Global R&D Data Analyst (Fixed-Term)

One Acre Fund is a nonprofit organization that supplies smallholder farmers in East Africa with asset-based financing and agriculture training services to reduce hunger and poverty. We are seeking a Global R&D Data Analyst on a fixed-term basis to ensure methodological rigour and analytical quality for trials and surveys. This role involves developing scalable analytical products, building decision-support tools using program, survey, and spatial data, and managing impact data.

Responsibilities

1. Methodological Rigour and Analytical Quality (30%)

• Design and analyse trials and surveys, including sample size and power calculations and experimental design.
• Recommend appropriate statistical methods (e.g., hypothesis testing, regression, ANOVA/mixed models).
• Lead analysis of agronomic and product trials to estimate treatment effects and program impact.
• Quality assure trial designs and analyses produced by other analysts.
• Translate trial findings into clear recommendations for product design, agronomic guidance, and program strategy.

2. Develop Scalable Analytical Products and Decision-Support Tools (30%)

• Build, maintain, and improve analytical pipelines and production codebases powering operational decision tools (e.g., sowing date or input recommendations).
• Integrate survey, MEL, and operational data with geospatial layers (soil, climate, vegetation, remote sensing) to generate localised recommendations.
• Conduct spatial and remote-sensing analyses for program design, prioritisation, and impact estimation.
• Analyse historical trial and soil data to generate input and soil management recommendations (e.g., lime or fertiliser application).
• Evaluate potential impact of alternative interventions and support pilot design and scale decisions.
• Translate analyses into decision-ready outputs (briefs, dashboards, and memos) for non-technical stakeholders.

3. Impact Data Management and Project Management (~20%)

• Lead curation and standardisation of historical yield, agronomic practice, and trial datasets to enable reuse.
• Own knowledge management for impact data and trials, including documentation of methodologies and results.
• Manage external data requests in compliance with data protection and confidentiality protocols.

4. Portfolio-Level Project Management (~20%)

• Maintain project plans, priorities, and timelines while tracking dependencies and risks.
• Coordinate with program and R&D stakeholders to identify potential delivery risks.
• Establish durable documentation and planning systems (e.g., project roadmaps, shared repositories).

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund has a strong culture of constant learning. You will have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship, and regular feedback. We hold career reviews every six months to discuss your aspirations and goals, providing opportunities to shape a growing organization.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Education: Bachelor's Degree in economics, econometrics, mathematics, or statistics.
• Technical Proficiency: Strong skills in R and/or Python.
• Data Systems: Experience with database connectivity (e.g., PostgreSQL) and interacting with RESTful APIs (JSON, XML).
• Libraries: Expertise in data manipulation (dplyr, tidyr, numpy, pandas) and visualisation (ggplot2, Matplotlib, plotly, lattice).
• Statistics & ML: Advanced statistical analysis (lme4, survival) and machine learning frameworks (randomForest, xgboost, caret).
• Geospatial: Familiarity with spatial data manipulation libraries (geopandas, rasterio, shapely, GDAL).
• Methodology: In-depth knowledge of trial design (RCTs, RCBD) and survey design methods (random, stratified, cluster sampling).

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should apply online via the One Acre Fund application portal at oneacrefund.org.