Program Associate - Partners in Food Solutions

PFS connects the expertise of volunteers from its corporate partners (General Mills, Cargill, Royal DSM, Buhler, the Hershey Company, Ardent Mills, and JM Smucker) with small and growing food processing companies in Africa. Our goal is to increase the capacity of the African food-processing sector to produce high-quality, nutritious, safe, affordable food for local populations, while at the same time increasing and sustaining demand for crops grown by smallholder farmers.

We are pioneering a remote knowledge-transfer model through our custom, virtual platform so that volunteers can share their expertise from their home offices — or anywhere in the world. To date, 1400 PFS subject matter experts have volunteered more than 100,000 hours and have worked with over 1600 small and growing businesses, with a combined outreach of 1.3 million smallholder farmers.

With the continued support of its corporate partners, PFS is looking to broaden impact and outreach exponentially in the coming years.

Summary of Job:

The Program Associate role serves a critical operational role at PFS and provides general support for projects generated by the PFS team, volunteers from our partner companies and field staff in Africa, with a focus on specific PFS countries across sub-Saharan Africa. All tasks and projects require the exercise of independent judgment, a keen sense of responsibility, strong communication skills, and commitment to the success of the organization in completing projects with a positive and cooperative attitude.

Program Associates help research, describe, support and document projects in Africa via direct contact with front- line African field staff and the corporate volunteer experts working with them. They help keep projects on track through regular collection and analysis of PFS data as well as participation in virtual meetings with stakeholders from multiple international locations and organizations.

In addition to project support activities, a portion of the role is assisting on special projects for the PFS staff team – both internal and in the field – including but not limited to marketing and communications, and administrative requests on behalf of the field staff.

Role & Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain professional working relationships with PFS team in the U.S. and Africa, as well as remote corporate partner volunteers from over 30 different countries.
• Coordinate information about African field project development and volunteer recruitment, keeping key documentation up to date in PFS’ online systems, including, but not limited to:
• Volunteer placement records. For example, writing volunteer role descriptions based on agreed upon project objectives and updating volunteer statuses.
• Client service records. For example, tracking and updating project milestones, archiving relevant documents, and communicate best practices to ensure operational excellence.
• African client records. For example, enter basic client data and update client status through different phases of engagement.
• Participate in international meetings/calls involving PFS staff, international volunteers, and African clients to take notes, synthesize, summarize, and track next steps.
• Conduct general research or oversee analytical projects at the direction of PFS staff, such as data for periodic reporting, impact evaluations, and process improvements.
• Communicate (phone/in-person/messages/email) with volunteers and field staff as part of the PFS project support team.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualification & Education Requirements:

• 4-year college/university degree, preferably in international relations, communications, management, business administration or a similar field.
• 3 years of experience in a professional office environment.
• Fluent in French language.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills to establish and maintain working relationships with diverse local and global teams in multi-country and multilingual settings.
• Ability to work both independently and as a member of a larger team.
• Willingness to adjust hours to accommodate the needs of the job (may require evenings).
• Ability to effectively manage a wide array of tasks, projects, and responsibilities simultaneously.
• Excellent organizational skills with an emphasis on attention to detail and accurate record keeping.
• Ability to work productively in a fluid environment with frequent changes in priorities.
• Proficient in Microsoft Suite (Word, PowerPoint) and Google Apps (Gmail, Calendar, Drive)

Preferred Skills:

• A passion for international development or corporate philanthropy/social responsibility
• Experience with Salesforce.com and/or other CRM or database programs

Additional Notes:

• Domestic or international travel may occasionally be required