Production Manager

Job Description

Location: Field-based across the Company’s fulfilment centers, processing locations, warehouses and temporary production sites; extensive travel and support outside standard office hours are required when trade execution demands it.

The Production Manager is the technical and operational owner of the machines and equipment used to receive, clean, grade, sort, process, weigh, package, seal, label and otherwise prepare agricultural products at the Company’s fulfilment centers. The role ensures that equipment capability and production performance support each buyer contract, approved crop specification, quality plan and delivery service-level agreement.

The Production Manager will keep production equipment safe, capable and available so approved crop lots can be processed at the required rate and quality without machine-related delays to buyer delivery. Select and commission fit-for-purpose equipment, achieve approved uptime and cycle-time targets, prevent avoidable downtime, and restore operations quickly when failures occur.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
• At least five years of hands-on experience selecting, installing, commissioning, setting up, operating and maintaining machinery used in agricultural export, food processing, packhouse, commodity handling or fresh-produce fulfilment operations.

• Demonstrated responsibility for production equipment supporting grading, sorting, cleaning, processing, weighing, packaging, sealing, labelling, conveying or related postharvest activities across at least one commercial export operation.

• Proven ability to translate orders and delivery deadlines into capacity, cycle-time, shift, maintenance and contingency plans and to recover a production line under time pressure without bypassing safety or quality controls.

• Documented experience improving equipment uptime, throughput, changeover, first-pass quality, yield or maintenance performance using reliable data rather than informal estimates.

• Strong practical troubleshooting across mechanical systems and working competence with relevant electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, sensing, weighing and control systems; must recognize when specialist authorization is required.

• Experience building preventive maintenance plans, work-order history, spare-parts controls, failure analysis and vendor/OEM service arrangements for production-critical equipment.

• Experience specifying and commissioning new or relocated equipment, including user requirements, technical evaluation, site readiness, acceptance testing, training and handover documentation.

• Working experience with food hygiene, contamination prevention, product-contact requirements, machine safety, lockout/tagout and quality-controlled production environments.

• Demonstrated integrity and willingness to stop equipment, production or dispatch readiness when conditions are unsafe, unverified, nonconforming or beyond proven capability.

• Ability and willingness to travel extensively across field locations, work in rural and industrial environments, and support commissioning, harvest, production, maintenance or breakdown recovery outside standard office hours.

Qualifications and professional requirements
• Bachelor’s degree or Higher National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Mechatronics, Agricultural Engineering, Industrial/Production Engineering, Food Process Engineering or a closely related technical discipline.

• Recognized training or certification in maintenance and reliability, industrial automation, machine safety, occupational health and safety, food safety/HACCP, lean manufacturing or asset management is advantageous.

• Working knowledge of agricultural postharvest handling and the effect of crop condition, moisture, fragility, contamination, temperature and packaging on equipment selection and settings.

• Ability to interpret equipment manuals, technical drawings, wiring or control diagrams, parts lists, maintenance schedules, utility requirements, calibration records and supplier quotations.

• Strong written and spoken English and the ability to produce concise technical reports, operating instructions, incident updates and investment recommendations; French and relevant local-language capability are advantageous.

• Valid field-travel and driving eligibility where required by the operating model.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES
1. Production planning and capacity: Convert crop volume and delivery windows into process steps, line rates, cycle time, run hours, buffers, changeovers, staffing interfaces and latest completion time.
2. Equipment specification and selection: Prepare user requirements, compare technical and commercial options, assess utilities and maintainability, and recommend fit-for-purpose equipment using total cost of ownership.
3. Installation and commissioning: Plan site readiness, supervise installation, execute FAT/SAT and crop trials, close defects and create a complete operational handover pack.
4. Machine operation and setup: Configure, operate, change over, clean, shut down and restart agricultural grading, sorting, weighing, packing and related equipment safely and consistently.
5. Mechanical troubleshooting
6. Electrical and control troubleshooting.
7. Pneumatic and hydraulic systems.
8. Maintenance and reliability: Build asset-criticality, PM/PdM, work-order, MTBF, MTTR, spares, condition-monitoring, root-cause and lifecycle-replacement controls.
9. Production performance.
10. Quality and food safety
11. Safety and environmental control: Apply guarding, interlocks, emergency stops, lockout/tagout, permits, lifting, stored-energy, chemical, waste, dust and noise controls.
12. CMMS, data and reporting Use maintenance or asset systems, ERP/production tools, spreadsheets, mobile forms and dashboards to create accurate multi-site visibility and evidence.
13. Vendor and cost management.
14. Operational leadership. Coordinate operators, technicians, contractors, QA, Inventory, Logistics and site teams without direct authority and communicate facts clearly during pressure.