Production Manager (Tanzania)

Join our team as a Production Manager to lead seed production and station operations in Arusha, Tanzania. In this job you are driving quality, safety, efficiency, and team development for our seed production site.

Location

• Tanzania, Arusha

Department

• Research & Breeding

Education

• Bachelor | Master

Your Job at Rijk Zwaan

We are looking for an experienced and driven Production Manager to lead our production and station operations in one of our stations in Arusha, Tanzania. In this senior leadership role, you will be responsible for the overall performance and development of the station, ensuring that people, processes, and resources work together effectively to support our production objectives and long-term ambitions. You will play a key role in creating a safe, efficient, and high-performing work environment, while contributing to the strategic growth and future development of the station.

This is a hands-on leadership position where you stay closely connected to daily operations and your team. On average, you will spend approximately 20% of your time on administrative and planning activities and 80% of your time in our greenhouses, extraction facilities, and seed processing operations, providing visible leadership, coaching, and operational support.

Moreover, you will be responsible for the following:

• Lead and develop multidisciplinary production and operational teams.

• Manage greenhouse, nursery, seed production, seed processing, inventory management, and shipment activities to achieve production and quality targets.

• Drive annual and long-term strategic planning, budgeting, resource allocation, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Ensure compliance with quality, safety, hygiene, and environmental standards, while leading innovation, sustainability, and infrastructure development projects.

Your Contribution

You are an experienced leader with a strong background in agricultural or horticultural production environments. You combine operational expertise with strategic and analytical thinking and can translate long-term objectives into effective operational plans. With strong planning and organizational skills, you can manage multiple priorities while maintaining focus on quality, safety, and results.

You are passionate about leadership and people development and know how to motivate, coach, and develop teams to achieve their full potential. Your problem-solving and decision-making skills enable you to address challenges effectively and drive continuous improvement across people, processes, and operations. You communicate clearly and build strong collaborative relationships with colleagues and stakeholders at all levels, fostering a culture of accountability, ownership, and teamwork. All this with high ethical standards throughout the whole organization.

In addition, you have solid knowledge of greenhouse and nursery production, seed production and seed processing operations, quality management systems, health, safety and environmental standards, budgeting, resource planning, and process optimization. You are adaptable and resilient in a dynamic environment and are committed to maintaining high ethical and quality standards while supporting the long-term development and success of the station.

Additionally, we can find on your CV:

• A bachelor’s degree in Agriculture, Horticulture, Agronomy, Agricultural Engineering, Production Management, or a related field.

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• Proven leadership experience in greenhouse, seed production, horticultural, agricultural, or comparable production environments.

• Experience in managing teams, budgets, operational planning, and performance improvement initiatives.

• Experience working in a highly professional and quality-focused environment; experience in East Africa or a similar international agricultural environment is considered an advantage.

What Can You Expect From Us

We offer an entrepreneurial, good and stable work environment with constant new challenges within an international an innovative company. Next to this we are happy to offer you:

• A good and competitive to the market compensation and benefits package, including a company car.

• Opportunities to contribute to strategic growth and operational excellence.

• A collaborative working environment where people and development are highly valued.

• Exposure to international projects and best practices within the Rijk Zwaan group.

• Professional growth and development.

Where Will You Be Working?

Rijk Zwaan is an international family-owned company with a people-oriented culture. Rijk Zwaan is right at the start of the food chain. We develop vegetable varieties and sell the seeds produced from them globally to growers and other chain partners. From our strategic position we contribute to the world food supply. Everything we do is about healthy growth. The growth of natural and healthy products that we export around the world. The growth of our company, which currently employs over 4400 people in more than 30 countries. And above all the growth of our people: we give you every opportunity to use your own initiative and achieve your full potential.

About Rijk Zwaan Tanzania

Rijk Zwaan is active in the whole of Africa. To develop the true potential of this special continent, Rijk Zwaan takes a long-term approach. In Tanzania Rijk Zwaan is active in seed production, breeding and product development. Rijk Zwaan Tanzania currently consists of 504 employees across three stations.

At Rijk Zwaan, people are at the heart of our company culture, and we believe in mutual respect, a strong sense of responsibility and a high degree of employee involvement. This means you can expect a supportive environment where your ideas matter and where you are given every opportunity to grow, develop, and shape your career.

"I am happy to work at Rijk Zwaan Tanzania. We work like one family, supporting each other while growing together. What makes my work meaningful is knowing that, through our efforts, we contribute to Rijk Zwaan’s mission of ‘Sharing a Healthy Future’ by developing innovative fruit and vegetable varieties and supplying high-quality seeds that support a healthy and sustainable food supply." - Alex, Production Manager.

Interested?

If you are passionate about agricultural production, operational excellence, and people leadership, we would like to hear from you. Leopard Recruitment is doing the search for this position and Mart Nouwens is the contact person. You can address your written application to Mart at vacancy@leopardrecruitment.com.

Assessment will be part of the process.