CIMMYT - Regional Director, Africa
On-siteNairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya
Job Summary
Lead CIMMYT's regional vision and strategic alignment across Africa, overseeing country-level plans and integrating regional intelligence into global decision-making. Drive portfolio growth by shaping major agrifood initiatives with scientists and chapters, while representing the organization and Director General to governments, donors, and regional bodies. Mobilize diverse funding streams and maintain strategic partnerships to strengthen the continent's food security and resilience. This role requires substantial travel across Africa and to Mexico headquarters. Based at one of CIMMYT's African offices, the position reports directly to the Director General and oversees regional operations, compliance, and Country Representatives. The candidate must possess deep regional credibility, fifteen years of senior leadership experience, and the ability to navigate complex international organizations.
Required Qualifications
- Deep Africa regional credibility, with multicultural fluency across the continent's stakeholder landscape and local contexts
- Fifteen or more years of progressively senior leadership in agriculture, food security, or international development, with substantial experience working across Africa and genuine exposure to the continent's diversity
- Leadership of large, complex, multi-country programs or portfolios
- A demonstrated record of partnership development and resource mobilization: significant funding secured, coalitions built, and donors and governments engaged at senior level
- Senior external representation experience with ministers, government agencies, donors, and international or intergovernmental institutions
- Proven ability to lead through influence within complex, matrixed international organizations
- Credible scientific and agrifood-systems literacy: able to represent research-based work convincingly and translate it into policy, partnerships, and measurable outcomes; experience having grown beyond a purely technical role into broader institutional leadership
- High emotional intelligence, diplomacy, authenticity, and patience, with sound political and cultural judgment across diverse settings
- Composure under pressure and the decisiveness to give stakeholders confidence
- Collaborative instincts matched with gravitas, earning followership inside the organization while representing it externally at the highest levels
- Energy for a multi-year build through a period of organizational transformation
- Fluency in English required
Desired Qualifications
- A demonstrated ability to build new, high-quality relationships and to open new funding and partnership channels across the continent
- An advanced degree in agriculture, agrifood systems, or a related field
- Exposure to private capital or blended finance
- Experience in organizations undergoing decentralization
- Additional language proficiency desirable
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