Author: Sam Webb

We are seeking an enthusiastic User-Centered Developer to work with our award winning NGO. Producers Direct works with 600,000 farmers in East Africa and Latin America and is led by farmers, for farmers. By co-investing with this network, Producers Direct is creating lasting and vital impact with the farmers who grow 70% of the world’s food.

The Role

You will work with  our small, but dedicated, team across UK, Kenya and Peru, and be based in either our London or Nairobi office. You will deliver a user centered design approach to develop a platform (incl. analogue and digital components – such as paper logbook, apps and dashboards) that integrates analogue and digital data collection, and provides usable and actionable data insights for smallholder farmers. This is a great opportunity to use your UX and software development skills to support farmers to access, understand and interpret data to make life changing decisions on their farms; making a real impact on farmers’ lives.

Key tasks include:

• Create a strategy for delivering a participatory, user-design process with farmers and Producer Organisations (farming cooperatives)
• Co-deliver workshops with our programmes team for farmers and youth in rural settings in East Africa and Latin America
• Develop relevant tools (platform / app /dashboard – see above) necessary to collect and/or process analogue data and deliver insights to farmers
• Carry out iterative development process with smallholders and youth on the tool in response to farmers’ feedback and needs
• Integrate data output from partner organisations into the tool
• Integrate on-farm data into Producers Direct’s impact dashboard
• Other activities as requested by Producers Direct leadership

What we can offer:

As a small charitable organisation, we don’t have huge resources. However, we can offer you: a dynamic, creative and rewarding working environment; Salary commensurate with experience; 6-month fixed term contract with potential for extension based on results; flexible PT or FT working options; hands on experience and responsibility from day one; the opportunity to travel and work with smallholder farmers in rural East Africa and Latin America; and the chance to make a real impact in a small, but ambitious organisation!

Essential requirements:

• Demonstrated knowledge of relevant programming tools used for app / software development as appropriate
• Experience of working with software such as Tableau, Google Drive, WordPress
• Experience in creating and delivering UX and human / user centred design processes – ideally in an international context
• Flexible approach to problem-solving that may include using low / non tech solutions and willingness to work with limited resources
• Comfortable working in a small team environment across multiple cultures and languages
• Willingness to make most of opportunity to travel often to rural areas of East Africa  for 2 or 3 weeks at a time
• Eligible to work and reside in the UK or Kenya – unfortunately we are not in the position to support visa applications

 

 

We are looking for someone who is:

• Eager and ready to play a key role in co-designing and delivering an impactful data system for farmers
• Passionate about our model and approach to supporting and empowering smallholder farmers
• Capable of managing app development and data management, but willing to try new things and take the unconventional (often non digital) approach to solving problems
• Creative and innovative, and excited about working with a small, passionate, diverse & creative team

Nice to haves

• Conversational Spanish and/or Swahili
• Experience in working in rural setting with farmers or low IT literacy populations
• Experience working for social enterprise / NGO / charitable organisation
• Knowledge / understanding of the European Union’s new General Data Protec
• tion Regulation (GDPR)