Technical Field Program Manager – Malawi
Location: Lilongwe, Malawi
Job Reference: TFPM/PD/MW/02/2026
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:
- Policy and state capability – We support governments in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in agricultural transformation.
- 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.
- Sustainable farming – We support farmers in building resilient farming systems for sustained high yields through interventions such as mechanization and irrigation.
- 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.
- 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
Technical Field Program Manager – Malawi – Job Reference: TFPM/PD/MW/02/2026
The role will deepen field-level monitoring, strengthen grantee performance, and accelerate youth-in-work outcomes in Malawi by providing technical leadership, market-systems informed grant design support and operational troubleshooting. The role will reduce delays in grant execution and disbursement, improve partner delivery quality and ensure timely monthly youth in work (YiW) reporting.
S/he will be responsible for hands-on field engagements, partner performance management, grant design inputs, and strengthening linkages between country implementation and continental results/ Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems. Works closely with Country Programs Lead (CPL) and Program Management Unit (PMU) to drive country acceleration plans.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Lead and coordinate in-country implementation of the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) acceleration plan together with CPL and partners.
- Translate the country Theory of Change into operational interventions that deliver YiW outcomes.
- Plan and conduct regular field monitoring visits and prepare concise RAG status reports for Country Program Lead (CPL) and Program Management Unit (PMU).
- Implement quality assurance processes to ensure partner activities meet YEFFA standards, safeguarding and environmental compliance.
- Provide training and capacity strengthening to partners on gender-sensitive and youth- intentional program approaches and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) data collection protocols.
- Validate partner-reported data and ensure consistency with YEFFA MEL protocols.
- Provide technical inputs for grant design and pre-approval concept notes, ensuring market- systems orientation and inclusion considerations.
- Track grant performance, expenditure against deliverables, and collaborate with Grants & Finance to address disbursement or compliance issues.
- Consolidate field insights into programmatic recommendations and feed into country and continental learning products.
- Identify implementation bottlenecks early through field presence; propose and implement corrective actions and escalate major issues to CPL/PMU.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with implementing partners, local government authorities, private sector actors, consortiums, youth groups, women’s groups, and community-based organizations to enable scalable youth-in-work (YiW) pathways.
- Facilitate linkages between country delivery and continental pillar initiatives to maximize learning, harmonize approaches, and ensure alignment with AGRA’s YEFFA results framework.
- Act as a technical liaison between CPL, PMU, and grantees to address bottlenecks and provide real-time guidance for program execution.
- Promote knowledge-sharing and cross-country learning by facilitating field visits, peer-to-peer exchanges, and virtual learning sessions.
- Advocate for youth inclusion, gender responsiveness, and market systems approaches in program implementation.
Key Qualifications and Experience Required:
- Bachelor’s degree in development studies, Agricultural Economics, Business Administration, or related field.
- Project management or monitoring & evaluation certification
- Master degree will be added advantage
- Technical program management experience, ideally within youth employment, agribusiness or market systems programs at country level.
- Demonstrated experience in field monitoring, partner performance management and grant implementation support.
- Experience working with donors and multi-stakeholder consortia preferred.
- Strong understanding of market-systems, value chain development, and workforce pathways for youth.
- Competence in MEL procedures, data verification and results reporting (YiW/YDnF indicators).
- Ability to design practical, context-appropriate technical assistance for implementing partners.
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 andinnovation to unlock the potential of diversity and ideas.
If you believe you are the right candidate for this position, kindly submit your application with a detailed CV (including your e-mail and telephone contacts)
https://ekjd.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX/jobs
Please quote the job reference number in the subject line of the application e-mail.
Applications must be received on or before 3 rd March 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