The Senior Vice President – Africa (SVP Africa) is responsible for the overall vision, strategic leadership, and strategy of Heifer’s Africa Regional program, currently spanning nine countries. The SVP – Africa reports to the CEO and President and leads the Africa regional and country nodes. This role will be a champion of Locally Led Development, ensuring that country nodes in Africa thrive as semi-autonomous, high-performing, and context-responsive centers of leadership, innovation, and impact. The SVP - Africa will guide and mentor senior leaders in the region to cultivate a results-driven, inclusive, and values-based culture that reflects Heifer’s Cornerstones and regenerative leadership principles. 

As a member of Heifer’s Steering Committee and Global Programs Leadership Team, the SVP – Africa will collaborate with peers across regions and functions to enhance cross-learning, advance organizational transformation, and ensure that Africa’s strategy and priorities inform and align with Heifer’s global direction. The SVP - Africa will represent Heifer in Africa internally and externally with governments, partners, donors, and stakeholders, while ensuring strong operational and programmatic performance. The SVP – Africa is also a bold and visible ambassador for Africa, shaping the global development narrative to reflect African leadership, regenerative practices, and locally led solutions that challenge outdated paradigms. 

Job location: Africa region (Remote/Hybrid Possible), preferably in a country where Heifer has an office within Africa. 

Core Responsibilities 

1. Program Leadership 

• Lead the design and execution of the Africa regional strategy, aligning with Heifer’s global vision and the Twelve Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development. 
• Align the program model, lead, and drive the Africa program for program quality and impact. 
• Champion Locally Led Development by empowering country programs to act as strategic and operational centers, ensuring they have the autonomy, capacity, and resources to thrive. 
• Establish an enabling environment with Global Support Functions and Regional Nodes to support successful program design, delivery, and adaptation. 
• Ensure program goals, budgets, and timelines are met, and adhere to compliance requirements while driving cohesion. 
• Maintain awareness of the competitive development landscape, expansion opportunities, and industry trends in Africa. 

2. Strategic Partnership, Relationship Building, and Management 

• Represent Heifer Africa with bilateral, multilateral, corporate, and philanthropic partners, cultivating long-term, trust-based relationships and strategic partnerships driven by the business model and inspired by the ambitions of the program model. 
• Collaborate with global revenue and partnership cultivation teams to align Africa’s priorities with donor engagement strategies and secure sustainable funding pipelines for long-term and innovative partnerships. 
• Elevate Heifer’s visibility and influence in Africa and abroad through strategic partnerships, advocacy and policy engagement, and thought leadership. 
• Position Heifer Africa as a top-tier development ecosystem, thought leader, and impactful organization fostering effective communication and external collaboration. 

3. People Leadership and Culture 

• Build and mentor a high-performing regional leadership team, fostering collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning, and champion talent fluidity by nurturing a connected ecosystem of leaders, ensuring skills, insights, and experiences flow seamlessly across country, regional, and network nodes to strengthen collective capacity. 
• Champion a culture of equity, inclusion, transparency, and integrity that aligns with Heifer’s values and regenerative leadership model. 
• Develop leadership capacity within country programs to strengthen locally led and sustainable organizations. 
• Translate organizational vision into specific, actionable strategies that mobilize and inspire teams across the region. 

4. Execution, Risk, and Operations 

• Oversee internal program execution, operations, finances, and compliance within Africa to ensure Heifer’s reputation as a trusted and high-performing organization. 
• Collaborate across functions to mitigate risks, optimize resources, and accelerate results. 
• Enable country programs to adopt adaptive strategies rooted in evidence, learning, and contextual realities. 

• Lead the design and execution of the Africa regional strategy...
• Align the program model, lead, and drive the Africa program for program quality and impact...
• Champion Locally Led Development by empowering country programs to act as strategic and operational centers...
• Establish an enabling environment with Global Support Functions and Regional Nodes to support successful program design, delivery, and adaptation...
• Ensure program goals, budgets, and timelines are met, and adhere to compliance requirements while driving cohesion...
• Maintain awareness of the competitive development landscape, expansion opportunities, and industry trends in Africa...

• Deep commitment to Locally Led Development and smallholder farmer prosperity...
• Demonstrated ability to represent an organization with governments, donors, private sector, and grassroots actors...
• Strong track record of building and sustaining high-performing teams and organizations...
• A systems thinker with the ability to manage complexity, ambiguity, and competing priorities; has an adaptive mindset...
• Exceptional leadership presence, communication, and influencing skills across diverse audiences...
• Strong organizational change and strategy execution experience in distributed, international organizations...
• Ability to navigate cultural nuances with humility, transparency, and inclusion...
• Ability to lead and partner through influence across formal and informal authority lines...

• A minimum of fifteen (15) years of international development experience with a bachelor's degree in a relevant field...
• Extensive experience living and working in Africa in the field of agriculture, agri-business, and food systems, etc...
• Knowledge of small holder business development and agriculture...
• Proven success leading complex programs and organizations, including financial and operational management in the non-profit space...
• Demonstrated experience of engaging institutional donors (IFAD, DFID/FCDO, UN agencies, Foundations, Corporations)...
• Fluent in English...
• The ability to travel within Africa and globally up to 50% of the time...