Digital Agriculture-Head

Head – Digital Agriculture

ICRISAT seeks applications from motivated professionals for a global position of Head – Digital Agriculture to lead, coordinate and support landscape management research portfolio under Global Research Program on Resilient Farming Systems (RFS) at ICRISAT. The Head - Digital Agriculture will provide the vision, technical competence and operational capacity to design and implement a catalytic strategy for digital inclusion and service industrialization at the nexus of agriculture, finance, and technology. The incumbent will be based at the Headquarters in Hyderabad, Telangana.

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi - arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems.

ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics.

ICRISAT conducts research on its mandate crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on the drylands and in protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid.

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Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Governance

• Provide strategic, disciplinary leadership for the Digital Agriculture unit, ensuring continuous review and adaptive management of the program’s vision, outcomes, theory of change, and structure to meet defined goals and optimize impact.
• Lead ICRISAT’s science and organizational digital transformation mission—shaping policy and integrating advanced digital technologies (AI, ML, big data, EO, IoT) into programs, systems, and processes in collaboration with Centers/Alliance, business functions, and stakeholders.
• Bridge research and practical applications to advance innovation across food, land, and water systems, ensuring inclusivity and alignment with organizational goals.
• Lead data-driven prioritization exercises with programs, accelerators, and centers to identify the highest-opportunity digital investments.
• Create strategies for sourcing a sustained funding pipeline to support digital transformation across ICRISAT and other Centers.
• Set the strategic direction of System Organization (SO) Digital Transformation, ensuring alignment with organizational vision, mission, and priorities.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends in digital and data and share insights to inform decision-making across centers and partner ecosystems.
• Lead drafting, negotiation, and approval for execution of subgrant agreements with partners; ensure effective grants/contracts management across their lifecycle.
• Facilitate cross-departmental collaboration so that grants and contracts functions effectively support ICRISAT’s portfolio; ensure compliance with Health & Safety policies regionally and within country programs.

B. Engagement & Partnerships

• Drive coordinated science and innovation leadership across the portfolio as an active member of the Research Team to achieve collective impact.
• Develop and oversee a leadership team comprising Area of Work (AoW) Leads, Co-Leads, and Center delegates; foster collaboration, innovation, and shared accountability. Lead the SO Digital Transformation professional team.
• Build networks and with external partners to identify and address digital gaps, enhance efficiency, and scale impactful solutions across programs.
• Advance ICRISAT’s presence globally as a leader in digital transformation for sustainable agrifood systems.
• Mobilize resources and raise funds for prioritized ICRISAT Digital Transformation activities.

C. Delivery & Performance Management

• Develop, monitor, and adaptively manage annual workplans and budgets for Digital Transformation activities; foster integration and alignment with high-level outputs and theory of change.
• Oversee delivery and quality of science outputs; assume accou