Jobs at Komaza

About the Team

The Komaza Harvest Operations team is responsible for delivering quality timber to the company’s processing operations. We source and identify wood lots, value and negotiate the purchase and then finally implement safe and efficient harvests. The buying team exists within Harvest Operations and is responsible for ensuring that there is a strong and steady pipeline of woodlots ready for harvesting. They are a visible and physical presence throughout the region, representing the Komaza brand and managing multiple deals.

About the Role

The Buying Manager will support the Harvest Operations leadership team in Central Kenya to build and maintain a ‘healthy’ pipeline of timber ready for Harvest. You will be responsible for the day to day oversight of a team of highly mobile Buying Officers operating across Nyandarua county and will ensure that this team cumulatively is able to consistently meet daily, weekly and monthly targets. Working with the leadership team you will both use and support the constant development of tools and data to manage your team’s performance and set targets; you will develop and refine tactics to identify and close deals quickly; and ensure that your team is highly trained and able to effectively operate independently.

The Buying Manager will be responsible for the delivery of overall buying targets in the region, and as such will spend significant time in the field supporting and closing deals, leading and coaching her team.  Where necessary you will also be the face of Komaza and closing high-value deals at in-person meetings / negotiations with major land owners. 

You will work with sales leads at Komaza to pull best practice into Harvest Buying activities / SOPs and will collaborate closely with Harvest Operations leadership and Komaza Operations Innovations department to determine and build out the tools, training and systems required for this new and rapidly growing function within Komaza.

Location: This role is based at our regional office in Naivasha, Kenya.

What Will You Do

• Supervise the buying team:  (70%)
• Plan weekly and monthly activities with Buying Officers and monitor implementation
• Coach buying officers to improve their planning, prospecting and purchasing process activities by observing / supporting their work and providing constructive feedback.  Support buying team with negotiations and major deal closure
• Systematically collect feedback from Buying Officers and woodlot owners to improve Timber Buying Training Materials and Systems. 
• Track and record activities and all deals data for internal reporting. 
• Purchasing plans and strategies: (20%)
• Work with the Regional  Operations  Coordinator (ROC) to define monthly and quarterly priorities 
• Analyse data and provide input to the Harvest Operations Director to develop and refine strategy and implementation priorities
• Collaborate with the Operations Innovations team to design, build and improve systems
• High Value Deals (10%)
• Own and deliver on high value strategic deals with the likes of major land owners, KFS etc
• Coordinate with ROC and Harvest  Director to prioritize and progress long term projects

What You Have

• Bachelor’s degree with at least 3+ years of sales or buying experience in a dynamic environment with a strong record of personal and professional development
• At least 1+ years of team management experience, ideally in a leading sales / buying function organisation with a record of growing staff
• Fluent Kiswahili for relationship-building and business transactions  and fluent English to operate within Komaza’s professional language
• Experience in managing internal and external customer relationships and maintaining high professional communication standards in customer interactions
• Experience managing projects in a structured way using plans, budgets, and tools
• Experience using GSuite, and CRM pipeline tools to optimise productivity
• Knowledge of timber products or the forestry sector is a plus

You’re Also

• High energy and enthusiastic 
• Communicate clearly and proactively 
• Ambitious and intellectually curious – you know how and when to seek feedback in the pursuit of continuous improvement
• Make connections with a wide range of people using a strong sense for relationship building 
• Strong organisational, critical thinking, and communications skills with a structured approach to managing outputs

What’s in it for you?

Great vision without great people is irrelevant, Jim Collins wisely stated. If you share Komaza’s vision and want to help make it a reality, apply today! We offer a competitive remuneration package and an opportunity to further your career. 

Komaza is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.

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About The Role

Komaza’s Chief of Staff will lead the facilitation of planning and reporting across departments. This role will also play a critical “set up” function as we establish our Growth Services office in CA.

