RDDP II Project Manager

Job Summary

The RDDP II Project Manager oversees operational, programmatic, and financial execution of the IFAD/Heifer co-funded Rwanda Dairy Development Project II. This manager leads Market Systems Development interventions, directs budget execution and procurement review committees, manages project personnel, coordinates with RAB and SPIU officials, and enforces donor compliance standards.

Key Roles & Operational Responsibilities

1. Programmatic Leadership & Market Systems Development (MSD)

• Project Execution: Provide overall operational direction, approving Annual Work Plans and Budgets (AWPB) and ensuring deliverables meet IFAD and Heifer quality benchmarks.
• Systemic Interventions: Design, test, and scale Market Systems Development (MSD) approaches that resolve root causes of market failures across Rwanda's dairy sector.
• Actor Facilitation: Build sustainable multi-actor partnerships linking input suppliers, processors, financial service providers, and dairy cooperatives.
• Inclusive Integration: Incorporate gender, youth, and social inclusion frameworks into systemic interventions to ensure equitable benefit sharing for smallholder farmers.

2. Financial Management, Compliance & Procurement

• Budget Oversight: Direct project budget preparation, track monthly expenditures, perform variance analyses, and maintain financial controls.
• Procurement Governance: Chair local Procurement Review Committees (PRC), oversee procurement plans, and enforce inventory control standards.
• Donor Compliance: Ensure strict adherence to IFAD contract terms, submitting quarterly, semi-annual, and annual progress reports on time.

3. Stakeholder Alignment, Staff Management & MEL

• Government & Donor Relations: Serve as primary liaison to IFAD, the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), SPIU, local authorities, and private sector partners.
• Team Leadership: Coach and evaluate project field staff, ensuring they apply a market systems lens across district-specific activities.
• Exit Strategy & Sustainability: Maintain a project risk register, update exit strategies annually, and embed long-term sustainability plans into local cooperative and government systems.

Foundational Capabilities & Prerequisites

Required Technical Profile & Experience

• Academic Baseline: Master’s degree in Project Management, Rural Development, Animal Production, Agribusiness, or a closely related field.
• Agricultural Sector Experience: Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in the agricultural sector (dairy value chain strongly preferred).
• MSD Experience in Rwanda: Minimum of 2 years of hands-on experience implementing Market Systems Development (MSD/M4P) projects within Rwanda.
• Donor Governance: Demonstrated track record managing large-scale projects funded by major multilateral donors (IFAD, World Bank, USAID, EU).
• Language Proficiency: Complete professional fluency in English and Kinyarwanda (spoken and written).
• Software Competency: Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project).

Preferred Competencies & Character Traits

• Proven expertise applying market systems diagnosis, market mapping, and capital budgeting to design scalable commercial models.
• Experience strengthening producer organizations, dairy cooperatives, and private sector linkages.
• Essential character traits: Good stewardship, accountability, proactive problem-solving, flexibility, and strong team leadership.

What Heifer International Offers

• Strategic Impact: Direct contribution toward moving 300,000 smallholder farmer households in Rwanda to a sustainable living income by 2030.
• Professional Growth: Opportunity to lead a flagship IFAD-funded national dairy initiative in partnership with top government agricultural agencies.
• Inclusive Culture: Work within an equal-opportunity international organization committed to gender equality and rural community empowerment.

Skills Required:

• Agricultural / Studies
• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development