Senior Technical Expert II – Agribusiness in Horticulture

Position:                                 Senior Technical Expert II – Agribusiness in Horticulture

Term of Employment:         One year with possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):                    Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Required Number:                One

Application Deadline:          September 12, 2025

Job Description

 Background

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), formerly known as the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), is a strategy and delivery-oriented government institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of Ethiopia’s agriculture sector, which is a key contributor to the country’s GDP, exports, and workforce. The ATI’s work is cantered on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers (SHFs) across the country for improved income, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.

The ATI works to transform the agriculture sector in Ethiopia by conducting policy and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support and capacity building, coordinating.

platforms to better integrate partners and projects and designing and directly leading several innovative/pilot interventions. The Institute joins forces with various stakeholders, including policymakers, researchers, farmers, and development partners, to support the implementation of agricultural development programs and initiatives. In addition, the ATI collaborates with national and international partners to facilitate knowledge exchange and learning opportunities. The Institute plays a crucial role in generating and disseminating information to support evidence-based decision-making in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated, and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results.

At ATI, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

Program and Position Summary

The Energizing Women and Youth in Agri-Food System (EWAS) project seeks to address young women’s unemployment gaps by prioritizing rural young women in employment-focused initiatives. By utilizing a clustering approach, the project tailors support to distinct economic groups, ensuring a greater impact by addressing specific challenges. The project focuses on equipping young women with the tools and skills needed for entrepreneurship and employment in agro-processing and value addition. By emphasizing the productive use of energy, the project promotes the accessibility and adoption of reliable electrical equipment, enabling efficient processing and diversification of agricultural value chains. This approach not only enhances productivity but also fosters dignified employment opportunities, contributing to long-term economic empowerment and social inclusion.

This holistic approach ensures that the EWAS project not only tackles unemployment but also addresses systemic barriers to economic participation for rural young women, laying the foundation for sustainable development and improved livelihoods across Ethiopia.

To this end, the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) has launched the Energizing Women and Youth in Agri-Food System (EWAS) project to tackle unemployment and promote green energy in the agricultural value chain, focusing on young women. ATI integrates youth employment, gender equality, climate-smart agribusiness practices, and nutrition-sensitive agriculture across its programs to create sustainable job opportunities and build resilience. ATI currently works with over 3 million smallholder farmers, including 540,300 women and youth, through its Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) and digital agriculture programs. Additionally, the ADEY program has also been working to create job opportunities for more than 611 youth in Ethiopia by improving access to markets and strengthening MSMEs. Leveraging ATI’s experience, the EWAS project aims to create dignified and fulfilling employment opportunities for young women by establishing enterprises in three value chains, namely grain milling, horticulture collection centers, and honey processing, supporting them through capacity-building, skills development, and provision of essential equipment.

