Forestry Innovations Manager at Komaza

What You Will Do

• Lead our engagement with external researchers and experts to understand existing best practices in forestry - including site selection, species R&D, nursery operations, planting, growth, enumeration, and harvesting.
• Lead Komaza’s internal multi-departmental design process to create new methodologies, tools, and approaches to forestry activities across the value chain.
• Monitor, evaluate, and improve Komaza’s existing forestry practices across the value chain.
• Research forestry products and tools appropriate for small-holder farmers, trial them with small-holder farmers, and scale them.
• Build a small team of design and forestry specialists who can continue to grow our internal expertise in designing farmer-centered forestry best practices.
• Lead the creation of Komaza’s farmer and environmental impact evaluation methodology and execute that methodology.

What You Should Have

• Bachelor’s degree in forestry or other relevant scientific field required, Master’s Degree or above in a relevant field preferred.
• Experience working with small-holder farmers, experience with farmers in East Africa preferred.
• Experience with human/user-centered design, iteration, and product development.
• Experience conducting primary (not a literature review) forestry research preferred.
• Experience with the full forestry value chain (nursery to planting to growth to harvest to processing) a plus.
• Minimum of 2-5 years post-undergraduate, masters degree or full-time work in a forestry or agricultural context preferred.

You’re also

• Equally comfortable in the office conducting literature reviews and in the field seeking feedback directly from farmer focus groups.
• Flexible and self-motivated with the drive to do whatever necessary to get the job done.
• Comfortable working in a company that acts and feels a lot like a startup (dynamic, unstructured, and frequently changing).
• Self-directed and intellectually curious - you know how and when to seek feedback in the pursuit of continuous improvement.
• Growth-obsessed with a strong desire for personal development.
• A collaborative problem solver who seeks the opinions of other teammates and departments in the development of creative and sustainable systems.

What we expect

You are a good fit for Komaza if you want to make a meaningful commitment to this role for a minimum of 2+ years. This role is based at our headquarters in Kilifi, Kenya for the foreseeable future. The role offers competitive salary and benefits with potential for further career growth.