Technical Program Manager - Agromet Services

About TomorrowNow

TomorrowNow is rewriting the future of agricultural resilience. By harnessing next-generation weather and climate technology, we empower smallholder farmers to adapt and thrive amidst the challenges of climate change.

From a starting base of 5 million farmers, our ambition is bold: to ultimately reach 100 million farmers with next-generation agromet advisories.

As a climate-tech nonprofit, TomorrowNow combines cutting-edge innovation with on-the-ground action to deliver scalable solutions for those most affected by climate variability.

Our mission is to transform how smallholder farmers access and use climate information — turning it into a powerful lever for growth, resilience, and prosperity.

About the Role

The Technical Programs Manager is a pivotal role within TomorrowNow’s technical function, responsible for supporting the design, execution, and delivery of our agrometeorological value chain — from first-mile research and technology development through to operational service delivery.

This role sits at the intersection of science, technology, and impact, ensuring that cutting-edge weather intelligence is translated into practical tools and advisories that reach farmers at scale.

The role combines product and geospatial expertise, program implementation leadership, technical content development, and direct engagement with donors and partners. 

The successful candidate will drive programs from first-mile R&D through to operational implementation and institutional adoption by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) and National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) partners across Africa.

We are looking for a mid-career professional with a geoinformatics and applied science background and demonstrated experience delivering operational weather, climate, or agricultural programs. We strongly encourage applications from candidates based in East or Southern Africa.

This is not a purely coordination role — it requires genuine hands-on technical capability to develop new content, prototype new indices, and collaborate directly with engineers to bring innovations into production.

Key Responsibilities

Program Implementation & Coordination

• Implement new agromet programs and services from design through operational delivery
• Develop and maintain delivery plans, timelines, budgets, and task tracking
• Lead coordination across engineering, product, geospatial, and external contributors
• Work closely with the platform engineering team to ensure R&D outputs are integrated into production systems
• Proactively identify risks, dependencies, and execution bottlenecks, and drive resolution
• Manage multiple concurrent programs with minimal supervision

Product Development & Applied Research

• Design and develop new agromet products, indices, and advisory content for farmer-facing delivery
• Lead first-mile R&D: forecast product evaluation, geospatial analysis, ensemble methods, and decision-support algorithm design
• Evaluate new datasets, models, tools, and approaches, and make adoption recommendations
• Design validation frameworks and ensure methodological soundness across forecast and geospatial products
• Translate R&D outputs into production-ready products and services
• Contribute to technical reports, conference papers, and donor deliverables

Technical Contribution & Content Development

• Write, modify, and review analysis scripts, geospatial workflows, validation pipelines, and data processing code using intermediate Python proficiency
• Develop new agromet content independently: advisory algorithms, index calculations, geospatial analysis workflows, and data products
• Leverage AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., LLMs) to accelerate development, prototype systems, and extend capabilities beyond core expertise.
• Work with the engineering team to translate prototypes into production-ready platform features.

This role requires hands-on technical capability to develop new content and products, not just coordinate others. The ability to independently produce working analyses, prototype new indices, and collaborate with engineers on implementation is essential.

Communication & Stakeholder Engagement

• Prepare and present clear technical documentation, status updates, and strategic summaries
• Develop donor-facing materials (slides, reports, progress summaries, proposals)
• Represent TomorrowNow in external meetings with donors, NMHS partners, and academic collaborators
• Build and maintain relationships with key technical partners and stakeholders.

Role Clarity

To set expectations clearly, the table below defines what this role owns, contributes to, and is not responsible for.