Key Functions

• Planning Lead the executive team and other directors to develop and report progress on our annual plan. Design, organize and facilitate all Executive Team meetings, and Quarterly Team reviews. Plan and lead team building activities during in-person offsites.
• Reporting & Strategy Ensure timely reporting of value chain performance summaries into KPI dashboards. Identify and flag key challenges, structure challenges into outstanding key decisions and approvals. Lead the preparation of Board Packets. Schedule and attend all Board Meetings, take notes and get approvals.
• Structured Thinking Gather and review all team submissions for meeting materials and give first round feedback. Lead oversight and when necessary, author internal memos to support challenge reporting, new initiatives, and budget approvals. Oversee resolution of any team related challenges regarding planning and execution.
• Business Operations Oversee the establishment of all back office functions for our US office including workspace rental, IT, and supplies. Oversee logistics for the CEO and President including calendaring and travel.

2022 Projects

• Executive Meetings. Design the blueprint, calendar, agenda, and preparation requirements for our Monthly ET Meetings according to global best practices for Growth Stage Companies.
• Quarterly Summits. Design the blueprint, calendar, agenda, and preparation requirements for our Quarterly Leadership Summits according to global best practices for Growth Stage Companies.
• Global Team Building. Design the budget and calendar of events for Global Team Building activities, including virtual and in-person activities.
• Board Reporting. Set the structure and calendar for our future Board Preparation Packets to be circulated in advance of check-Ins and meetings.
• November Board Summit. Plan and organize our Annual Board Summit in Kenya.
• Memo Structures. Develop templates and examples of internal memos for decision making.
• CA Office Launch. Research and select our CA Growth office location. Support on all Finance, HR, and Admin duties until future exec leads have been onboarded.

Who You Are

• Degree in Business Administration or similar field, MBA is a plus
• 4+ years in a business or executive management role
• Proven experience organizing and directing multiple teams and departments
• Excellent communicator in written and verbal form
• Experience planning and leading strategic initiatives
• Experience with data analysis
• Consulting experience with a focus on operations management is a plus
• Passion for Komaza and extending Earth’s runway.

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About the Team

Managing the Komaza-farmer partnership is key to the success of the entire Komaza model. Komaza provides free seedlings, training and expertise to farmers who in turn provide land, labour and security to the trees as they grow and mature. At the end of the relationship, the farmers receive fair payment for all trees harvested by Komaza who then processes these trees to gain a return on our investment. 

The Farmer Partnerships team, which is part of the Forestry Operations Division, plays a key role in managing these partnerships in close collaboration with key stakeholders across the value chain.

About This Role

The Farmer Partnerships team is a vital department within Komaza whose main focus is to manage and maintain the Komaza-farmer partnership. As Farmer Partnerships Manager, your primary function is to ensure that the farmer life cycle throughout the course of the partnership is a coherent, consistent and overwhelmingly positive experience. You will manage the growth and development of a brand new farmer call center and work with your staff in collaboration with other key stakeholders to ensure that farmer issues are rapidly and effectively addressed. You will also establish metrics that enable us to quantify the state of the Komaza-Farmer partnership through means such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and work with other stakeholders to improve on these. You will also identify and investigate challenges within the Komaza-Farmer partnership and work across teams to sort these out.

What you will do

• Manage a team of Farmer Partnerships Assistants, track their performance and KPIs and conduct regular training to upskill the team.
• Serve as hiring manager for, train, coach and mentor any new Farmer Partnership Assistants to serve our farmers in a way that results in an extraordinary experience.
• Set and maintain the highest standards for call center operations, including but not limited to training, performance management, issue resolution.
• Answer Assistants questions, guide them through difficult calls or issues, and handle issues directly that cannot be handled adequately by the Assistants.  Lead the escalation across departments for resolving any new or challenging issues.
• Spot check calls for quality assurance.
• In conjunction with the Operations Innovation and Data Science teams, implement expanded surveys to gather more information about the farmer experience at Komaza. This will help us establish a more holistic understanding of the Komaza-farmer partnership in addition to NPS. 
• In conjunction with relevant stakeholders, improve and maintain a Farmer Partnerships Metrics Dashboard that captures information about how the Call Center is performing with regards to issue resolution but also summarizes information garnered from farmer-facing surveys.
• Collaboratively set daily, weekly and monthly targets for Farmer Partnership Assistants that align with business objectives. Monitor performance of the Farmer Partnership Assistants and identify and implement approaches to continuously improve efficiency, productivity and farmer experience.
• Prepare and communicate reports on vital insights gathered from these surveys and the dashboard that will enable other departments to improve our products, field operations or other aspects that affect the farmer experience.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders on the resolution of farmer facing issues and work with them to resolve these in an efficient and effective manner.
• Personally lead collaboration and coordination of departments involved in resolving particularly complex FP issues.
• Work with the Field Operations and Government Relations departments to prevent and respond to tree thefts.

