Product Developer at Starke Ayres

Job Description

Starke Ayres is the foremost African specialist and global supplier of premium vegetable, flower and lawn seed varieties – both for commercial and home garden planting. The following position has become available for a Product Developer, based in Nairobi, Kenya. The purpose of this role is to develop products, strategies, and business plans for upcoming products within the company. To watch the market trends, and help in developing plans that will increase sales, establish deadlines, and ensure the product development are on schedule.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Liaise with the respective Product Managers & Senior Product Manager on the new products to be initiated. 
• Design, implement, and monitor trials across representative agro-ecological zones in Kenya.
• Over see trials samples seeds sample management & stocking. 
• Always obtain & share the profile data’s / technical data sheets of the new products to be initiated. 
• Assess customer preferences, market demand trends, and competitor varieties.
• Identify gaps in the current product portfolio and recommend new introductions.
• Support the development of market-specific seed strategies.
• Motivate and introduce semi-commercial trials to agents and sales teams with the necessary supporting documents and trial results
• Coordinate semi-commercial trials with key partners, lead product launches.
• Launch new commercial products to the agents and sales teams and supplies the necessary product launch documents and strategies. 
• Build strong networking relationships with key industry role players (i.e. agents, supermarkets, processors, media and consultants), identify and promote opportunities to grow the product range. 
• Assist and advise on new product development. 
• Initiate trials with the aid/ advise of the regional Sales Agronomists & the Senior Product Manager.
• Keen follow up on the trials & ensure that they are well taken care of agronomically via crop protection (sprays), fertigation (crop feeding), irrigation & all cultural practices as needed by the respective crops.
• Execute ongoing trials to ensure the growers are up to date with regards to product knowledge. 

Job Requirements

REQUIREMENTS:

Education & Qualifications

• Grade 12 (essential)
• Tertiary qualification in Agriculture, Agronomy, Plant Science or similar (essential)

Technical Agronomic Expertise

• Minimum 2 years in variety trials, crop advisory, or seed/agronomy product development
• Demonstrated experience conducting and analyzing field trials (on-farm and demo sites)
• Ability to translate trial results into commercial recommendations
• Strong data analysis and interpretation skills
• Technical report writing

Skills

• Strong communication skills (verbal and written)
• Market research abilities (gathering, analyzing and applying market trends for product development)
• Computer literacy (including Microsoft Office, data capture tools, trial software, reporting platforms, etc.)