Cocoa Manager, West Africa at Mondelez International

Job Description

• You will work with our Commodity Price Risk Management (CPRM) team to match hedging activities to pricing activities to protect our margins.
• You will help the CPRM team obtain coverage to protects our margins until the next pricing opportunity.
• You partner with our CPRM Cocoa team that covers risk activities for a specific commodity for Ghana and Ivory Coast.
• You use your knowledge to integrate local commercial and market contexts with the global/regional strategies in the areas of commodity research, sustainability, R&D, physical sourcing and supplier relationship management.

How you will contribute

• To excel in this role, you use your business and crop analytical skills to parse data to provide regular and timely cocoa reports to help with cocoa price forecasting.
• You lead and manage field teams for cocoa trekking/monitoring operations and the collection of data, and liaise with key cocoa entities in Ghana and Ivory Coast (suppliers, cocoa bodies, government agencies, cocoa traders, processors, NGO’s, civil society and businesses in the region).
• You also provide commercial and technical support to cocoa programs in the company and in the region.

What you will bring

• A desire to drive your future and accelerate your career with experience and knowledge in:
• Agricultural commodities with some experience in the cocoa sector a decided advantage
• Leading teams with spirit and passion that motivates them to give their best
• Problem-solving skills and the ability to be innovative, work efficiently and accurately but with speed, and to demonstrate flexibility to achieve goals and targets in a challenging and unique environment

More about this role

• KFSH, Ghana branch is operating as a registered entity in Ghana. The main function of this branch is to operate as a point of contact for the Global Cocoa Price
• Risk Management Team, based in Zug, Switzerland. The role will be responsible for cocoa related activities in the region with focus on Ghana and Ivory Coast.
• Procurement and business analyst in the cocoa category and should have the capabilities of analysing market data, understand the local markets and developments in the cocoa and related sectors and provide quality service to all key stakeholders
• Build and maintain relations with Mondelez key cocoa suppliers in the region with the purpose of gaining valuable shared insight within the cocoa sector from farm gate to shipping
• Encouraged to build and maintain relations with CocoBOD in Ghana and the CCC in the Ivory Coast
• The West Africa Cocoa Manager should have three clear areas of involvement going forward:
• Managerial and technical lead on cocoa crop forecasting and model development Cocoa commodity research and conversations representing KFSH or CPRM  Financial management and budget planning

What you need to know about this position:

• Lead and manage the various field teams for cocoa trekking/survey operations, collection of data
• Analyse data and provide regular and timely cocoa fundamental reports to the CPRM team
• Link up with existing Mondelez Int. cocoa suppliers to share latest thoughts on cocoa market intelligence and market research as well as COCOBOD/CMC in Ghana and CCC in the Ivory Coast
• Always looking to continuously improve the forecast accuracy, researching new areas to push the boundaries
• Oversea the budget planning process for each calendar year as well as monitor spending per month
• Ability to network with all stakeholders (government agencies, cocoa traders, processors, NGO’s and businesses in the region)
• Oversee all maintenance work carried out on the company vehicles, vehicle job cards to be completed for each vehicle going to the workshop
• All vehicles to be tested when returned from the workshop and signed off.
• The role will require strong leadership, communication skills and the ability to maintain close contact and relationships within cross functional teams.

Key outputs of the role will include:

• Weekly/Monthly Crop Reports to the CPRM Team
• Updates on country / regional developments
• Oversee monthly financial reports on expenditure
• Financial planning and budgeting Monthly inputs to the Risk Management review meetings
• Other research together with Cocoa CPRM Analyst as cocoa processing or Chemical input/usage information
• Regular updates on industry developments

What extra ingredients you will bring:

• Accountable, aggressive and adaptable – able to deliver, be innovative and work with speed and be passionate about the work
• Collaborative and Forward thinking – able to take decisions with long term view and keeping organisation’s interest in mind, besides working with teams from different backgrounds, countries, cultures, etc.
• Motivating and growing people – able to take the best out of the team, and other around you, as well as inspiring them to achieve the goals, and targets
• Analytical skills – able to forecast, budget, analyse and develop reports – both crop related as well as financial related to the branch and business
• Project Management skills – able to handle new projects, execute them and enable to track, monitor and report progress
• Relationship Management – ability to manage relationship both internal and external, which are crucial to the organisation. Able to understand SRM methodology and put it in practice

Education / Certifications:

• Technical Education (Agriculture or Horticulture)
• Communication in English

Job specific requirements:

• 5 to 8 years of experience in agriculture commodities and with preferably some years in the cocoa sector
• Commodity price risk management
• Knowledge of other agricultural crops
• Working with government agencies, private sector