Horticulture Production Manager, Uganda Growth Activity (ugandan Nationals Only)

Horticulture Production Manager, Uganda GROWTH Activity

At TechnoServe, we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to build a better life. For over 50 years, we have given smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs the skills, connections, and confidence to lift themselves out of poverty. We leverage the power of markets and the private sector to create sustainable economic growth to benefit people and the planet. Our unique mix of business solutions, deep knowledge of local contexts, and data-driven insights is helping to fight poverty across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

TechnoServe staff are local–95% are from the countries in which they work. We put a high premium on collaboration and entrepreneurship. We hold ourselves and each other to the highest standards of integrity and transparency. And we focus on delivering lasting impact for our mission.

Job Summary

The Horticulture Production Manager will lead all activities under Component 1 of the GROWTH program, focused on improving productivity and resilience among smallholder horticulture farmers (SHFs). This role oversees the design, planning, and delivery of agronomic technical assistance, ensuring the adoption of climate-smart practices, improved inputs, and technologies across priority value chains. The manager will supervise the Climate-Smart Agriculture Specialist and regional Associate Agronomy Advisors, and will collaborate with Agriterra's Organizational Development team to strengthen farmer organizations. By driving innovations in sustainable production and extension systems, the Horticulture Production Manager will play a critical role in raising farmer incomes, reducing post-harvest losses, and embedding resilience in Uganda's horticulture sector.

Program Overview

Building on the successes of TechnoServe's Horticulture Market Acceleration Program (HortiMAP), Growing Resilience and Opportunities for Wealth Through Horticulture (GROWTH) will deepen farmer ownership and drive lasting transformation in Uganda's horticulture sector.

Over five years, GROWTH will support 200,000 smallholder farmers to engage in profitable and resilient horticulture markets. The program will increase and stabilize farmer incomes, reduce post-harvest losses, enhance food security, and create thousands of new jobs across value chains. At a systems level, it will expand access to affordable finance, strengthen compliance with food safety standards, and improve market linkages across domestic and regional trade. GROWTH is rooted in a farmer-led approach that leverages participatory planning, so that farmers and their organizations will define their priorities, shaping interventions that reflect local needs.

GROWTH aligns with the Dutch Embassy's Multi-Annual Country Strategy 2023–2026, contributing to food and nutrition security, sustainable land use, private sector growth, and climate adaptation. It also supports the Netherlands' broader ambition to connect aid and trade, facilitating partnerships between Dutch and Ugandan enterprises in areas such as irrigation, seed systems, and cold chain solutions. GROWTH will be a EUR 13 million investment over five years.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for Component 1, including planning, implementation, and reporting of productivity-focused activities.
• Support farmer organizations (FOs) to deliver tailored extension services, demonstration plots, and farmer-based learning groups.
• Responsible for submission of program deliverables on time and within budget.
• Supervise program roll-out activities including developing and facilitating trainings, capacity building, tools, templates, documents and knowledge sharing to team members and consortium partners
• Build partnerships with input suppliers, technology providers, and government extension agents to expand farmer access to inputs and innovations.
• Contribute to reporting requirements both within the program and other requests as needed
• Design, review, and continuously improve program implementation on the basis of feedback from program leadership as well as internal and external stakeholders
• Supervise and mentor the Climate-Smart Agriculture Specialist and Associate Agronomy Advisors in delivering high-quality technical assistance.

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience in international development and or field(s) plus a Master's degree, or a Bachelor's Degree plus seven years of experience.
• Experience developing and implementing activities that increase horticulture production and utilize farmer-centric participatory approaches

Required Languages

Excellent oral, written, and interpersonal skills, including fluency in English and the native language.

Travel

Travel up to 10% in Uganda.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in Uganda or Region preferred
• Experience with EKN preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Analytical, writing, social and management skills required for delivering technical assistance to development programs or initiatives
• Ability to work both persuasively and diplomatically in a team-based environment with a high degree of complexity and ambiguity
• Ability to communicate complex issues with clarity, precision and prioritization is a must
• Strong capacity building skills, including participatory facilitation techniques, coaching, and mentoring

Supervisory Responsibilities

This role will be responsible for supervising the Climate-Smart Agriculture Specialist and the Associate Agronomy Advisors

This position is contingent upon donor funding and approval.

We encourage all qualified individuals who share TechnoServe's vision of improving the lives of others through proven business solutions to apply.

With our commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and affirmative action employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, HIV/AIDS status, protected veteran status, disability and all other protected classes.

We are also proud of our commitment to protecting staff, partners, and beneficiaries from abuse and exploitation and thoroughly vet all final candidates through rigorous background and reference checks.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to use our online system to apply for a position at TechnoServe please contact the Human Resources at recruitment@tns.org or call +1 202 785 4515.