Field Operations Director

Job Description

Location: Field-based across our client’s operating territories, with extensive travel to regional offices, grower communities, commercial farms, aggregation points and fulfilment centres.

The Field Operations Director is the single accountable owner of Company’s supply-generation engine. The role converts approved buyer demand and company growth priorities into regional acquisition plans, grower and agent adoption, commercial-farmer relationships, crop-sourcing portfolios, credible supply forecasts and field execution that delivers the required volume, timing, specification and origin cost.

The Company operates a demand-led, product-enabled agricultural marketplace. Supply must therefore be built deliberately around confirmed market opportunities rather than around raw farmer registrations, speculative acreage or unsupported tonnage. The director ensures that regional teams and sourcing managers create a verified pipeline in which growers, land, crops, harvest windows, expected volumes, quality requirements, commercial terms and fulfilment routes are visible and progressively de risked through the approved operating system.

The role owns the full field supply funnel: target-setting, territory and channel design, grower and agent acquisition, CF Grower adoption, commercial-farmer and aggregator sourcing, land and production visibility, supply conversion, field-team productivity, forecast truth and origin economics. Success is measured by buyer-ready, traceable and competitively sourced supply that converts into executed trades – not by activity volume alone.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
• At least seven years of progressive commercial, field operations, marketplace, agribusiness or distributed-network leadership, including at least five years directly driving growth and adoption in a fast-moving technology-enabled platform.

• Demonstrated ownership of substantial supply, acquisition, sourcing or marketplace targets across multiple regions, with evidence of improving conversion, reliability, cost, forecast accuracy and team productivity.

• Experience leading managers and dispersed field teams and governing contracted agents, cooperatives, aggregators, commercial farmers or channel partners through targets, digital evidence, coaching, audits and consequences.

• Proven ability to scale adoption in informal economies or underserved markets where trust, literacy, connectivity, identity, land and transaction data may be inconsistent.

• Strong practical experience in agricultural sourcing, crop production cycles, aggregation, commodity or fresh-produce supply chains, quality requirements and buyer-linked supply planning.

• Experience building evidence-based prices or origin-cost models, negotiating supply, protecting margin guardrails and managing supply continuity under seasonal and market volatility.

• Hands-on experience running demand-supply or S&OP cadences, confidence-rated forecasts, performance dashboards and recovery plans across cross-functional teams.

• Evidence of partnering effectively with Product, Data, Agronomy, QA, Supply Chain, Sales and Finance while respecting independent controls and decision authority.

• Track record of building operating systems, management routines and leadership capacity that reduce dependence on heroic individual intervention.

QUALIFICATIONS;
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent demonstrated capability in agribusiness, agriculture, business, economics, supply chain, marketing, operations, technology or a related discipline.

• A postgraduate qualification or recognized professional certification in agribusiness, commercial leadership, supply chain, project management, analytics or a related field is advantageous but does not replace proven results.

• Strong numerical, analytical and written communication capability, including executive-level plans, forecasts, commercial recommendations, operating reviews and performance narratives.

• Fluent professional English; French and relevant local-language capability are advantageous or required according to assigned operating territories.

• Readiness for extensive field travel and work across rural and cross-border operating environments with variable infrastructure, connectivity and seasonal intensity.

• Valid driving eligibility and ability to meet company field-safety and travel requirements where applicable.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES:
1. Demand-to-supply strategy: Translate buyer demand, specifications, timing and economics into crop-, region-, channel- and source-specific supply plans with owners, coverage and contingencies.

2. Supply-funnel management: Define and govern verified stages, conversion, attribution, ageing, confidence and evidence from source identification through internal handover.

3. Growth and platform adoption: Scale acquisition, activation, meaningful use and retention through field, agent, cooperative and assisted-digital channels using cohort and unit-economics analysis.

4. Territory and network design: Allocate regions, managers, agents, communities and resources using demand, density, crop suitability, capacity, travel, risk and cost-to-serve.

5. Agricultural sourcing: Qualify and manage commercial farmers, cooperatives, aggregators and crop sources by capacity, timing, quality, traceability, reliability, cost and concentration risk.

6. Supply pricing and negotiation: Build farm-gate and origin-cost benchmarks, set negotiation ranges, model landed economics and secure reliable supply within margin, authority and grower-viability guardrails.

7. Crop and forecast reasoning: Connect acreage, crop stage, yield, harvest window, loss, source confidence, quality risk and actual handover; analyze error and bias by horizon.

8. S&OP and trade readiness Run demand-supply reconciliation, readiness gates, scenario and contingency planning, exception management and cross-functional recovery.

9. Field operating systems Design journey plans, task SLAs, evidence standards, control-tower routines, escalation thresholds, audits and regional performance cadences.

10. Data and digital tools: Use CRM, CF Grower/product analytics, field-service tools, geospatial data, BI dashboards and structured operating records as management systems.

11. Financial and unit-economics discipline: Manage acquisition cost, service cost, origin cost, budget, margin bridge, working-capital implications and return on field deployment.

12. Quality, traceability and risk: Embed source identification, lot integrity, specification readiness, consent, KYC, data protection, conduct and corrective-action controls without overriding QA.

13. Multi-level leadership Set direction through managers, create accountability, coach judgment, manage performance, build succession and influence executives and external partners