Back Director of Analytics

Continue rapid growth and development of consulting team, providing best-in-class strategy advice to enable agricultural reform across Ethiopia.

Director of Analytics

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) was established by the Government of Ethiopia in 2011 with the primary aim of promoting transformation of the agriculture sector to help the country reach middle-income status by 2025. This role sits in our strategic advisory and consulting function, supporting senior leadership in executing high-impact client engagements in a similar fashion to a strategy consultancy. We’re looking for a consultant with significant experience leading and delivering high-impact projects across government, private-sector, and development organizations, and building and managing high-performance teams. You will be responsible for ensuring the continued growth, development and effective functioning of the team as a provider of best-in-class strategic advisory and consulting services.

About the organisation

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) was established by the Government of Ethiopia in 2011 with the primary aim of promoting transformation of the agriculture sector to help the country reach middle-income status by 2025. Headquartered in Addis Ababa, the organization currently has over 400 staff in five offices across the country. ATA reports to the Ministry of Agriculture and is secretary to the National Agricultural Transformation Council.

ATA works closely with these government partners, local and international private sector firms, and development partners, to address systemic challenges in agriculture. The Agency comprises more than 35 teams with diverse programmatic focus, from increasing agricultural productivity to catalyzing rural finance industries to growing agribusiness and agricultural markets to building institutional capacity.

About the analytics team

As ATA’s strategic advisory and consulting function, the Analytics Team supports Directors and Senior Directors within the organization, as well as senior leadership at partner organizations to execute high-impact, analytically challenging client engagements. The team applies an approach similar to top strategy consulting firms to support clients to more effectively bring together the strategic, analytical, and operational capabilities required for transformation. In addition, the team also works extensively on capacity building through managing training and professional development programs for ATA staff and designing and delivering programs for partners.

About the position

The Director of the Analytics Team is responsible for ensuring the continued growth, development and effective functioning of the team as a provider of best-in-class strategic advisory and consulting services to senior internal and external clients. He or she oversees planning and execution of a diverse portfolio of strategic and analytically-focused cases, relationship-building and partnership with senior internal and external clients and stakeholders, and rapid team and staff development.

The role also involves further building out and refining of the team’s operating model, management structure, and support systems and processes. Significant experience leading and delivering high-impact, challenging engagement for senior clients across government, private-sector, and development organizations, and building and managing high-performance teams, are therefore important prerequisites for this role. Specific experience in agribusiness and industrial development initiatives in developing countries and Africa in particular is desirable, as is a strong passion for transforming agriculture and improving the lives of smallholder farmers.

Essential duties

• Engage with external partners and stakeholders, to socialize the working modalities of the Analytics Team and secure buy-in from clients, partners and stakeholders
• Oversee planning and execution of diverse, strategic and analytically-focused high impact cases, including effective relationship building and partnership with internal and external clients
• Develop and manage overall team work plans based on case planning and prioritization with ATA senior management, and ensure the timeliness, analytical rigor, practicality and quality of outputs
• Lead a 'Global Innovations' function, identifying opportunities to adapt innovations in the sector to the Ethiopian context
• Provide day-to-day guidance, coaching, feedback and quality control support to Principals overseeing multiple client engagements
• Lead engagement and relationship management with more senior stakeholders, and support Principals and case teams in internal and external steering committees and workshops
• Lead the ATA's efforts to provide analytical capacity-building internally and to key partners
• Ensure rapid staff development and progress towards fully local staffing within three to four years
• Work closely with and provide strategic advisory and thought partnership to the Senior Director and other Directors of the Strategic Services vertical on diverse topics
• Continuously enhance team and project management, budgeting and financial management, recruiting, staffing, team health, team building, performance management, training and professional development, knowledge management, and other critical systems, processes and initiatives as needed to ensure the effective and efficient functioning of the team

Key Requirements

• Master’s Degree in a relevant field from a reputable university required; MBA or MPA in a relevant field from a reputable university preferred
• At least ten years of international experience required in a top-tier global strategy consulting firm and other organizations in strategy and analysis focused roles
• At least a year of experience required at Principal level or equivalent, leading, structuring and managing multiple cases in a range of client or senior management engagements on diverse industry and functional topics, with experience managing across multiple cases and client relationships at the same time
• Strong understanding of development sector issues, and ability to effectively liaise with senior decision-makers across government, non-governmental and private sector organizations
• Exceptional ability to communicate clearly and effectively in a complex, cross-cultural environment (fluency in English is essential)
• Highly collaborative leadership style and demonstrated success in leading, managing and developing high-performance teams
• Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service

Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (with field travel where required for project work)

Salary: Competitive