Food Processing Portfolio Manager (PM) (m/f)

Description

• The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) anticipates funding the five-year Promoting Market Systems, Innovation and Resilience (PREMIER) activity in Mozambique. The PREMIER activity will facilitate the development of an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable market system to boost agriculture-led economic growth in the Nacala corridor of northern Mozambique. The activity will use a market systems approach and will focus on minimizing barriers that disadvantage the vulnerable, women and youth and exclude them from economic opportunities within the agriculture sector. This activity is anticipated to cover a combination of staple and high value crops
• The activity will implement solutions including:
• Enhancing access to finance across sectors for the rural poor and SMEs
• Enhancing risk mitigation management
• Building the capacity of smallholder producers and agribusinesses
• Increasing incomes for smallholder farmers
• Establishing strong and transparent relationships between actors
• Expanding employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, especially for youth and women
• The Technical Team will be responsible for facilitating support to primarily private sector actors through three main components: a) exploit attractive market opportunities where the Nacala Corridor has a comparative advantage, b) catalyze and expand local agro-processing industries, and c) work with and through local third-party service providers as delivery partners. With strategic guidance from the COP, the technical team comprises the Technical Director and five Portfolio Managers (PMs). The PMs manage relationships with clients and related local delivery partners to reach Premier’s objectives for inclusive supply chains, food processing, route to market distribution, business development services, and access to finance

Duties

• The Food Processing Portfolio Manager will lead the Premier activities to improve value-added services in the middle of the supply chain and expand critical food processing infrastructure within the Nacala corridor. In order to achieve this, the responsibilities of the Food Processing PM will include the following:
• Contribute to PREMIERs overall results by developing the PREMIER food processing strategy with private sector partners, public sector actors and stakeholders to create sustainable changes to the relevant market systems
• Contribute to PREMIERs annual work plans and assure timely implementation of the food processing portfolio work plan activities
• Promote PREMIERs innovation and upscaling grants facility and identify and encourage eligible food processing businesses to participate in the grants application process
• Act as account manager for PREMIER beneficiary food processing business that successfully applied for grants from PREMIERS innovation and upscaling co-investment facility grant (the Private Sector Investment Fund, PSIF)
• Assure timely implementation of the PREMIER food processing portfolio grants and signal potential issues and report these to the grants manager and the DCoP
• For each Premier beneficiary food processing industry conduct participatory capacity assessment and determine growth opportunities and constraint analyses, and business diagnostics to identify issues and needs for each business or group of businesses to create the Core Business Technical Assistance (CBTA) plans
• Assure the timely implementation of the CBTA plans; their annual review and adaptation
• For each Inclusive Business Plan partner, support the business with determining the drivers and competitive advantages of Inclusive Business Plan (IBP), and support and facilitate the development of inclusive business plans
• Support Premier’s agribusiness clients to select appropriate local third-party service partners to implement their CBTA and secure the necessary advisory services through a Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Design and Implement trainings either directly or through local BDS providers focusing on challenges faced by agri-small growing businesses
• Be a coach and mentor to business leadership in their daily dealings with company challenges
• Support and collaborate with businesses that create agricultural and technology innovations
• Contribute to Premier networking and relationship management with private and public actors to promote  Premier objectives and facilitate wider adoption and crowding in Drive monitoring, evaluation and learning across the portfolio through collection and analysis of data to measure performance and impact
• Contribute in a timely manner with quality inputs to the monthly, quarterly and annual PREMIER reports and analyze progress as compared to the work plan, analyze differences and propose actions to overcome delays in work plan implementation

Requisites

• Master’s level Degree in either Business, Economics, Agriculture, Finance or equivalent
• 5 years of experience or more as the technical manager for donor-funded value chain, M4P, and/or Market Systems Development projects
• Demonstrated success using facilitation in at least one of the following: the USAID value chain approach, M4P, or Market Systems Development approach, which led to greater competitiveness and inclusiveness in markets
• Demonstrated experience with conducting value chain analysis and developing value chain work plans is desired
• Strong private sector market orientation, entrepreneurial and innovative thinker.
• Detail orientation, including strong organizational, analytical, and quantitative skills
• Excellent computer skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other administrative applications
• Proven ability to produce timely and good quality progress reports
• Communicative and open to exchange and learning
• Fluency in Portuguese with excellent oral and written communication skills required
• Proficiency in English is preferred

Notes

• Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted
• 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