnoServe is in the process of developing a program focusing on creating more than 100,000 jobs in value addition/processing and distribution for youth, women, and persons with disabilities (young women 80%, persons with disabilities 5%, and displaced persons 1%), by investing in processing soybean, sesame, tomato, and ginger value chains. This phase of the two-phase program will target rural unemployed youth, aged 18–35, often with limited formal education, constrained access to skills, equipment, finance, and markets, yet highly motivated to earn dignified livelihoods through practical, cluster-based agribusiness opportunities.

Job Summary:

The Program Director will provide overall strategic, technical, and operational leadership for this market systems development (MSD) program focused on strengthening food processing and inclusive markets for tomato, soybean, ginger, and sesame. S/he will be responsible for the quality of implementation, managing a team of 10+ people across the targeted states and will execute the overall strategy of the program to reach its goals and targets. S/he will operationalize the work plan, adapting technical approaches and interventions as needed, and manage program resources.

The role is responsible for ensuring the program achieves sustainable, scalable, and commercially viable outcomes by facilitating systemic change across input supply, aggregation, processing, finance, and market linkages—without distorting markets.

The Program Director will lead a multidisciplinary team, engage public and private sector partners, ensure donor compliance, and drive results that improve incomes, resilience, and employment—particularly for women and youth. S/he will also serve as the primary liaison with public and private sector counterparts and other key stakeholders, including donors. This role requires expertise in project/program management and a deep understanding of Nigeria’s agri-food systems, food processing ecosystem and regulatory landscape, especially for the core crops (soybean and sesame) and intercrops (tomato and ginger).

The ideal candidate will be motivated and able to provide critical leadership in the three years of the first phase of the program, while delivering high quality results that may feed into the second phase.

Qualifications:

• A master’s degree or equivalent in agribusiness, agricultural economics, business administration, international development, economics, or other relevant field with at least 7 years of experience. Alternatively, a bachelor’s degree with 10 years of experience.
• At least eight years of relevant professional experience in international development.
• At least four years of proven experience leading/managing and implementing large, multi-stakeholder donor-funded programs/projects.

Required Languages: Fluency in English is required.

Travel: Local travel 40-50%

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Deep technical expertise in MSD and food processing value chains
• Demonstrated experience working across multiple value chains, preferably including tomato, soybean, ginger, or sesame.
• Strong understanding of the private sector–led development and market systems development approaches.
• Extensive experience managing large teams at a high level of leadership (e.g Team Lead, Chief of Party, Program Director).
• Familiarity with food safety standards, quality certification, and export requirements
• Prior work experience or collaboration with private sector companies and businesses.
• Demonstrated ability to interact effectively and collaboratively with a broad range of public and private sector counterparts and other key stakeholders.
• Experience working in Nigeria or similar emerging market contexts preferred.
• Experience in successfully implementing inclusive women/youth/PLWD-integrated programs and promoting women- and youth-led enterprises is a plus.
• Strong local and regional market knowledge
• Strong strategic thinking and systems analysis skills
• Excellent leadership, team management, and mentoring abilities
• High-level stakeholder engagement and negotiation skills
• Strong financial and operational management capability
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to manage complexity, uncertainty, and adaptive programming
• Commitment to gender equity, youth inclusion, and environmental sustainability
• Extensive project management skills, including strategic planning, stakeholder coordination, resource allocation, compliance monitoring, and performance tracking
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills in a multicultural environment.
• Ability to work with tight deadlines while managing multiple tasks and priorities.
• Ability to develop well-written, cohesive analyses and reports.

Supervisory Responsibilities: A team of 10+ people, including technical managers, cross-cutting managers & consultants.

Candidates must have the relevant work authorization in Nigeria at the point of application. TechnoServe will not provide sponsorship for this position. This position is contingent upon donor funding and approval.

We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServe's vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.

With our commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.

We are also proud of our commitment to protecting staff, partners, and beneficiaries from abuse and exploitation and thoroughly vet all final candidates through rigorous background and reference checks.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to use our online system to apply for a position at TechnoServe please contact the Human Resources at recruitment@tns.org or call +1 202 785 4515.