Director of Technical Practice Operations

Everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better future. This simple idea has been at the heart of TechnoServe’s work around the world for over 50 years. TechnoServe is a pioneer in leveraging the power of business and markets to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.

The low-income communities in which we work are full of enterprising people. Their small-scale farms and businesses are the keys to economic development. But they face many challenges: low literacy, lack of access to jobs and markets, unpredictable political dynamics and, increasingly, the effects of climate change. For many women and young people, the challenges are even more daunting. Working with TechnoServe staff, people around the world are lifting themselves out of poverty. The results are amazing...when incomes increase and living conditions for families get better, they are able to access health care and education previously out of reach. Communities and even whole countries are better off. 

Overview:

Over the past several years, TechnoServe has placed an increased emphasis on technical expertise in the domains where we operate. This has resulted in substantial growth in the number of technical practices, now numbering six.

1. Regenerative Business
2. Gender and Youth
3. TechnoServe Labs (technical innovations)
4. Entrepreneurship and Jobs
5. High-Margin Agriculture
6. Food Systems and Food Processing

These technical practices–each led by a Practice Leader–help us to enable a more effective program design process, ensure higher quality implementation across our portfolios, and provide internal and external thought leadership. The practices also identify and disseminate best practices and lessons learned to the wider organization. TechnoServe’s practices also support donor cultivation and lead generation in close collaboration with Regions, other Practices, and the Program Development team.

The Director for Technical Practice Operations is responsible for ensuring that our project and country teams  have access to the internal technical expertise and knowledge of our practices, allowing them to do consistently great work.

Many of TechnoServe’s projects are increasingly large and complex and increasingly need to draw on multiple technical practices at the same time. This trend, has created new internal challenges, especially around the coordination, prioritization and budgeting of our technical practices. While it was not so long ago that a TechnoServe project was either a coffee project or entrepreneurship project, today it is rare to find any TechnoServe project that does not draw on more than one of our technical practices at the same time. We are seeking someone who can identify and resolve specific pain points related to the involvement of multiple practice areas in our project, countries, and regions. 

Although the Director of Technical Practice Operations will work most closely with Practice Leads, Country Directors (CDs), and other senior managers, the position will report to the CEO, given the importance of this position and the likely need for decisions on sensitive resource-allocation topics.  

Primary Functions & Responsibilities

The Director of Technical Practice Operations will: 

• Serve as a “one stop shop,” where CDs and business development staff can request assistance from multiple practices. Currently, a CD who needs help from three practices must reach out and coordinate across the three different practices herself, often creating a bottleneck. In the future, she will simply be able to make her request to the Director of Technical Practice Operations, who will be able to coordinate and prioritize across the three practices as needed
• Work closely with the Chief Program Officer (CPO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and Practice Leads to prioritize any competing demands of the practices
• Using insights gained from CDs and others, the Director of Technical Practice Operations will support the practice leaders in  identifying and prioritizing opportunities to create “products” and materials that  can provide technical support to TechnoServe colleagues
• With support from the Finance team, develop annual first draft budgets for the practices drawing on budgeted technical assistance (TA) present in donor budgets. Assist in finalizing those budgets at year end and revising those budgets at mid-year, consistent with new guidance developed during the organizational review
• Establish guidelines for share of practice Level of Effort (LOE) to be dedicated to each major area of responsibility and associated budget guidance for th