Research and Learning Director 

• Remote work with travel (~10%) to Guatemala
• Salary range: $90-120,000/yr depending on experience
• Competitive benefits package

Summary of the Position

Semilla Nueva is recruiting a research and learning director to co-lead the development and publishing of third-party impact evaluations, monitoring and evaluation, reporting, and assist in program design. This position will report to and collaborate closely with the COO, supervise a M&E coordinator position, and will be a part of our senior leadership team. The position will require time in Guatemala, but we are open to remote work.

We are looking for a passionate, creative, and outgoing leader who wants to help use impact evaluation to change public policy and donor priorities in order to improve the nutritional intake of millions of people in the next 3-5 years.

Summary of the Organization

Malnutrition is one of the greatest barriers to the world’s poorest people escaping poverty. The 900 million people in Africa and Central America who eat corn daily are some of the most affected, with nearly half of Guatemala’s children suffering from stunted growth. Semilla Nueva launched the world’s first social enterprise dedicated to the development, production, and sale of more nutritious, biofortified corn seed directly to small farming families. Farmers buying our seed increase their yields and incomes, while improving the diets of hundreds of thousands— and someday millions—of the world’s poorest consumers. Semilla Nueva is currently expanding our model to work with other seed companies, the Guatemalan government, and partnerships in other countries. In 2022, our fifth year of sales, our seed reached 20,500 families, improving the nutrition of nearly 600,000 people.

Semilla Nueva works with some of the world’s leading scientists at organizations such as CIMMYT, HarvestPlus, INCAP, and universities like Purdue, Cornell, Tufts, and Harvard. Our donors include some of the most prestigious in impact philanthropy, including Cartier Philanthropy, Mulago and the U.S. Government. Our seeds are based on conventional breeding (non-GMO), although we are not opposed to well-tested biotechnology. Our work has led to rapid growth and international recognition, including an Ashoka fellowship, Mulago fellowship, and Forbes 30 under 30 for our founder.

 Qualifications

Required:

• Graduate degree in nutrition, public health or related field
• Experience in research, monitoring, or program management for nutritional/agricultural programs
• Proficiency in Stata, R, or SAS with strong quantitative and qualitative research skills
• Experience designing and managing health or nutrition research studies
• Experience at an international NGO, preferably living in a developing context
• Demonstrated leadership, stress-management and flexibility in the work environment
• Strong technical writing abilities
• Strong networking and inter-organizational collaboration skills
• Fully fluent English

Desired:

• Fluent Spanish
• Experience working in Meso-America

 Expectations

-          Ability to work independently, proactively, and prioritize/coordinate a variety of activities

-          Ability to represent organizational values and develop strategy in a senior leadership role

-          Ability to work effectively in a multicultural team

-          Comfortable working in a fast-paced, constantly evolving work environment

 Specific Tasks

• Third party studies and M&E
  • Co-develop studies with third party researchers to measure the nutritional and livelihood impact of Semilla Nueva’s programs on beneficiary families, including studies on biological impacts of biofortified grain, ex-ante impact models, livelihood impact evaluations, and climate resilience studies
  • Work with Semilla Nueva’s operations department to improve internal systems that measure the economic, climate resilience, and food security impact of our program on farming families
  • Lead efforts to visualize the impact of Semilla Nueva’s programs to make it easier for donors, partners, and government to understand the potential and impact of biofortified seeds
• Bilateral Relationships and Proposals  
  • Participate in relationship management with major donors and bilaterals such as USAID
  • Participate in proposal writing
• Management and Leadership  
  • Develop and grow a professional team dedicated to the areas above
  • Work with the leadership team on organizational and strategic development, including leading writing of new strategic and operational plans

To apply please send your CV to Trabajo@semillanueva.org with the subject, Research and Learning Director and your last name.

Feel free to send any recent publications and/or 2-3 bullet points of why you think you would be a good fit for the role and we may be a good fit for you.

Organization Details