About you

We are looking for someone with proven success in project management with experience in data analytics and reporting.

This person should at least have a bachelor’s degree in a related field (master’s preferred) and have a background in a project management client-facing role (at least 5 years). Most importantly, the role requires someone that is passionate about improving the lives of smallholder farmers in Africa.

As the ideal candidate, some specific qualities you would bring to the table include:

Critical Thinker – you can easily and rapidly think through how data collected from farmers links to one another and also the policy implications when it comes to issue resolution (how changes/shifts to systems affect farmers and different teams).

Collaborative – you can effectively navigate sometimes differing opinions and thoughts and manage internal and external stakeholders to achieve success.

Balanced Values – you are the voice of farmers who enroll at Komaza and serve as the internal advocate for them but you also understand Komaza’s role in this partnership.

Data Savvy – you are a highly quantitative and a data-driven decision maker. You have a solid understanding of data collection, analysis and reporting procedures. You are also proficient in MS Office or or G-Suite (especially spreadsheets!)  and can quickly get to grips with customized CRM software.

Organizational Leadership – you have outstanding communication and interpersonal skills and are positive and patient. You also display excellent organizational and leadership skills with a problem-solving ability.

What We Expect

This is more than a technical role. It will challenge you to apply your quantitative and qualitative tech skills at a dynamic work environment! We offer a great opportunity to further your career.

What’s in it for you?

Great vision without great people is irrelevant, Jim Collins wisely stated. If you share Komaza’s vision and want to help make it a reality, apply today! We offer a competitive remuneration package and an opportunity to further your career. 

Komaza is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.

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About the Team

The Komaza Nursery team is responsible for scaling up the product to growing and delivering 1.5 million  seedlings each planning season. In order to hit these ambitious targets, we are composed of eager, self-driven, and detail-oriented teammates – who care as much about strictly following protocols as we do about hiring our numbers. As a result of this hard work and rapid growth, we have become one of Kenya’s largest propagators of Eucalyptus seedlings, and the world’s largest and most successful Melia nursery. We have setup a 1 million seedlings production facility in Olkalou to support our farmers in Central Kenya provide wood to Komaza’s state of the art Sawmill.

About this Role

The Nursery Operations Coordinator will work directly with the Nursery Operations Department to organize, oversee, manage, and coordinate nursery operations activities. To thrive in this role, the job holder should have strong orientation to organization; have a composed disposition; be able to prioritize; be tactful and engage impactfully across the business

This role will be based in Olkalou, Kenya

What You Will Do

• Prepare and compile Seasonal Nursery work plans for the requisite Regional Business Unit (RBU) and in liaison with the Nursery Operations Director ensure accuracy of the same to facilitate budgeting
• By use of dashboards and other data tools, consistently monitors teams’ performance against set KPIs and takes corrective action where necessary
• Ensure that seedling production is done within the set quality and operational standards. Identify operational gaps, build, test and pilot quality control programs to improve nursery operations
• Ensure proper and timely maintenance of the various nursery facilities and equipment, enforce safety and health requirements and ensure DOSH compliance
• Collect learnings by doing yearly debriefs and compile proposals that will inform unit economics and guide the budgeting process. Ensure that the teams maintain accurate and timely financial records for auditing purposes.
• Oversee timely requisition and delivery of various inputs and materials. Maintain accurate and timely records of inventories and stock
• Identify staffing gaps and support recruitment as may be required. Act as a liaison between the HQ office and the nursery team on all matters relating to people and people operations Plan, coordinate and support other operations leads in seedlings and input packaging/handling, distribution and delivery as well as any other logistics or resource needs

What You Should Have

• Bachelor’s Degree or Diploma in Horticulture, Forestry or any environmental/Earth Sciences 
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in managing complex operations (Business Administration or Project management)
• Experience managing a team of people with varying cultural orientation.
• An excellent planner in budgeting, logistics and Project planning and monitoring.
• Experience in managing team performance
• An excellent communicator both verbally and written
• A keen eye for detail and analytical mind
• An effective team player with a drive to collaborate and engage across various departments. An open minded leader who is at ease with dirtying their hands in any menial tasks
• Comfortable working in a remote location

What’s in it for you?

