Jobs at Bayer East Africa

Role purpose

• Accountable and responsible for producing seeds and achieving expected yield, quality, cost and at the right time.
• Responsible to deliver reliable seed from the field to the plant.
• Accountable for managing professional relationships with growers, toller, other external parties and alignment with internal stakeholders.
• Manage all aspects of safety and compliance, contractual agreements, propose and obtain approvals on grower pricing and contract guidelines and strategies. 

Key responsibilities and tasks

• Responsible for the grower selection process to achieve higher production reliability which includes grower background check, review previous reliability and performance, isolation distance, suitability of the production area etc.
• Ensure that all the prework is done before the start of each production cycle and grower is prepared to start the production within the optimum sowing window.
• Responsible for all aspect of Seed Production, Parental seed receiving, Nursery, Crop Management, Harvest and Delivery are followed as per the internal guidelines. 

Manage operational expenses, grower costs and CAPEX within company targets.

• Accountable and responsible for maintaining grower relationship including negotiation of grower contracts, conciliation of all the production issues, etc.
• Ensures planned orders are accepted within target timelines, AOAs are created, and crops are placed in a manner to meet targeted contract quality, quality, cost and timeliness requirements. 

Production Data and Analysis - Review quantity, quality, cost and timeliness data and address areas for improvement, simplification, optimization, or expansion of our business, including Grower Performance analysis, grower pricing strategies.

• Aim for competitive base rates and align with Crop Placement Managers.
• Responsible for timely grower settlement and coordinate / support to resolve any issue with grower / vendors.
• Ensure that seeds are shipped to processing plant along with necessary documentation.
• Liaising with local authorities for field inspection and arranging required phyto-certificates for seed shipments
• Providing technical instruction and support / advise to growers and their team related to growing seeds crops – crop management pre/post-harvesting etc.
• Updating information in Velocity Scout, SAP, and other tools.
• Innovation. Work with Production Research personnel to identify and address projects to improve reliability, quality, and/or cost.
• Ensure external and internal compliance in our operations, including HSE, Human Rights, Business conduct, PGRP, NAFI, SKAL, QMS, CSP etc.

Key Working Relations:

• Member of Regional VS PS Seed Production team
• Interfaces with: VS PS Global Production Team, Global Supply Chain, Logistics, Seed Technology / PR, Trade & Compliance, Data & Analytics, Product Management, MD, Quality, Finance / Controlling, IT

Experience, Skills, and Qualifications

• BSc degree (Agronomy, Agriculture, Horticulture etc) with 5+ years' experience in seed industry.
• Excellent human relation and effective communication skills required.
• Experience in working with cross functional team, preferred.
• Ability to influence all levels in the organization.
• Customer focus, innovation & experimentation, collaboration and implementation of best practices, knowledge sharing.
• Process Oriented and Results Orientated.
• Negotiations Skills, Plans and Aligns.
• Ability to learn and use digital and analytic tools.
• Instill Trusts (with and Growers and other stakeholders).
• Courage & candor, business insight.

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Role purpose:

• The marketing coordinator will support the Customer Marketing Manager to create marketing and campaign plans, support the execution of marketing activities linked to the accelerated growth and smallholder strategy in the region.
• The person will co-ordinate the marketing agency activities.
• The person will support the smallholder communications for the vegetable seed business in Africa.
• The position is based in the main office in Nairobi. The position is 70% office based, 30% travelling in the area mainly in the strategic countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda etc.

Key responsibilities and tasks:

Administration:

• Creation of PRs, POs, and vendors in SAP
• Follow up of payments to vendors and other third parties
• Harmonizing and aligning data files related to research and customer feedbacks.

Preparation, execution of the marketing and campaign plans

• Coordinating the execution of the yearly tactical plan in Africa.
• Organizing internal and external (customer) events in the area.
• Ensure on time availability of the communication materials.
• Collection of feedback forms and testimonials.
• Supports the development and execution of the Smallholder Projects

Branding and communication

• Ensuring the branding and communication in the region.
• Ensures diligent use of corporate guidelines in branding and institutional image and stationary material across the area.
• In distributor markets, he/she works with distributors to ensure correct delivery brand guidelines to market.
• Organizing internal and external communication of key smallholder initiatives and ensure the development of the materials.
• Supporting the process of digital content generation and maintenance through development of a yearly content plan and website update accordingly.
• Key contact person for vendors and agencies.

Collection of market, competition, and customer intelligence

• Updating Market intelligence data in close cooperation with the sales team in SFDC system.

New variety introductions

• Ensures on time variety registration in cooperation with regulatory affairs and naming teams. 

Special skills:

• Eager to develop and grow in a multinational organization
• Proactivity and problem-solving skills.
• Exceptional organization and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated success working with complex products and market.
• Sound planning and analytical capabilities.
• Strong in time management and prioritization.
• Ability to work across functions, with several departments, and external agencies at the same time.
• Ability to work in teams and individually as well based on preliminary guidelines.
• Strong communications skills

Experience, Skills, and Qualifications:

• BSc degree, preferably in business administration and/or marketing.
• Agricultural / Agronomist background is an advantage.
• Minimum 1-3 years of relevant experience in supporting sales and/or marketing teams. Basic knowledge in preparing and executing marketing campaigns.
• Basics in Marketing & Overall Marketing Processes, Finance, and Sales.
• MS Office (Adobe, SAP, Concur, SFDC, are plus but not mandatory)
• Fluency in English