Sourcing Specialist- Tea/ Coffee

This is a remote position.

Sourcing Specialist- Tea/ Coffee

The Client buys 9% of the world s coffee. Supporting the farmers who grow our coffee is a key part of sustaining and protecting our future. We is investing millions into its coffee and tea supply chain to support smallholder farmers and reach 100% responsibly sourced Coffee & Tea by 2025. We are committed to a sustainable agricultural supply chain over the long term by investing to source our crops and ingredients in ways that restore the earth and strengthen farming communities.

The Responsible Sourcing Specialist will form a key part of a team of sustainability experts and agronomists working within the Global R&D function to drive our corporate sustainability agenda aligned with our business goals.

In this context, the Client is investing in growing its knowledge and capability in Africa, this new role is for an experienced value chain expert and agronomist, already practicing within coffee or similar agricultural crops.

The position of Responsible Sourcing Specialist Africa reports to the Sustainability Director within Global R&D. The role is a remote based in Kenya which will have significant autonomy, and will collaborate with key partners such as corporate sustainability leads, coffee & tea sourcing, R&D category leads, procurement and marketing teams.

The ability to work in multi-cultural environments at various levels, from farmers to governments, is fundamental. It is equally as important to have the necessary aptitude and influence to effectively operate in a (pre)competitive environment across the whole coffee industry including traders, suppliers, processors, NGOs.

Job Family

Quality and Sustainability

Job Sub-Family

Sustainability

Job

Responsible Sourcing Specialist Africa

Reports to

Sustainability Director

Direct reports

None

JOB DETAILS

Grade

Full time / part time

Full Time

Location

Kenya (Field base + regular connection to projects in East

Africa)

Working conditions

Travelling locally, regionally and abroad required (Africa & Europe)

for field project management, meetings and visits.

Travelling to remote areas and flexible attitude in working outside

office hours

- Manage development of appropriate legal contracts or agreements and budgets for farmer projects with the above partners.

- Manage partnerships and relationships with suppliers, NGOs, local governments and funding partners while exploring potential synergies for future or improved projects.

- Identify and seek co-funding partnerships with organizations with mutual goal in focus countries. Lead, negotiation and follow up.

- Build effective pre-competitive partnerships, in close collaboration with the global sustainability team, with external organizations to support coffee & tea sustainability efforts.

- Manage implementers performance to maximize project output and deliver impact at origin.

- Operationalize the Monitoring & Evaluation database for all projects in Africa and undertake the collection and management of data and reporting.

- Build an understanding of external research and development in the tea and green coffee value chain and associated regulatory landscape.

- Represent the Client on local consortia, agriculture focus federations linked to coffee and tea supply chain where aims are in line with set strategy.

- Enable storytelling and narrative reports for the region.

- Work closely with Coffee and Tea sourcing and the sustainability team to drive supplier engagement and reporting to enable support of the Client s strategy.

Requirements

Education

First degree or M.Sc. in agriculture or agronomy

Experience

5 years experience in programme development in the coffee

supply chain or similar agricultural crop

Competency

-

Good oral and written communication skills, ability to

influence the audience at all levels.

-

This position will operate across a number of cultural areas

where flexibility in approaches will be required and

sensitivity to different operating environments will be

necessary

-

Proven experience with database and sustainability reporting

-

Experience in working independently and solving problems

-

Ability to manage and prioritize multiple time-constrained

tasks

-

Fluent in English, (+ local East African languages preferred)