Great vision without great people is irrelevant, Jim Collins wisely stated. If you share Komaza’s vision and want to help make it a reality, apply today! We offer a competitive remuneration package and an opportunity to further your career. 

Komaza is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.

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About the Team

The Komaza Harvest Operations team is responsible for delivering quality timber to the company’s processing operations. We source and identify wood lots, value and negotiate the purchase and then finally implement safe and efficient harvests. The felling team exists within Harvest Operations and consists of multiple felling units responsible for the safe and efficient felling, cross-cutting and loading of timber. The Harvest Operations team leverages data, mobile technology, regular team training, and user-centred business systems throughout. We are equally comfortable whiteboarding new solutions to complex business problems, digging into Excel, SurveyCTO, Avenza Maps and GIS, and getting our boots muddy talking to farmers.

About the Role

The Felling Manager is a mid-level management role that is the primary support to the Regional Operations Coordinator and the primary supervisor to 3-4 felling teams. They will be responsible for planning, training and collaborating with other departments and stakeholders to ensure a seamless flow of harvest activities for all harvest teams reporting to them. The Felling Manager is also critical in the management of resources deployed for harvest activities and will be responsible for ensuring sufficient support and accountability of harvest teams.

Location: This role is based at our regional office in Naivasha, Kenya.

What You Will Do

Team Management & Leadership (60%)

• Manage productivity and quality of outcomes by monitoring performance
• Train, coach and mentor direct reports to develop their skills, knowledge and capacity Build a positive, motivated team culture, supporting key values of honesty, hard work, and quality
• Oversee data collection via appropriate data collection tools. Ensure data integrity. Analyse data to make critical decisions. Lead team problem solving to quickly resolve challenges.
• Lead performance management and other Talent related activities, support the professional development of managers and their teams
• Act as the focal point between the Operations Coordinator and Harvest’s field based felling teams.
• Lead in collaboration projects with other departments.

Safety Compliance (10%)

• Supervise and ensure safety compliance within teams during harvest operations.
• Ensure standards of excellence are maintained throughout felling, extraction and loading of trees
• Ensure all PPEs are in place and used correctly by all Komaza teams and casual workers at all times
• Train and retrain teams on safety measures
• Deal with non compliance of safety SOPs and reward/recognize adherence to the same
• Support the team with immediate action in case of a safety incident occurring

Planning and Logistics Coordination (20%)

• The Harvest Operations Manager shall work closely with the BizOps Officer and external service providers to manage transport, he/she shall share the teams plans with the BizOps team and other relevant departments to allow for smooth operations and effective interdepartmental collaboration.
• The Harvest Operations Manager shall work hand in hand with service providers to ensure they meet SLAs as agreed with Komaza and to organise contingency where needs arise 
• Prepare harvest plans for the teams and communicate the plans to teams members Ensure a steady harvest pipeline is sustained throughout the year 
• Effectively plan with Harvest Managers to ensure teams achieve planned outputs

Data Management (10%)

• Train the team on data collection, QC and reporting procedures
• Ensure that the team is equipped with the right tools and skills for accurate data reporting
• Collaborate with the design team to use data to inform operational and strategic decisions
• Conduct data audits to ensure that high standards of data accuracy are maintained

What You Have

• Bachelor’s Degree with a minimum of two years’ experience in managing complex people centred operations; or a Diploma with over 5 years’ experience managing complex operations 
• 2 years experience in managing teams working in environments that require the maintenance of high safety standards Experience in Forestry or Wood Harvesting is an added advantage
• Training and coaching ability experience
• Proven experience in planning and coordinating cross-functional projects, including effective lateral and upward management.
• Advanced computer literacy and proficiency in Gsuite and / or MS Office

You’re Also

• Highly collaborative with strong written and spoken English and Kiswahili
• Ability to plan complex, dynamic projects and operations
• Energetic and enthusiastic, with a positive attitude, and attention to detail 
• Comfort with ambiguity and uncertainty, as well as patience and perseverance in the face of serious logistical and environmental hurdles
• Interest in sustainable economic development and / or agroforestry

Great vision without great people is irrelevant, Jim Collins wisely stated. If you share Komaza’s vision and want to help make it a reality, apply today! We offer a competitive remuneration package and an opportunity to further your career. 

