Agri Tech Specialist at AB InBev

Dreaming big is in our DNA. It’s who we are as a company. It’s our culture. It’s our heritage. And more than ever, it’s our future. A future where we’re always looking forward. Always serving up new ways to meet life’s moments. A future where we keep dreaming bigger. We look for people with passion, talent, and curiosity, and provide them with the teammates, resources and opportunities to unleash their full potential. The power we create together – when we combine your strengths with ours – is unstoppable. Are you ready to join a team that dreams as big as you do?
The key purpose of this role is to provide technical support as an agronomy specialist in Tanzania, covering all crops in the country as well as any new origination programme initiatives. Through this technical support, the Technical Specialist (TS) will work closely with the in-country team’s agronomists, field officers, and extension officers to deliver the required production volumes per crop. The role will also lead problem-solving efforts and drive crop quality and yield improvement initiatives, ensuring we remain cost competitive on a per-crop, year-on-year basis.
 
Key Roles and Responsibilities:

Support technical skill development of the in-country team by identifying skill gaps and supporting the Country manager in identifying/developing suitable training solutions and conducting technical training where needed.
Guide the trial managers in research and development work and execution, working closely with the R&D specialist Africa, in identifying the research requirements to improve yield and quality of the crop.
The TS role will also identify, evaluate and recommend new technology (equipment/methods/inputs/monitoring methods/sustainable agri practices etc) for opportunities to support improvement in yield, quality and sustainability of the crop performance.
Work closely or directly with farmers at times to provide technical guidance or to conduct problem solving where required in order to ensure farmer crop success and maintain positive relationships with farmers and chemical suppliers, in order to sustain and grow our farmer base.
investigate new farmer opportunities in order to grow our farmer base, through technical assessments and engagements with new farmers/co-ops/armco’s in order to grow the production volumes as needed.
Sustainability goals and ABInbev’s sustainability agenda will be supported by the TS, through R&D trials, in field assessments and data collection to ensure that we deliver on our GHG and sustainability targets in country.
Support the Country Agriculture Manager in maintaining positive relationships with government parties through engagements and communication with the relevant parties as needed.
Provide technical support and insights in any initiatives with government bodies or co-funded projects to grow our agriculture program and footprint in the country.
Support production planning per crop ahead of the season
Serves as domain specialist to all regional agronomy in areas such as fertilization and soil management, pest and disease management, planting density, irrigation, optimization of crop inputs, digital agriculture, and alternative rotational crops.
Demonstrates expert knowledge of the primary agronomic cropping systems in all regions, where malting barley / sorghum is cultivated to drive yield and quality improvements.
Provide input and drive implementation of our sustainability strategy and regenerative agriculture programs.
Build effective partnerships with all regional procurement and global agronomy stakeholders, government bodies and agriculture partners such as chemical suppliers.
Develop and deliver regular updates to internal ABInBev stakeholders and governance bodies regarding crop quality, research and development work and sustainability goals.
Lead regional agronomists / Extension officers to drive execution of research and development trials, interpreting results and presenting best practices at the relevant forums.
Support the country agriculture strategy development and execution in partnership with the country agriculture manager.
Identification, assessment, and management of key risks in our production environments and recommendation on mitigation strategies.
Maintain effective communication and interaction with collaboration partners, to ensure execution of short-term plans and to support alignment of long-term strategy for our collaboration.
Effectively manage research budgets and support trial managers to ensure resource requirements are clearly defined, communicated and sourced on time in order to deliver research and development and variety development trials.

Key Attributes and Competencies:

Digital fluency is required
Ability to work effectively across disciplines and cultures and across geographies
Strong stakeholder management, communication, networking and influencing skills
Strategic thinking and the tactical implementation of strategic initiatives
Must be able to deal effectively with organizational complexity and ambiguity
Agile mind set to react efficiently and appropriately to rapidly changing business environment
Excellent networking skills and ability to influence people without line management responsibility
Appropriate balance between management and leadership styles
Excellent communication/Presentation skills
Skilled in seeking business input (strategic imperative and prioritization) and translation into implementable research direction
Drives critical decisions in program and its projects

Minimum Requirements:

BSc. Hon in Agronomy or related field with field crops experience required
Minimum 5 years’ experience in agronomy
Minimum of 5 years’ experience working in seed & FMCG companies
Experience working successfully in international and multidisciplinary environment
Expert knowledge of grain storage and factors influencing cost / quality and safe storage practices
High skills in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Power BI & Outlook
Experience in the development, utilization and enabling technologies
Experience in managing in a developmental environment with various levels of competency and capability within teams
Demonstrated ability to successfully influence colleagues across functional boundaries
Effective time management, with the ability to successfully plan and control activities over several months or years
Drivers license & driving experience

 
Additional Information:

Band: VI
Willing to travel extensively in production areas 60% of the time

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