Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position:                          Senior Technical Expert I - Digital Agriculture Development

Term of Employment:  Full time

Duty Station(s):             Addis Ababa

Required Number:        One

Salary & Benefits:          Competitive

Application Deadline:   September 03, 2021

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sectors partners across the country.

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 teamwork to achieve excellent results. 

At ATA, 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 Technical Expert - Digital Agriculture Development is accountable to technically support the planning and execution of identified systemic issues that lead to the transformation of the Digital Agriculture development program. She/he will be accountable to coordinate and facilitate the implementation of identified agendas under digital agriculture in the ministry. Specifically, She/he will be accountable to support e-agricultural service which may include Agricultural remote sensing applications, Agricultural Artificial Intelligence, Agri-IoT, Blockchain, Fin techs, Farmers call centers, Agri-tracking systems, and other issues by firstly assessing the environment (availability and suitability of advanced relevant technologies, level of digital literacy from both the provider and the service receiver points of view, capacity for technology implementation and scale-up and others.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Coordinate effective Delivery planning, budgeting and target setting activities for identified and prioritized issues.
• Design and support implementation of Prioritized systemic interventions.
• Recurrently identify gaps in technical support to conduct light analysis to pinpoint the root causes and design solutions.
• Support any project design efforts and operate in finance solicitation and mobilization engaging private and public stakeholders. 
• Monitor progress reporting through key reporting systems and tools, engaging respective Directorate to ensure reporting is timely and accurate.
• Identify and escalate challenges around implementation and reporting, as well as solutions and recommendations, to the Advisory State Minister and Ministerial Delivery Unit Director.
• Provide capacity building to respective actors in areas of his accountability.
• Provide other technical advisory and input needed for effective project implementation.
• Proactively engage with other DU team members, the ATA and external partners to develop solutions and recommendations to address identified technical issues.
• Engage with senior staff within the Ministry, the ATA and external partners to align on and implement prioritized issues.

Job Requirements

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of MSc degree in computer science, ICT, Software Engineering Technology and Innovation Management, GIS and Remote Sensing or other related areas.
• Minimum of 6 years of experience respectively - one for ICT-related function and the other for GIS and Remote sensing function.
• A deep understanding of Ethiopia’s digital agriculture initiatives within the public sub-sector, with a broad perspective on how public, private and non-government organizations operate in the system will have an important consideration.
• Specific experience in planning, prioritizing, sequencing, managing, problem-solving and reporting of digital projects will also have importance.
• Self-starter with strong motivation, ownership, and commitment to deliver result-based digital achievements or research so far done.
• Promotes data-driven and evidence-based problem solving and decision-making.
• Strong team player with excellent relationship-building and communication skills.
• Desire to innovate and drive rapid change for Ethiopia’s farmers in areas of the specific areas of accountability.
• A strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service.
• Fluency in English and Amharic or any other Ethiopian language will also have an advantage.

How to Apply

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to https://apply.ata.gov.et

Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.

Women are highly encouraged to apply.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.