Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position: Analyst Program, Analytics Team

Term of Employment:  Two- and half-year commitment required

Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa

Salary & Benefits:Competitive

Application Deadline: October 05, 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 to 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:

As ATA’s strategic advisory and consulting function, the Analytics Team works with Directors and Senior Directors within the organization, as well as senior leadership at partners in government, multilateral and bilateral donors, NGOs and private sector companies, to execute high-impact, analytically challenging projects. The team applies an approach similar to top strategy consulting firms and government strategy units to support partners to more effectively bring together strategic, analytical, technical and operational capabilities required for transformation. Please see HERE for additional details.

As the entry point for new graduates or candidates with up to one year of work experience, our 2.5-year Analyst Program is an extremely fast-paced and varied experience, often quite challenging but also very rewarding. After an initial 3 weeks of onboarding and training, Analysts in the program work with other members of the Analytics Team in three to five-person case teams, completing three to five client cases per year on diverse topics. Analysts, therefore, have the chance to work closely with extraordinary colleagues and learn from senior client staff and stakeholders. They are expected to quickly take on increasing seniority and responsibilities. Rapid development and growth are supported by a best-in-class training and professional development program with approximately 150 training hours in total in the first three years. Each Analyst also receives daily coaching and frequent feedback based on his or her specific development needs and can participate in rotations with other teams at ATA.

The 2.5-year program, therefore, offers a highly unique experience and provides each analyst with a set of capabilities and tools that can serve as a major strength throughout his or her career. ATA also offers a highly competitive salary. After eighteen to twenty-four months, Analysts who perform well can be promoted to the Senior Analyst role. Senior Analysts take on greater responsibilities including delivering more complex and challenging workstreams independently and starting to oversee the work of Analysts, supported through a progressive training curriculum, regular coaching and feedback.

At the end of the 2.5-year program, the best performing Senior Analysts will be invited to join Analytics’ Leadership program, which includes an award for graduate study abroad before returning to ATA to continue as Associate Case Team Leader (with a 2.5-year commitment). 

ATA Analytics’ Analyst Program is a fantastic opportunity for young graduates who are highly motivated and passionate about their own development and about making a difference to drive change at a national scale and impact the lives of millions of Ethiopians.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Plan, prioritize and manage workstreams from start to finish, including data collection, analysis and content development, stakeholder input and validation, and ensure required timelines and quality standards are met.
• Identify and structure problems, develop key hypotheses and innovative solutions and apply suitable analytical frameworks and approaches to test these hypotheses and solutions.
• Identify and acquire relevant quantitative and qualitative data using a range of applied and pragmatic techniques, quality control data to ensure validity and accuracy.
• Organize and conduct interviews with up to mid-manager level stakeholders, plan and execute other critical stakeholder management activities.
• Execute a wide range of analyses drawing on best practice approaches used in public and private sectors, and from various academic fields, to generate critical and actionable insights for partners.
• Produce high-quality presentations and/or written documents.
• Proactively and frequently engage with senior staff to seek input and enhance outputs, identify risks and issues affecting timely delivery of workstreams, and promptly communicate upward with solution options and recommendations.
• Present ideas and respond to queries clearly and concisely in internal and external discussions.
• Effectively manage operational activities (e.g. scheduling, logistical and financial organization of field trips and workshops, procurement processes, etc.) for delivery of workstreams.

Job Requirements

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in any field with a minimum GPA of 3.4 and above, and up to 12 months of professional experience.
• Knowledge of agriculture is not required, but applicants should have a strong interest in agricultural and economic development in Ethiopia
• Genuine intellectual curiosity and desire to innovate and bring large-scale change
• Excellent critical thinking and analytical skills
• Collaborative mind-set and a team player
• Strong desire to learn, highly coachable and values frequent, constructive feedback
• Committed to stay at ATA for at least 2.5 years
• Fluent in English and Amharic, with strong written and oral communication skills

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 HERE by mentioning the position title on the subject line. Providing CGPA information in the application link is mandatory.

NB: Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application. Women are highly encouraged to apply. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.