Tupande MEL Manager at One Acre Fund · Kakamega

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund equips 5.5 million smallholder farmers to make their farms more productive. Across nine countries that together are home to two-thirds of Africa's farmers, we provide high-quality farm supplies, tree seedlings, accessible credit, modern agronomic training, and a wide range of other agricultural services. On average, this model enables any farmer to increase their income and assets on supported land by more than 35 percent, while permanently improving their resilience. This is all made possible by our team of 9,000+ full-time staff, drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. To learn more, please see our Why Work Here blog post.

Our Kenya program, founded in 2006, operates under the local brand Tupande. Close to 500 staff in our Kakamega headquarters support 1,747 field staff and serve more than 1 million farmers. In Nairobi, around 50 staff support global functions like procurement, recruitment, government relations, and communications

About the Role

The Tupande MEL Manager will be responsible for overseeing all Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) functions within Tupande. This includes managing and overseeing all ongoing and future MEL projects in the country, ensuring they meet the needs of various stakeholders, including in-country teams, Global MEL and other global teams, and various donors. Additionally, the Tupande MEL Manager will play a key role in contributing to thought leadership within Tupande, particularly focusing on data quality initiatives that support and advance Tupande’s vision as well as the Tupande Impact Plan.

Responsibilities

Directly Oversees MEL Strategy and Execution within Tupande

• Independently lead in-country or program-level impact evaluation and studies of interest to the program. Represent MEL work within Tupande and One Acre Fund and ensure stakeholders clearly understand the actionable results presented.
• Full ownership of the most complex workstream(s) while also overseeing all other work streams within the country. This will include:
  • Developing evaluation plans - from outlining the theory of change to determining the study designs, and implementation plan.
  • Developing data collection tools.
  • Ensuring that all projects implemented adhere to MEL’s minimum must do’s.
• Establish and continuously improve frameworks, processes and procedures for quality assurance, monitoring, analysis, and reporting of impact work data in consultation with key stakeholders. Ensure systems established are running in alignement with organisational processes and systems.
• Work closely with the Program teams and other stakeholders to ensure the MEL results and recommendations are understood and acted upon.
• Manage all team leadership matters within the department including overseeing the hiring, development and performance management of MEL staff.
• Oversee the departments’ budgeting and financial management ensuring that growth and efficiencies are explored without compromising team sustainability and data quality.
• Provide direct support to various stakeholders on ad-hoc requests related to study design, analysis, data collection and any reporting that’s tied to MEL data.
• Partner with senior leadership in strategic decision making related to impact work.
• Strengthen availability and use of high-quality MEL data for decision-making at all levels of the organization. Integrate data analysis, reflection & interpretation, recommendation and use with ongoing organizational activities.

Data Analysis and Reporting

• Develop or update existing analytical frameworks for all Tupande MEL projects. This would also include exploring analytical efficiencies related to data cleaning, data automation and reporting.
• Own the analysis of all MEL data for Tupande.
• Own all Tupande MEL reporting.

Contribution to the Advancement of Tupande’s Impact Strategy

• Contribute to thought leadership in relation to the Impact Strategy including:
  • Developing studies that speak to Tupande's impact strategy, including the measurement of new channels and/or any future modifications needed; and
  • Exploring new impact opportunities for Tupande.
• Contribute to the development of MEL goals based on Tupande’s Impact Strategy.

Grant or Partner Support

• Provide targeted support for grant-specific methodology or analytical work including time-sensitive requests, development of Tupande specific MEL plans, annual grant reporting and any other grant related request as needed, with support from leadership.
• Represent Tupande's MEL department in various grant and/or partner meetings.
• Work with various partners on Tupande projects with support from leadership.

Career Growth and Development

We have a strong culture of constant learning and we invest in developing our people. You’ll have weekly check-ins with your manager, access to mentorship and training programs, and regular feedback on your performance. We hold career reviews every six months, and set aside time to discuss your aspirations and career goals. You’ll have the opportunity to shape a growing organization and build a rewarding long-term career.

Qualifications

Across all roles, these are the general qualifications we look for. For this role specifically, you will have:

• A Bachelors degree in a relevant field of study (e.g., economics, statistics etc.)
• A Master’s degree in a related field is an added advantage
• Strong academic or professional experience designing and implementing evaluations and analysing data (e.g. with large scale data collection and field team management).
• Knowledge of evaluation concepts and mastery of experimental and quasi-experimental evaluation designs.
• Strong analytical skills, especially the use of statistical techniques leveraged in impact evaluation measurement strategies (e.g. propensity score matching, difference in difference, regression discontinuity, etc.).
• Knowledge of statistical software, such as Stata or R.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to oversee multiple projects with various levels of complexity at the same time.
• A clear and compelling written communication style with an eye for design and visual presentation.
• Ability to engage with multiple partners in a diplomatic manner and have strong relationship building skills.
• Leadership experience, including managing a team.
• A willingness to commit to living in East Africa for at least two years – this is a long–term, career–track role.
• The ideal candidate will have at least five years demonstrated experience working in the developing world, or be a country national from our program or operations.
• Proficiency in English is required, Swahili is an added advantage

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Kakamega, Kenya

Benefits

Health insurance, housing, and comprehensive benefits

Eligibility

One Acre Fund can support a work permit for this role. However, nationals of (or those with an extensive professional background and work history in) our countries of operation are preferred.

Application Deadline

10 August 2026. Please note that we hire on a rolling basis, which means that applications are reviewed and processed on a continuous basis until a hire is made.

One Acre Fund never asks candidates to pay any money or pay for tests at any stage of the interview process. Official One Acre Fund emails will always arrive from an @oneacrefund.org address. Please report any suspicious communication here (globalhotline@oneacrefund.org), but do not send applications or application materials to this email address.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), and anti-racism are deeply connected to our organization’s mission and purpose. One Acre Fund aspires to build a culture where all staff feel consistently valued, represented, and connected – so that our team can thrive as professionals, and achieve exceptional impact for the farmers we serve.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.