Senior Manager, Agronomy

POSITION: Senior Manager, Agronomy

LOCATION: We will only consider candidates legally authorized to work in Côte d'Ivoire.
WORKPLACE TYPE: Flexible hybrid working environment
CLOSING DATE: 25 September 2026
JOB LEVEL: 16


Please note: this is a confidential recruitment initiative. Further information about the initiative will be shared with shortlisted candidates following execution of an NDA.

Project:
An industry-led initiative implementing programs dedicated to farmers and communities at scale with the objective of strengthening the resilience of the cocoa supply chain in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.

Role of the Rainforest Alliance:
Supporting the launch of the operations in Côte d'Ivoire by establishing and managing a team to ensure effective delivery, coordination, and monitoring of all activities on the field including agronomy services.


POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Manager, Agronomy serves as the operational lead for our agronomic delivery system for a large-scale program targeting improved cocoa productivity, climate resilience, and farmer profitability among smallholder cocoa farmers across Côte d'Ivoire. You will build and manage the technical workforce, operational systems, and implementation processes needed to deliver high-quality agronomic services at scale.

You will also oversee a field force of more than 100 coaches, and recruiting, training, and deploying agricultural service provision agents who support farmers across multiple cocoa landscapes. The Senior Manager, Agronomy will guide the rollout of core methodologies, regenerative agriculture practices, climate-smart interventions, and farmer-focused training and service delivery systems that strengthen long-term livelihood outcomes, ensuring interventions remain evidence-based, scalable, and aligned with Rainforest Alliance and national priorities.

Reporting to the Director of Scalable Impact Platforms, the Senior Manager, Agronomy provides technical stewardship, coordinating training systems, deployment strategies, and quality oversight for coaches and service provision agents. You will ensure alignment between methodology design, implementation realities, and impact delivery by collaborating with product design, implementation, and regional teams. You will foster innovation and evidence-based decision-making, maintaining cross-functional coordination to deliver high-quality, scalable agronomic solutions for smallholder farmers.

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

Technical Stewardship, Methodology Governance and Quality Assurance:

• Provide operational leadership for the implementation of program-specific agronomic methodologies, ensuring they are translated into scalable field delivery systems while maintaining technical integrity.

• Safeguard technical quality, behavioral relevance, scalability, and long‑term sustainability of interventions delivered through field teams and partners.

• Be the reference point for methodologies such as Adoption Observation, Farm Development Plan(s), regenerative agriculture, climate resilience, and agroforestry.

• Ensure consistency, quality assurance, and appropriate adaptation across regions and implementation contexts.

• Build organizational capability in technical rigor, learning, and continuous improvement.

Implementation Leadership, Change Management and Field Delivery:

• Lead implementation planning for complex agronomic interventions, including stakeholder analysis, role clarity, implementation roadmaps, and adoption risk mitigation.

• Oversee annual and multi‑year implementation planning for interventions such as pruning and farmer training systems.

• Define and validate implementation pathways, training strategies, and change plans in collaboration with internal teams and regional partners.

• Balance strategic oversight with targeted hands‑on engagement in high‑risk, high‑impact areas, particularly within priority regenerative and income‑focused interventions.

• Ensure operational readiness of all agronomic interventions through recruitment, onboarding, training, and, resource planning.

• Provide operational oversight of contracted technical service providers to ensure performance against agreed quality, productivity and compliance standards.

Program Management, Monitoring and Evidence-Based Decision Making:

• Manage field teams responsible for delivering agronomic services to farmers and cooperatives.

• Establish quality standards, monitoring protocols, and learning loops.

• Produce high‑quality reports, technical briefs, and presentations for internal leadership, donors, and partners.

• Monitor operational performance through important implementation indicators including workforce productivity, service coverage, farmer reach and intervention completion.

Cross-Functional Alignment, Regional Engagement & External Interface:

• Collaborate with internal and regional teams to ensure delivery of agronomic interventions.

• Coordinate contributions from cross‑functional teams, consultants, and partners to deliver agreed implementation outcomes.

• Be the interface with donors, partners, and internal leadership, providing clear, evidence‑based inputs to support strategic decisions, partnerships, and resource mobilization.

• Facilitate strategic discussions, workshops, and reviews, and contribute to written outputs including decision papers and/or proposals, methodology documentation, and governance materials.

WHAT YOU BRING:

• Bachelor's degree within area expertise (Agriculture, Agronomy, Crop Science, Soil Science, Environmental Science or related discipline.

• 10 years of experience of project management, agricultural development, cocoa agronomy or tropical perennial crop systems.

• Experience managing large-scale field programs and multidisciplinary teams in West Africa.

• Experience working directly with cocoa cooperatives, traders, and farmers.

• Experience with cocoa production systems, regenerative agriculture, smallholder farming dynamics.

• Excellent project management, strategic planning experience.

• Proficiency in French and English.

• Experience working culturally, linguistically and diplomatically with diverse internal and external individuals.

• We base the role in Cote d'Ivoire, with regular travel to cocoa-growing regions and occasional international travel.

• Experience scaling agricultural extension systems.

• Experience managing outsourced service providers and/or consultants.

BENEFITS OF WORKING AT THE RAINFOREST ALLIANCE:

• Be a part of a global organization with an impactful mission and a collaborative, respectful, and accountable culture.

• Enjoy opportunities for professional growth and career development.

• Benefit from remote working flexibility and flexible hybrid working environment.

• A favourable time‑off policy.

• Prioritize your wellbeing. We have numerous ways to promote work-life balance.

Apply now and let's grow together. We look forward to hearing from you and exploring how your skills can help us advance our mission.

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department: recruitment@ra.org The Rainforest Alliance encourages diversity and inclusion across the global organization. With this commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ages, disability and any other protected group.