Are you driven to make a positive impact on millions of lives and leave a lasting legacy? Do you want to utilize your talents and skills to make a difference, rather than simply earning a living? Are you passionate about contributing to feeding the world, both now and in the future? Farmerline is dedicated to reimagining how the world thinks about and invests in the livelihoods of small-scale farmers. Our mission is to create lasting profits for farmers everywhere. We approach challenges with bold and systemic thinking while maintaining a lean and nimble operation.

Farmerline, an agritech, was founded in 2013 serving 800 farmers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana through mobile information services. Over the past 10 years, we have expanded our impact significantly, having profiled and served over 1.7 million farmers and digitized more than 4 million acres of land through collaboration with over 3,000 strategic partners across 48 countries. Farmerline also works with other stakeholders in the agricultural sector to provide access to financing, inputs, and markets for smallholder farmers. Farmerline’s Mergdata, a web and mobile application, offers real-time traceability, certification audit, farm mapping, farmer education, and analytics solutions to help organizations that work with farmers achieve their sustainability and food security goals efficiently. Mergdata uses big data and AI to give organizations insight into the work of farmers and to give farmers increased access to resources and services; including financial services. Farmerline is currently one of the fastest growing Agtech companies in Africa, having recently secured a pre-Series A funding of $14 million, led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), Oikocredit, FMO (the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank), and nine other global investors. We recently expanded into francophone Africa with an official launch of operations in Cote d’Ivoire; deepening our partnerships across West Africa and accelerating our commitment to support small scale farmers everywhere.

We foster a learning organization where you will have the opportunity to apply your ideas and creativity to solve problems on a daily basis. If you are drawn to a dynamic, collaborative culture, set high standards, and tackle challenges with determination and a sense of humor, Farmerline is the perfect environment for you to thrive. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer, valuing diversity and encouraging applications from all candidates. We firmly believe that diverse perspectives empower our teams to create innovative solutions and better understand the needs of our global clients. Aligned with our values, we are committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse global workforce without any form of discrimination.

Role Overview

The Food QA Manager will be responsible for ensuring that sourced commodities meet Quality standards set by client, companies and regulatory authorities. They shall develop and review quality and safety policies and manage audits by third-party inspectors. The Manager will train other team members and oversee all  processes including Compliance, and Document and Records Control

Responsibilities

Strategic

• Develop, implement and maintain the quality management systems and ensure continuing compliance to relevant quality standards
• Develop and review existing safety and quality policies

  Team Management

• Develop, train and assess the performance of QA Department staff; Provide recommendations to management in relation to QA compliance
• Lead and manage a team of  quality assurance staff that are collectively focused on ensuring crops meet the required quality standards.
• Implement work plans and procedures to maximize performance, operational efficiency and achieve company goals.

  Operational

• Maintain the corporate quality manual and quality records
• Set up quality assessment processes and recognised global standards including the  ISO 9000 family and ensure all sourced commodities are maintained at these standards.
• Review and report the principal causes of quality loss and non-conformance
• Ensure all check sheets are correctly completed and all non-compliance found have had the correct actions taken and signed off
• Ensure that tools, equipment and other logistics including vehicles and storage spaces  used by QA are properly calibrated, operated, and maintained
• Perform quality control analysis of processes
• Maintain food safety system documentation
• Ensure all data for the crops is completed and meets traceability requirements.
• Responsible for government, regulatory and customer audit administration
• Provide reports and relevant information to top management on the effectiveness and suitability of the crops safety management system.
• Conduct risk-based facility audits, providing guidance and coaching related to crops.
• Troubleshoot and investigate food quality/food safety issues and interact with all customer relevant representative
•  Safety practices and overall food safety compliance.
• Test, verify, and monitor the quality, weight, and appearance of crop inventories
• Research and proposed new technologies and systems to improve quality
• Perform other tasks as assigned

   

  Required Qualifications

• Minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Food Science, Agricultural Business, Crop Management etc.
• 3 years plus hands-on experience in crop management or related job especially in crops like cashew, groundnuts and soybeans.
• Must have an understanding of harvest and post-harvest handling practices.
• Great Record keeping skills.
• Strong Leadership and Team Management Skills
• Strong Communication Skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to communicate in both English and French is an added advantage.
• Attention to details, asking questions, and inspecting work for accuracy is a must.
• Must possess great Time Management skills.
• Lead / Self Led Skills, Be self-motivated, have patience to hold space, take initiative and solve problems.
• Must be flexible and willing to learn new tasks and culture.
• Open and ready to travel when needed
• Very Good Understanding of health & safety standards.