Farm Operations Lead job at Summit Recruitment and Search Africa

Background

Our client, an agribusiness based in Mityana District, Uganda, specializing in Hass avocado, macadamia and Oil crops production, is seeking to hire an experienced Farm Operations Lead.

The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring the plan gets executed in the field to the standard required by a revenue-generating commercial export farm. Will work closely with the CEO to contribute ground-level insight into weekly and seasonal planning, then owns the execution of that plan completely.

Key Responsibilities

• Implement weekly field plans, deploying supervisors and labour with correct inputs.
• Ensure daily farm activities are completed, scheduled, and recorded in the system.
• Hold supervisors accountable for attendance, task completion, and quality.
• Resolve field-level operational issues (equipment, labour, inputs) promptly.
• Submit daily and weekly operational reports.
• Support CEO with planning inputs (crop readiness, labour, constraints, equipment).
• Prioritize revenue-linked activities and align field schedules to harvest timelines.
• Monitor budgets, control costs, manage procurement, and flag overruns early.
• Coordinate with agronomist, ensure compliance with crop programs, and escalate key decisions.
• Oversee packhouse operations, compliance (GlobalGAP/MAAIF), post-harvest handling, and export quality/logistics.

Key Qualifications

• Relevant Bachelor’s Degree.
• Demonstrated experience managing field supervisors and casual labour teams.
• Hands-on familiarity with GlobalGAP, MAAIF, or equivalent export certification requirements.
• Packhouse operations experience — grading, post-harvest handling, traceability documentation.
• Proven ability to read and work within a farm budget — cost-per-acre, input costs, labour reconciliation.
• Strong working knowledge of avocado or macadamia agronomy — sufficient to supervise and hold an agronomist accountable.
• Commercially aware — understands that field decisions carry direct revenue consequences.
• Competent with digital reporting tools; comfortable operating within a structured farm management System.

Summit Recruitment and Search Africa is a leading Recruitment and Executive Search agency headquartered in Kenya providing outstanding talent to a wide range of companies and NGOs in various business sectors across Africa.

• Implement weekly field plans, deploying supervisors and labour with correct inputs.
• Ensure daily farm activities are completed, scheduled, and recorded in the system.
• Hold supervisors accountable for attendance, task completion, and quality.
• Resolve field-level operational issues (equipment, labour, inputs) promptly.
• Submit daily and weekly operational reports.
• Support CEO with planning inputs (crop readiness, labour, constraints, equipment).
• Prioritize revenue-linked activities and align field schedules to harvest timelines.
• Monitor budgets, control costs, manage procurement, and flag overruns early.
• Coordinate with agronomist, ensure compliance with crop programs, and escalate key decisions.
• Oversee packhouse operations, compliance (GlobalGAP/MAAIF), post-harvest handling, and export quality/logistics.

• Demonstrated experience managing field supervisors and casual labour teams.
• Hands-on familiarity with GlobalGAP, MAAIF, or equivalent export certification requirements.
• Packhouse operations experience — grading, post-harvest handling, traceability documentation.
• Proven ability to read and work within a farm budget — cost-per-acre, input costs, labour reconciliation.
• Strong working knowledge of avocado or macadamia agronomy — sufficient to supervise and hold an agronomist accountable.
• Commercially aware — understands that field decisions carry direct revenue consequences.
• Competent with digital reporting tools; comfortable operating within a structured farm management System.

• Relevant Bachelor’s Degree.