Operations Manager, Livestock & Upcycling
Reports to: CEO
Direct Reports : Operations Supervisors who manage Operations Asst. Supervisors, all
Farm Associates and all Facilities Management Associates
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The organization
It’s a company dedicated to the sustainable practice of farming edible insects. With a farm in Kumasi, Ghana, they seek to farm locally desired insects as a way to address food insecurity.
They farm the palm weevil larva, a local delicacy that has been traditionally harvested. The company now seeks to rapidly scale its production, co-develop packaged products, take advantage of export opportunities to other West African countries, and advance research on the palm weevil larvae while building a conscious company.
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The Role
We are looking for a self-driven, goal-oriented, practical problem solver, and hardworking Operations manager to lead the operations of the production (livestock) department of our exciting new venture with a strong social and environmental impact.
The Primary role of the Operations Manager is to forecast, plan, execute, and ensure the efficient farming and maintenance of the facility and fixtures at all times as the leader of a multidisciplinary team. In addition , the chosen candidate should have an operational mindset and the ability to conceive, design, and see projects through to completion.
The role also requires being capable of evolving to advanced analysis, business mindset, negotiations, and working knowledge of general machinery or processing equipment with the ability to acquire resources and service persons for varying works.
As a dynamic and growing company currently at a rapid growth stage, our ideal candidate should be comfortable working in an agile environment but assertive enough to command and see to the timely achievement of the department’s targets, doing so with a resilient and strategic plan and spirit.
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The Responsibilities
The manager will be responsible for:
● Drawing up production plans at various scales and budgets – for current and future sites of operation
● Professionally manage and develop good relationships with suppliers, partners and contractors (regular and ad-hoc)
● Coordinate with the sales team to plan and strategize on future demand and production plans to meet sales targets and strategies.
● Responsible for stabilizing and scaling up production according to timelines and budget
● Complete ownership for COGS of livestock
● Explore, develop, market opportunities for the company’s farm waste
● Conduct financial, environmental and operational analysis to predict impact of changes on the colony, on the COGS, the output and the social & environmental impact of the farm
● Develop an intimate understanding of the biological & operational drivers of minimizing COGS and develop plans for optimization
● Professional leadership and development of direct reports and the production team as a whole.
● Monitoring and diagnosing the performance and health of the farm team and team and putting in measures to ensure highest performing standards and conditions are maintained.
● Account for and oversee the repairs and maintenance of the equipment and machinery in the facility
● Manage vendors and suppliers and lead negotiations on behalf of the company in an honest, transparent, and fair manner.
● Ensure the smooth running of the facility everyday for all the days of the week.
● Lead and strategize production process improvements and efficiency and safety drives of the department internally and externally with a team of consultants or experts.
● Work with engineers, architects, researchers and artisans to conceptualize industrial scale farming
● Work with data & research teams to drive the success of the farm for current and
future state
● Identify and implement ways to optimize labour
● Perform tasks and projects assigned by the CEO of the company.
The manager will be expected to deliver on these duties with the objectives of cost efficiency, environmental sustainability, technological advancement and sustained growth.
The ideal candidate must have flexibility with their work schedule including working on weekends and holidays and be reachable to the team even when off duty for times of emergencies.
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Qualifications and skills
The ideal candidate’s experience and proven track record would be weighed above educational background or level (Qualified by experience), however, the following specific qualities are desired.
● At least a first degree in Project management, agriculture, business management, mechanical engineering or related fields of business management or production management.
● At least 3 years of experience in a related managerial role in a production industry involving live inputs or outputs.
● Previous experience in managing a production system with various levels or types of environments and demands such as a fish farm or agro-processing.
● Strong analytical skills in modeling, simulations and predictive planning
● Proven Experience in conceptualizing solutions to a problem and implementing successful solutions to identified problems
● Self driven and motivated independent individual capable of making right judgment calls
● Proven experience in crisis management in a production system
● A strong sense of responsibility and accountability for collective actions, decisions and outcomes of the team.
● Strong communication skills to lead, negotiate and communicate empathically and technically to varying audiences and cultural backgrounds.
● Strong moral and ethical standards to lead above reproach and inspire trust.
● Ability to manipulate data and assimilate information from large data sets as well as build systems to estimate and track relevant key indicators of interest.
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Additional Assets (optional but increase strength of candidacy):
– Six Sigma
– Project Management certification
– Advanced Excel modeling skills
– Deep understanding of mechanical and electrical engineering
– Facilities or building management experience
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Salary + Benefits
5.000-8000 GHS gross – possibly negotiable/ Open salary for unusually high calibre candidates
Health insurance available after the probation period ends.
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How to apply:
How-to Apply (only if you qualify please)
As a professional, we expect you to properly follow these instructions please – otherwise the client will not consider your CV:
- Send an email with both your cv and a cover letter or separate document that would highlight your leadership experience and track record in production management and achievements, highlighting complex projects handled, and quantitatively defined metrics achieved and skill sets used. The production volumes you have been responsible for in the past as well as the number of people you managed. If you can add information about the efficiency you drove quantitatively, this will make for a strong application.
- Send us your highly customized 2-4 page CV (longer CVs will be rejected since they do not reflect your ability to communicate with brief focused clear sentences) CV in Word (so NO PDF files please) to: CV @ HIREgh . com(remove empty spaces) with the appropriate heading: ‘Operation Manager -Edible Insects’ in your email’s subject/ Title line.
- Ideally please use Arial font No 10 for all of your CV and capitals for your headings
- Also, please indicate when is the earlier that you can start
- Once again: DO NOT SEND a CV that is 4+ pages long and DO NOT SEND a CV in PDF format or as GoogleDoc –our ATS is set to ignore CVs longer than 2 pages
- Please: No Google Docs either – we do not have permission to open them and getting one from you is too complex
- A FAIR WARNING/ FRIENDLY WORD OF ADVICE: if you don’t customize your CV don’t expect that it will go through with flying colors and the client will invite you for an interview, ASSUME THAT YOU WILL NEED TO SPEND 3-6 hrs for that.
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We are looking forward to receiving your CV and meeting with you this week.
Thank you,
HIREghana
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