What You Bring

Education

An MSc (advantageous) in one of the following or a closely related field:

• Agricultural Science with a weather, climate, or geospatial focus
• Earth Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or Computational Earth Science
• Geospatial Science, Remote Sensing, or Earth Observation
• Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, or Agrometeorology

Experience

• 5-10 years of professional experience in geospatial programs, applied meteorology, climate services, agricultural technology, or a related operational field
• Demonstrated experience taking data products or services from R&D prototype through to operational deployment — not just academic delivery
• Demonstrated experience implementing new programs or products from concept through operational delivery
• Track record of working with geospatial, weather, climate, or agricultural datasets in operational (not purely academic) settings
• Direct experience working with NMHS, NARS, or equivalent institutions in sub-Saharan Africa in operational settings
• Experience managing or coordinating across distributed technical and engineering teams
• Working familiarity with smallholder crop systems and the agronomic basis of farmer decision-making

Technical Skills

• Intermediate Python proficiency — able to write, modify, review, and debug analysis scripts, geospatial workflows, and data pipelines
• Familiarity with geospatial and climate data formats (NetCDF, GeoTIFF, CSV), GIS tools, and earth observation platforms
• Demonstrated willingness and ability to adopt new tools rapidly, including AI-assisted coding and analysis workflows
• Able to bridge scientific requirements and engineering implementation effectively

Personal Attributes

• Self-Directed & Accountable: Owns outcomes, not just tasks. Structured and reliable in a remote, fast-moving environment.
• Clear Communicator: Confident and effective across technical, non-technical, and donor audiences — written and verbal.
• Collaborative: Comfortable leading in a small team with broad responsibilities, while managing upward and outward to keep leadership and partners informed.
• Adaptable: At ease operating in a startup environment with evolving requirements and wide scope. Thrives on initiative.

Preferred (Not Required)

• Direct experience delivering agricultural weather advisories or decision-support systems at farmer scale in Africa
• Experience running geospatial programs at scale (earth observation, remote sensing, spatial analysis, geospatial platforms)
• Product management or product development experience in a technology or data services organization
• Working relationships with NMHS or NARS institutions in East or Southern Africa
• Familiarity with WMO/FAO agromet frameworks, DCAS, or climate services value chains
• Experience with forecast verification, validation methodologies, or ensemble forecasting
• Experience managing donor relationships with major foundations, government agencies, or international organizations

A Typical Week

This role blends deep technical work with program coordination and external engagement.

Tools & Platforms

Deep expertise in all tools is not expected at hire — willingness and ability to learn quickly is.

Travel & Location

Growth Path

This role carries significant ownership from day one. Over time, the person in this position is expected to grow into broader leadership of TomorrowNow's agrometeorological value chain, with greater strategic influence on R&D direction and deeper NMHS/NARS partnerships as programs scale across Africa.

Why Join TomorrowNow?

• Transform Lives at Scale: Play a leading role in empowering 100 million farmers to become climate-resilient.
• Shape the Future: Drive innovation and growth at the intersection of agriculture, technology, and social impact.
• Collaborative Culture: Work alongside a passionate and talented team that thrives on tackling big challenges and creating lasting change.
• Entrepreneurial Environment: Join a startup where systems and processes are dynamic. Thrive in a hands-on, fast-paced setting that values initiative, adaptability, and rolling up your sleeves to get things done.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits
• Remote work environment with flexible hours
• Opportunities for professional growth and development
• A high-performance, collaborative, and mission-driven work culture

Our Culture

We believe that magic happens when people work together. Your success is measured by your impact and deliveries — not by hours clocked. We believe in transparency to build trust, humility to listen, and agility to adapt quickly and effectively. We have audacious goals and always see people first. Each person has their own growth path — because the only way for TomorrowNow to grow is if you grow.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should apply via [JazzHR Link] and provide a résumé that clearly highlights: professional experience in operational settings (specify past engagements, thematic areas, and scale of work); examples of programs or products taken from concept through to deployment; Africa context including specific countries, NMHS/NARS institutions, and donor relationships; and technical capability including tools, languages, and methods used in practice.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the next steps.

You will have the opportunity to make a major contribution to a transformative vision that will help the lives of millions of people in Africa.

TomorrowNow — 100 Million Resilient Smallholder Farmers in Africa