Senior Vice President – Africa at Heifer International

Job Title: Senior Vice President – Africa
Location: Abuja (Remote)
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About Heifer International

Heifer International is an international development organization dedicated to improving food security and income opportunities for rural families while promoting sound stewardship of natural resources. As a private, non-governmental organization based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Heifer has created lasting change for farming households in over 125 countries across Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe for over 70 years.

Heifer International does so much more than put food in the mouths of hungry people. Heifer helps people feed themselves. The goal of every Heifer project is sustainability – project partners achieving self-reliance. And year after year, as partner families Pass on the Gift of knowledge and one or more of their animals’ offspring to others in need, they become links in a network of hope, dignity and self-reliance that helps hundreds of others care for themselves.

Position Summary

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.

Core Responsibilities

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.
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.

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.

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.
Foster Engagement, Learning, and Transformation
Actively contribute to Heifer’s organizational transformation, ensuring Africa serves as a leading example of semi-autonomous, regenerative, and learning-driven node.
Institutionalize learning loops that capture insights from Africa programs and share them across Heifer’s global network.
Promote a culture of shared leadership and interconnectedness across Africa and globally.
Promote internal engagement and foster uncommon collaboration across Africa and globally to maximize learning.
Other tasks as assigned.

Leadership Model:

SVP – Africa will champion a Regenerative Leadership Model grounded in shared leadership, stewardship, systems-thinking, trust-building, and courageous humility. The SVP – Africa will lead not through control, but by cultivating coherence, presence, and shared purpose; also model a leadership approach grounded in wholeness and well-being, recognizing that personal renewal, empathy, and care are foundational to sustainable impact.

Minimum Requirements

A minimum of fifteen (15) years of international development experience with a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., international development, business administration, agriculture, economics, or public policy), or a combination of education and experience can be considered.
Extensive experience living and working in Africa in the field of agriculture, agri-business, and food systems, etc., with strong knowledge of the continent’s development dynamics.
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.

Preferred Requirements

Master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., international development, business administration, agriculture, economics, or public policy).
Six to seven (6~7) years of experience in executive leadership roles.
Prior experience working in the INGO space.
Proficiency in French or another widely spoken African language.

Most Critical Proficiencies

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.