Komaza is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.

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About the team

As Komaza’s Data Science team we leverage data to enable Komaza to meet its business, operational and strategic goals, and create disruption through analytics. Our work spans Komaza’s entire value chain from Nursery to Sales and we participate in projects at every stage of the data lifecycle, from devising data capture and structuring methods, through to forecasting and predictive modeling. We work closely with many teams – particularly the Technology team – to complement their efforts with our knowledge and insights of data methods. This year we have been working on projects ranging from carbon financing accreditation to paper form reconciliation automation.

About this role

 As a Data Engineer, you will play a critical role in helping shape Komaza’s analytics infrastructure as we look to scale our operations across Africa. You will also be trusted with productionalizing models, automating and maintaining the current systems, and helping prepare and extract data for further analysis and reporting used to drive key company decisions. Additionally, as a member of the small (but growing) Data Science team you will help put in place the standards and best practices to help create a world-class analytics team.

What You Will Do

Data Engineering (35%)

• Lead efforts in the standardization and implementation of the data architecture across Komaza’s value chain 
• Lead construction of the infrastructure, pipelines, and data tools to facilitate analytics, reporting and data science activities 
• Help propose and implement data curation and programming best practices to ensure the creation of a robust and scalable data framework 

Data Integration (35%)

• Collaborate with various stakeholders including the Executive, Corporate Finance and Operations teams to assist with data-related technical issues and support their data infrastructure needs 
• Work closely with leads of the DS and Technology teams to strive for greater functionality in our data systems 

Data Analysis (20%)

• Assist with BI & DS’s various key initiatives from Carbon Pricing Certification to director dashboard deployment and be willing to wear multiple hats 
• Assist with the creation and extraction of large, complex data sets that meet functional / non-functional business requirements. 

Team Leadership (10%)

• Travel to Kenya on a quarterly/semi-annual basis to work directly with the technology and operations teams 
• Provide perspective on the latest technologies and industry trends to push the team towards world-class practices

What You Should Have

• Education
• 3+ years experience and knowledge with Data Engineering and/or related technical experience 
• Experience with creating and deploying solutions that are hosted in cloud platforms like AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Platform 
• Strong knowledge of SQL, python, and API creation 
• Experience with Git/Github or similar version control systems 
• Experience in data integration and/or ETL frameworks 
• Strong alignment to our mission and values 
• Strong experience in systems mapping and iterative experimentation 
• Experience in software development using object-oriented programming languages

Bonus if you have the following:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, MIS, Data Science or any other related field 
• Experience with data-visualization tools (e.g. Tableau, QlikView, Looker) is a plus 
• Experience working with data collection and management in remote/rural, challenging environments, or developing countries
• 1+ years of team management experience, ideally in a Data Science environment

What we expect

This is more than a technical role. It will challenge you to apply your quantitative and qualitative tech skills at a dynamic work environment!  You’ll get a chance to travel to our headquarters in Kilifi or Nairobi, Kenya. We offer a great opportunity to further your career.

Role Location

Presently remote (as of March 2021), however candidates must reside in Seattle or the Bay Area for the longer term.

What’s in it for you?

Great vision without great people is irrelevant, Jim Collins wisely stated. If you share Komaza’s vision and want to help make it a reality, apply today! You’ll get a chance to work at our headquarters in Kilifi, Kenya. We offer a competitive remuneration package and an opportunity to further your career. 

Please note, applicants must have valid work authorization for the US (US Citizen, Green Card Holders, or other applicable work visas) as Komaza is unable to sponsor US work-visas at this time. 

Komaza is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.