Country Director – Kenya

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Job Reference: CD/PD/KE/01/2026

AGRA and its Work to Transform Agriculture

AGRA is an African-led institution that actively supports the drive towards inclusive agricultural transformation and sustainable food systems. We do this by empowering the continent’s 33 million smallholder farming households to transform their agriculture from a struggle to survive to profitable businesses. The continent’s farmers regularly face challenges, and we aspire to provide uniquely African solutions that respond to their agricultural and environmental challenges, leading to increased harvests for reduced hunger and more income aligned with the Kampala CAADP and national priorities.

Working in alignment with the development priorities of our focus countries, we enable farmers to access improved and high-yielding seeds, gain knowledge on sustainable farming, and linkages to profitable markets. In our work, we aspire to build the alliances, partnerships, and networks required to drive an inclusive agricultural transformation. We work with our partners to create an equitable youth-friendly environment that harnesses the youth dividend on the continent to drive growth and facilitate open employment opportunities for young women and men. We achieve our key objectives through a focus on the following four areas of intervention:

1. Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
2. Seed systems – We trigger higher productivity by increasing the availability and access to improved seeds by farmers allowing them to increase their harvests for food security and better incomes.
3. Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
4. Inclusive markets and trade – We work to increase the linkages between farmers, and other market actors for a positive, sustained cycle of commercialization and reinvestment.
5. Youth, Gender, and Inclusiveness – We enable women and youth to contribute to and benefit from agriculture for their economic empowerment.

Why Join Us?

People are the heartbeat of our organization and remain the true drivers of our delivery, impact, and success. We have cultivated a workplace that fuels Depth in Collaboration, Excellence in Execution, Constructive Engagements, and a spirit of being Increasingly Entrepreneurial; all underpinned by our cherished I-RISE Values (Integrity, Respect, Innovation, Stewardship and Equity)

We work with incredible people and partners who have roots in farming communities across the African continent combined with an inclusive, diverse, and talented workforce from over 25 nationalities. Our commitment to a call to action goes beyond ourselves as we arise to catalyze African Food Systems transformation and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.

We are looking for people who are passionate about being part of a mission-driven team that is making a real difference on the continent; love to work on cutting edge Ag technologies; and able to grow their skills, expertise, and experience career growth, while enjoying very competitive compensation and benefits.

Are you ready to embark on this exciting transformative journey with us?

The Position

Country Director – Kenya – Job Reference: CD/PD/KE/01/2026

The Country Director is responsible for (i) Providing Strategic Leadership in defining and achieving AGRA’s Strategic Plans in-county, whilst acting as the (ii) Public Face of AGRA in country by establishing, maintaining and enhancing relationships with government, private sector, donors and other key stakeholders; (iii) Oversees and drives the program technical team and operational support roles in-country to effective day-to-day operational and program delivery; (iv) Lead the process of identifying and exploring potential options for funding.

The role represents AGRA in the country and will act as the catalyst for AGRA’s integrated interventions, under the guidance of the VP Program Delivery, and respective Regional Director. S/he will mainly be responsible for coordinating activities and building necessary relationships with the government, private sector, donors, and other key stakeholders. S/He will lead the country to actively manage the country strategies, while maintaining close linkages with the Centre of Technical Expertise Division and relevant support services from the headquarters. S/He will lead the country team in liaising with the government and donors and be seen as the expert on needs in the country, to provide feedback to technical teams, and lead in identifying grantees and the right avenues for making AGRA’s investments effective.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develops the country strategy, change narrative and annual work plans in collaboration with relevant teams at the center and regional level.
• Provides strategic oversight for quality program execution in line with government priorities, as well as AGRA’s goals, vision and reputation the institution aspires to.
• Identifies and pursues opportunities to mobilize resources in support of AGRA’s priorities and/or advocating for public and private sector stakeholders to scale AGRA’s demonstrated intervention models in the country.
• Supports the Country Programs Lead in directing program officers to research and develop grantee portfolios dealing with binding constraints, resources, and opportunities for increasing and improving program delivery.
• Support country teams to strengthen collaboration, accountability, and stronger decentralization with support from regional and central technical/operational teams.
• Works closely with the Centre of Technical Expertise (CTE) in implementing the strategy through established collaboration instruments, such as deal teams, action guides and playbooks.
• Convenes and builds relationships with national government, private sector, donors, civil society organizations and other in-country stakeholders, with the aim to build and nurture country-level strategic partnerships deemed essential to AGRA’s mission.
• Leads in representing AGRA in key meetings and forums of the government and its development partners including sector coordination platforms that contribute to the advancement of AGRA’s investments in the country.
• Leads in supporting and advancing national agricultural sector development plans to identify and pursue opportunities to (i) mobilize resources in support of AGRA’s priorities and/or (ii) advocate for public and private sector stakeholders to scale AGRA’s demonstrated intervention models in country.
• Advises and relays feedback from AGRA’s partners, especially the government, development and implementing partners to other parts of the organization.
• Engages donors in-country furnishing them with required reports, day-to-day communications, and timely insights on program challenges and breakthroughs in a manner which maintains their positive engagement with the program.
• Enables talent management and development of existing staff, acquiring new staff as necessary and managing team dynamics to ensure high performance and positive employee experience.
• Fosters a collaborative and inclusive work environment by upholding the AGRA values and behaviors.
• Provides strategic leadership and directs and provides coaching to relevant technical and operational teams and strengthens the quality of the country team to be fit for purpose.
• Oversees country-level interventions set out in the annual work plan, in close collaboration with program teams to deliver innovative and integrated intervention models across systems and value chain.
• Ensures a robust integrated Government programming; and a robust approach to AGRA’s 3 routes to impact (end-to-end value chain development, anchor firms in secondary value chains and national ecosystem, and government agenda implementation).
• Builds on the expertise of AGRA program officers in selected strategic business lines and other key thematic areas of intervention to enhance the operations of country strategies and link program investments and activities to other AGRA initiatives.

Key Qualifications and Experience Required:

• At least a master’s degree in agriculture, Agriculture Economics or related disciplines.
• Professional development programs in leadership and management including financial and staff supervision/performance management.
• Demonstrated capacity to mobilize partners and be a good partner to the relevant respective in-country Ministry, and experience engaging with various senior Government players.
• Experience engaging with various agriculture private and development players in-country

Behavioral Competencies:

• Ability to drive collaboration through inclusive and agile teaming, breaking siloes, sharing information celebrating joint successes.
• Ability to execute excellently by delivering high-quality work at speed, committing to decisions and plans, and increasing accountability to deliver impact at scale.
• Ability to be sincerely constructive in interactions with others by demonstrating trust, sincerity, and care, in recognition of our joint purpose.
• Ability be increasingly entrepreneurial by breaking hierarchies, embracing learning and innovation to unlock the potential of diversity and ideas.

If you believe you are the right person for this position, please submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts) to recruit@agra.org. Please quote the job reference number CD/PD/KE/01/2026 in the subject line of the application e-mail.

Applications must be received on or before 27th January 2026.

Due to the large volumes of applications we usually receive, we will only be able to contact those candidates who are shortlisted.

For more information on the AGRA, visit www.agra.org.

AGRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer