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development narrative to reflect African leadership, regenerative practices, and locally led solutions that challenge outdated paradigms.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.

• Applications should consist of:

• A Cover Letter of no more than two pages in total to the following two questions:

• • Describe an experience where you led a large-scale initiative across multiple countries or teams with diverse contexts. How did you balance global alignment with local autonomy, and what lessons would you bring to guiding Africa’s transformation into a semi-autonomous, locally led network node?

• How have you demonstrated commitment to Locally Led Development and equity in your leadership? Please share an example of how you empowered local leaders, shifted decision-making closer to communities, or built sustainable partnerships that strengthened local ownership.

• An up-to-date resume