Growth and Expansion Senior Associate

Kimberly Ryan Limited - Our client, a leading agricultural social enterprise serving over 100,000 smallholder farmers in Nigeria, is recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Growth and Expansion Senior Associate

Location: Minna, Niger
Employment Type: Full-Time (Permanent)
Reports To: Head of Programs

About The Role

• They are seeking an experienced Growth and Expansion Senior Associate to ensure that its Nigeria expansion and business innovation agenda delivers on its 2030 ambition.
• The role identifies and validates new geographies and revenue opportunities, leads the end-to-end entry of new states from scouting through to operational handover, and builds the commercial models that make each new market financially sustainable from day one.
• This is a senior leadership role within the Programs Division.
• The successful candidate will operate at the interface between field execution and organisational strategy, managing a team, supporting the field operations lead in managing a field team of over 300 staff, and providing cross-departmental support through coaching and mentoring of mid-level staff.
• The ideal candidate has done expansion before, including entry into new and previously unserved territories, understands growth markets and retail, and comes from an FMCG, financial services or technology background with experience working in northern Nigeria, where most of the programme’s locations are based.

Key Responsibilities
Strategy & Business Innovation:

• Design the 5-year expansion and business innovation strategy, identifying new geographies, new revenue streams and new commercial models that reduce dependence on any single income line and support the path to financial sustainability.
• Drive from strategy to a concrete annual plan, translating the long-term ambition into sequenced state entries, product and service trials, and business model validations with clear timelines and owners.

Expansion Execution:

• Lead the end-to-end entry of new states, from security risk assessment and field scouting through site setup, stakeholder engagement and first-season farmer enrolment, to handover to the Regional Lead.
• Manage the expansion operations calendar, aligning scouting, security risk assessment (SRA), state confirmation, infrastructure setup and planting season windows so that no gate is missed and no entry is made without validated evidence.

People Management & Coaching

• Manage a team of four permanent staff (including 2–3 Field Specialists or Senior Field Specialists), ensuring each person has clear goals, regular feedback and a development path.
• Support the field operations lead in managing a field team of over 300 staff.
• Act as a senior leader within the Programs Division, providing cross-departmental support through coaching and mentoring of mid-level staff, and helping to build the next generation of State Operations Leads and Regional Leads from within the expansion team.
• Develop and track KPIs across all active expansion states and business innovation trials, including farmer enrolment rates, first-season repayment performance, gross margin per farmer, revenue per trial state, and new product uptake against target.
• Produce timely, actionable reports and communicate risks, progress and go/no-go recommendations to the Head of Programs, Country Director and Steering Committee (Steerco), with the clarity and data quality expected of someone operating at the interface between field execution and organisational strategy.

What Success In This Role Looks Like

• The successful Growth and Expansion Senior Associate will be expected to turn the long-term expansion ambition into disciplined, evidence-based execution. Success will include:
• A clear 5-year expansion and business innovation strategy, translated into an annual plan with sequenced state entries, trials and validations, timelines and owners.
• Expansion gates met on schedule, with no state entered without validated evidence.
• New states successfully entered, with first-season farmer enrolment achieved and clean handover to the Regional Lead.
• New markets that are financially sustainable from day one, and new revenue streams that reduce dependence on any single income line.
• Accurate, timely KPI tracking and reporting (enrolment, repayment performance, gross margin per farmer, revenue per trial state, product uptake vs target), with clear go/no-go recommendations.
• A motivated, well-coached team with clear goals, and a growing pipeline of future State Operations Leads and Regional Leads.

What We Need (Non-Negotiable Requirements)
The candidate MUST meet all of the following:

• Must be a citizen or permanent resident of Nigeria.
• Must be willing to be based onsite in Minna, Niger State, with significant field travel across expansion states for periods of up to 18 months per assignment, including frequent travel by air.
• Over 7 years’ relevant professional experience, including at least 3 years leading cross-functional teams and working across multiple departments.
• Proven experience in business expansion, including entering new and previously unserved territories, and a strong understanding of growth markets and retail.
• Professional background in FMCG, financial services or technology.
• Experience working in the northern region of Nigeria.
• Experience identifying, designing and validating new revenue opportunities (products, services or business models) in complex or resource-constrained environments.
• Strategic thinking: ability to translate a long-term ambition into a sequenced, evidence-based growth plan.
• Project management: ability to design, plan and run multiple complex projects simultaneously to successful outcomes.
• Results orientation: sets goals, takes ownership, and holds self and team accountable for delivery.
• Cross-functional fluency: collaborates effectively with colleagues across programmes, finance, operations and external partners.
• Growth mindset: enthusiasm for learning, feedback and continuous improvement in the face of ambiguity.
• Strong educational background, with a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree.
• Fluency in English (spoken and written).
• A passion for building commercially sustainable agricultural programmes that serve smallholder farmers.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Postgraduate qualification.
• Hausa-speaking (strongly preferred).

Career Growth And Development:

• Our client invests in developing its people and has a strong culture of continuous learning.
• The successful candidate will have weekly check-ins with their manager, access to mentorship and training programmes, regular performance feedback, and career reviews every six months to discuss aspirations and career goals.

Important Location Requirement:

• This position is based onsite in Minna, Niger State, and the location requirement is non-negotiable. Limited flexible remote-working days are available within a month or quarter, but the role is largely onsite.
• The successful candidate must be willing to travel frequently, including by air.
• Our client takes staff and candidate security seriously. Security updates are reviewed daily for every area of operation, and no operations are conducted in areas with active risk or threat.
• Before any new location is entered, security feasibility studies are completed and a minimum of around six months is spent in the area before operations begin.
• Staff movement logistics, including dedicated accompanying drivers, hotels and guest houses, are arranged by the organisation.

Benefits And Terms

• Contract: Permanent.
• Benefits: Health insurance, housing and comprehensive benefits.