Project Manager: Operational Readiness & Export

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Start date:Immediate

Company overview

Farm To Feed is an Agritech startup working to improve market linkages, avoid food loss & improve incomes for smallholder farmers, by aggregating demand & supplying to HORECA clients throughout Kenya. As part of our growth plan, we are looking to begin exporting with a variety of dehydrated ingredients. Having defined the export go-to-market strategy, the company is now entering a critical operational readiness and execution phase, covering product development, sourcing, processing, certification, & early commercialisation.

Role Overview

Farm To Feed is seeking a hands-on project manager to lead and coordinate operational readiness activities across multiple work streams as the company prepares for export. This role requires someone who is comfortable managing ambiguity, multiple stakeholders, and fast-moving priorities typical of early-stage startups.

The project manager will take over coordination previously led by a strategy consultant and will be responsible for driving timelines, resolving bottlenecks, and ensuring that product, sourcing, certification, processing, logistics, sales, & other readiness activities move forward in a structured and timely manner.

This is not a purely administrative role, it requires active problem-solving, ownership, and on-the-ground execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Project & Execution Management
  • Continue to refine & own the end-to-end operational readiness plan for export
  • Translate strategic goals into clear workplans, timelines, and deliverables
  • Track progress across all workstreams and proactively identify risks and delays
  • Drive accountability and follow-through across internal team members, external consultants & the wider FarmtoFeed team
  • Prepare regular progress updates for senior leadership
• Cross-Functional Coordination
  • Coordinate and align work across the VA Export team, currently comprised of
    • Product Development (2 team members): formulations, trials, shelf-life, packaging inputs etc 
    • Sourcing & logistics (1 team member): farmer engagement, raw material availability, quality consistency, traceability, packaging & palletization, FOB logistics
    • Certification, Testing & Sterilisation (1 team member): food safety standards, lab testing, sterilization, export requirements
    • External Consultants (multiple)
      • Product strategy, sourcing & sales consultant
      • Sales lead generation and early customer outreach consultants
      • Processing operations and facility/process design consultant
  • Ensure dependencies between teams are understood and managed (e.g., certification timelines aligned with product trials)
  • Ensure coordination with the wider FarmtoFeed feed to ensure readiness for export, notably with
    • Tech team e.g., e-commerce platform adaptations, website adaptations
    • Finance team 
    • Marketing team
• Support for Operational Readiness for Export
  • Support preparation for export compliance, documentation, and buyer requirements, where needed
  • Support testing, certification, and quality assurance processes, where needed
  • Support readiness of processing operations, including dehydration and handling workflows, SOPs etc, where needed
  • Support sourcing & traceability activities, where needed
• Stakeholder & Partner Management
  • Act as the central point of coordination between internal team, consultants, wider Farm To Feed team & other external stakeholders (e.g., testing labs, co-manufacturers, freight forwarders, customers etc.)
  • Ensure clear communication, expectations, and deliverables with all stakeholders
  • Escalate issues early and propose practical solutions
• Startup Problem-Solving
  • Step in where needed to unblock issues, source information, or move tasks forward
  • Adapt plans quickly as assumptions change
  • Balance speed with quality in a resource-constrained environment

Required Experience & Skills

Essential

• 3–7 years experience in project management or operations roles
• Experience working in a startup or early-stage business
• Experience in Africa, ideally East Africa
• Strong ability to manage multiple parallel work streams
• Excellent organisational and communication skills
• Comfortable working with uncertainty and incomplete information
• Ability to work hands-on and independently without heavy structure

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in agribusiness, food processing, or FMCG
• Exposure to food dehydration, food safety, or export supply chains
• Experience working with certification bodies, labs, or regulatory processes
• Experience in developing & refining go-to-market strategies 
• Understanding of export markets and buyer readiness
• Experience coordinating external consultants or short-term specialists

Personal Attributes

• Highly proactive and execution-oriented
• Calm under pressure and able to prioritise
• Practical, solutions-focused mindset
• Comfortable working across technical and non-technical teams
• Strong follow-up discipline, things don’t fall through the cracks