The Senior Technical Expert II (STE-II)- Agribusiness in Horticulture will provide technical guidance and oversee the implementation of the EWAS project interventions at the federal level, ensuring timely and high-quality results. He/she will integrate and ensure implementation of young women-centric design approach in the project. He/she will directly report to the EWAS Project Coordinator, with matrix reporting to ADEY’s Team Lead for Agribusiness in the Crops, and responsible to oversee and manage planning, execution, monitoring and reporting of the project activities. The position holder will provide supports to the regions on establishment of young women-owned horticulture collection centers, and enhancing their competitiveness through capacity-building and business development services. He/she will oversee value chain and market development with a focus on high-value horticulture commodities and identify and promote innovative solutions and services to increase young women’s engagement in horticulture business.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead design and analysis of the horticulture value chain to identify agribusiness opportunities for rural young women. Work closely with partner organizations to identify and analyze agribusinesses and market system constraints and propose market-based solutions to address these constraints.
• Facilitate young women-led horticulture-related business linkages among private sectors, cooperatives, unions, and farmers’ groups that contribute to increasing production, income, and employment.
• Provide technical leadership to facilitate market system/value chain development with a focus on horticulture value chains. In addition, the position will lead market analysis and identification, and the development of business opportunities in the sector.
• Ensure the selected value chains’ multi-stakeholder platform meetings contribute to providing strategic guidance and solving challenges in strengthening the horticulture value chain.
• Facilitate the strengthening of horticulture value chains by introducing and promoting new technologies, productivity improvement training, value addition, and engagement of the private sector in the provision of embedded services.
• Assist the project lead in annual planning, budgeting, and ensuring that the project’s implementation and budget utilization align with planned activities.
• Actively engage in supervision, monitoring, and technical backstopping, review, and frequent reporting to ensure proper implementation as per the project’s annual plan.
• Support the development of selection criteria for beneficiaries in the horticulture value chain for the regions.
• Integrate and ensure implementation of young women-centric design approaches in the program.
• Critically support the establishment and monitoring of young women-led enterprises, ensuring progress follows key principles and proper implementation of value chain activities.
• Assist the regional team in identifying and prioritizing the knowledge and skill gaps of targeted youth (especially women) throughout the value chain.
• Map the crop development infrastructures established by federal and regional partners across project regions and connect them with targeted youth.
• Assist implementation and provide support in resolving strategic and operational problems that arise over the course of the project lifetime.
• Provide technical advisory services and capacity-building support on matters related to the horticulture value chain to the project execution team and stakeholders.
• Provide technical support during the procurement, installation, and calibration of horticulture collection-related machinery and equipment.
• Demonstrate depth of expertise in horticulture husbandry and use knowledge to enrich and guide problem-solving with teams and external stakeholders.
• Identify the need and prepare all the horticulture value chain necessary Terms of Reference (ToRs) for procuring goods and services.
• Prepare specifications for all machinery and equipment needed for horticulture collection, in consultation with the electromechanical engineer and project team members, according to the project’s scope outlined in the document.
• Support and supervise hired consultants in the development of training manuals and the execution of beneficiary training sessions.
• Produce, update, and assist in disseminating capacity development materials to enhance project partners’ skills and promote technical expertise and business entrepreneurship within horticulture value chains.
• Organize and facilitate workshops and ToT trainings on prioritized activities for stakeholders.
• Coach and mentor ToT trainers and project participants on effectively cascading training and implementation.
• Assess technical gaps of the regional program staff, implementing partners and beneficiaries, and design and implement capacity-building trainings.
• Identify potential risks that could affect the overall performance of the project.
• Proactively engage with other team members of the ATI and external partners to develop solutions and recommendations to address identified technical issues.
• Liaise with the project manager and provide advisory services and capacity building to partners based on the identified gap.
• Provide effective, timely, and regular upward reporting to the project manager on programmatic and operational issues.
• Conduct compiling, validating, and analyzing project data to ensure monthly and quarterly updates, and analyses to draw lessons and write quarter, bi-annual, and annual reports.
• Ensure effective communication (oral, written, digital, etc.) among the project and institutional team
• Closely work with ADEY and other ACC project teams.
• Assume other tasks as assigned by the supervisors.

Required Qualification, Competencies, and Experience

• Minimum master’s degree in agricultural science, horticulture, agribusiness development, plant/crop sciences or related fields
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in designing, providing technical support, and implementing youth and women-focused initiatives in agricultural value chains.
• Knowledge and experience with participatory techniques, coaching, networking, learning, alliance building, and team building
• Adequate experience in facilitating and supporting youth employment.
• Solid understanding of young woman agri-entrepreneurship specificities in the Ethiopian context
• Good experience in advisory and capacity building of smallholder producers in technologies and husbandry practices, and horticulture markets.
• Experience in providing management guidance and technical oversight.
• Extensive experience in implementing and managing donor-funded projects focused on the establishment of youth and women-based enterprises.
• Experience in leading the development of program learning – identify opportunities for learning, research, and publication.
• Experience in the dissemination and institutionalization of best practices and lessons with implementing partners.
• Experience leading multi-dimensional teams and complex work programs.
• Analytical skills, including profitability and business analysis.
• Training or demonstrated experience in the agricultural economy.
• Experience in horticulture and agribusiness value chains, with strong skills in supporting MSMEs to scale from small to medium and large enterprises.
• Broad understanding of how public, private, and informal actors operate within the agricultural system.
• Experience in a green energy project is a plus
• Desire to improve the lives of smallholder farmers.
• Strong capacity to facilitate teamwork.
• Experience in collaborative and adaptive monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
• Willingness to undertake frequent field visits.
• Strong Communication skills (writing, speaking, composing, presenting, etc).
• Proficiency in oral and written English and Amharic.
• Proficient in using Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook

Safeguarding risk level

•  The role holder will have frequent or intensive contact with program participants as he/she will be responsible for implementing and monitoring program activities.

 

HOW TO APPLY

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to: https://apply.ati.gov.et. It is mandatory to mention the position title in both the subject line of your cover letter and the Outlook email subject line. Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.

Women are highly encouraged to apply

NB. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.