Overview
Since 2008, we have planted nearly 2 million trees with 6,000 farmers in coastal Kenya. Komaza’s microforestry model is the solution to meet East Africa’s growing wood deficit. With strong projected profitability, we aim to grow into one of East Africa’s leading forestry and wood product companies over the next decade, generating income for many thousands of farmers. Komaza has earned many awards for our innovative business model, plus recent articles in Forbes and Fast Company.
The Role
The Nursery Manager will lead, improve and oversee the nursery operations. Komaza has been producing GC Eucalyptus plantlets and melia volkensii seedlings to meet the organization’s internal demand. We are currently expanding the nursery into a state-of-the-art propagation facility with an annual capacity of over 1.5 million eucalyptus plantlets and half a million melia seedlings. We have an existing team that needs apt leadership and mentorship to grow this facility’s operations to the next level.
The Nursery Manager will lead, manage, develop and grow the existing team to attain annual production of over 2 million high-quality seedlings and plantlets.
- Team Leadership: Lead the nursery team currently comprising of a supervisor and 14 nursery attendants as well as other casual labourers.
- Capacity Building: Develop: implement and optimize management systems, quality control, and SOPs to ensure the team consistently produces high quality seedlings within set targets and budget.
- Training: Provide leadership to a team of local nursery workers, identifying their training needs and working with the relevant departments to oversee training.
- Experimentation and reporting: Frequently liaise with the Nursery and R&D Director to establish and monitor experiments within the nursery, as well as provide the senior management team with weekly, monthly and annual reports.
- Budgeting and cost control: Work closely with Nursery and R&D Director to develop annual and project budgets, and monitor implementation within set financial allocations.
- Quality control: Maintain high quality standards for certification purposes by relevant government agencies, including putting in place and maintaining all required phytosanitary conditions.
Qualifications
- Diploma preferably in forestry, horticulture or a related field; a Bachelor’s degree will be an added advantage.
- Five (5) years of nursery experience, at least two (2) years of which should be in a management role.
- Able and willing to work and live in a remote location (Ganze).
- Excellent team player; proven ability to self-manage and deliver results; excellent work ethic and attention to detail; autodidactic and proactive problem solver.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Kiswahili; spoken Mijikenda a plus.
- Strong computer skills in Word and PowerPoint; personal computer available to be used for work.
HOW TO APPLY:
To apply for this position please submit your CV (no more than two pages) and a one-page cover letter to recruiting@komaza.org with the subject line "Nursery Manager Application". The cover letter should explain why this opportunity inspires you, and why you are confident that you are the right leader to take Komaza’s Nursery operations to the next level of scale and performance. Please do not include copies of your academic qualification, training certificates, etc. at this point in time; we will request them at a later stage.
Start Date: As soon as possible.
Compensation: Commensurate with qualifications/experience, opportunities for raises/bonuses with strong performance.
