Associate Manager, Food Systems Programs

Helen Keller International Philippines; Metro Manila; On-site; PHP 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Helen Keller Intl Philippines seeks an Associate Manager, Food Systems Programs to lead technical design and delivery of climate-smart agriculture, food systems, and nutrition-sensitive projects across multiple sites. You will ensure quality, coordinate stakeholders, and supervise technical staff, with a focus on governance and sustainability of interventions.

You will integrate nutrition outcomes with agriculture programs, promote gender-responsive approaches, and build capacity among teams and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture or related field.
• At least four years of progressive experience in food systems, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, livelihoods, community development, or multi-sectoral nutrition programming.
• Provide technical support across multiple donor-funded projects, including work planning, implementation monitoring, and budgeting inputs.
• Experience in capacity building, technical mentoring, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills for technical and implementation challenges.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.
• Fluent in English and Filipino (Tagalog), written and spoken.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical planning, implementation oversight, and quality assurance for climate-smart agriculture, food systems, and nutrition-sensitive programming across projects and areas.
• Develop annual implementation plans and detailed work plans with project teams and partners.
• Advise on climate-smart agriculture and nutrition-sensitive approaches and livelihood strengthening initiatives.
• Integrate agriculture and food systems with nutrition outcomes across various programs.
• Promote gender-responsive approaches in design and delivery of interventions.
• Strengthen governance and sustainability of nutrition-sensitive programs.
• Build collaboration with government, development partners, and stakeholders.
• Supervise technical staff and provide performance feedback.
• Deliver capacity strengthening for staff and local partners on nutrition-sensitive food systems approaches.
• Provide inputs to monitoring and evaluation systems for agriculture and nutrition interventions.

Skills

English

Filipino (Tagalog)

Education

Bachelor's degree in agriculture, agronomy, rural development, food systems, nutrition, community development, or related field

Job description

About the role

The Associate Manager, Food Systems Programs is accountable for the technical quality and coordinated delivery of climate-smart agriculture, food systems strengthening, and nutrition-sensitive programming across Helen Keller Philippines projects and implementation areas. The role operates with substantial professional autonomy within established program and technical frameworks, exercising independent technical judgment on design and implementation questions and escalating non-standard or higher risk matters to the Senior Program Manager. It carries accountability for technical design inputs, implementation oversight and quality assurance, systems and governance strengthening, stakeholder coordination, and the sustainability of agriculture and nutrition interventions across multiple donor-funded projects and geographic areas. Approximately sixty percent of the role is devoted to technical leadership, systems strengthening, and partnership coordination, twenty percent to capacity building and staff supervision, and the remainder to monitoring, learning, documentation, and reporting.

Key responsibilities

• Lead technical planning, implementation oversight, and quality assurance for climate-smart agriculture, food systems, and nutrition-sensitive programming across assigned projects and implementation areas.




• Develop annual implementation plans, detailed operational work plans, and implementation schedules in collaboration with project teams and partners.




• Advise project teams on climate-smart agriculture, community-based food production systems, resilient food systems, food diversification, nutrition-sensitive approaches, and livelihood strengthening initiatives.




• Integrate agriculture and food systems interventions with nutrition outcomes, including dietary diversity, maternal nutrition, infant and young child feeding, early childhood care and development, school and community feeding, and First 1,000 Days approaches.




• Promote women's decision-making and gender-responsive approaches throughout the design and delivery of agriculture and food systems interventions.




• Strengthen governance, institutionalization, and sustainability of nutrition-sensitive agriculture and food systems programming.




• Build and maintain collaboration with government agencies, local government units, development partners, academic institutions, and other stakeholders.




• Supervise assigned technical staff, project coordinators, technical facilitators, and community-based personnel, setting work priorities and providing performance feedback.




• Deliver capacity strengthening initiatives for staff, local government units, community stakeholders, and partner institutions on nutrition-sensitive and gender-responsive food systems approaches.




• Provide technical inputs to monitoring and evaluation systems for agriculture, food systems, and nutrition-sensitive interventions.

About you

• Hold a Bachelor's degree in agriculture, agronomy, rural development, food systems, nutrition, community development, or a related field.




• Demonstrate at least four years of progressive professional experience in food systems, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, livelihoods, community development, or multi-sectoral nutrition programming.




• Provide technical support across multiple donor-funded projects, covering work planning, implementation monitoring, adaptive management, and technical inputs to budgeting and reporting in development or humanitarian settings.




• Demonstrate experience in capacity building, technical mentoring, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement with project teams, partners, and community stakeholders.




• Apply strong analytical and problem-solving skills to technical and implementation challenges.




• Manage multiple priorities and competing deadlines.




• Communicate fluently in written and spoken English and Filipino (Tagalog).




• Uphold a consistent commitment to quality assurance and continuous improvement.

About us

Helen Keller Intl works to eliminate preventable vision loss, malnutrition, and the diseases of poverty across Africa, Asia, and the United States. In the Philippines, Helen Keller implements integrated health, nutrition, food systems, livelihoods, climate resilience, and community development programs, working closely with local government units, communities, development partners, and national stakeholders to strengthen systems and improve the nutritional status of vulnerable populations.