This role is for a Quality Control Technologist at Best Tropical Fruits Ltd., a private Kenyan company creating market solutions for excess soft fruits in Machakos and surrounding counties. Best Tropical Fruits Ltd processes high-quality mango, avocado, banana, pawpaw, citrus, tomatoes, and other highly nutritious fruits purchased from resource poor smallholders in Central and Eastern Kenya. The successful candidate will lead all quality aspects at the factory.
Primary Function
The Quality Control Technologist's main responsibilities include:
- Leading all quality aspects at the Factory, including raw material intake, inputs selection and use, processing flows, and finished product packing and shipment of dried fruits, fruit pulps, avocado oil, and other oils.
- Ensuring all processing schedules are maintained and updated on a daily basis.
- Inputting into the product development of dried products (mango, banana, pineapple, pawpaw, coconut).
- Inputting into the product development of pulp products (mango, passion fruit, pawpaw, tree tomato, tomato, and others).
- Inputting into overall product innovation, food quality improvement, cost innovation, productivity, and capacity improvements for all lines of business.
Required Skills and Competencies
- Able to organize and maintain a clean efficient processing line.
- Good communication and excellent planning skills. Sound financial and resource management skills.
- Excellent reporting skills.
- Ability to get the best from a team.
- Able to function effectively when required as a project manager, planner, coordinator, communicator, senior technical expert, and mentor.
- Ability to appropriately address both project and non-project related quality issues when encountered.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications and Skills
- Bachelor degree in food technology, food science, or equivalent.
- Minimum 5 years of senior experience in the industry and in the processing of tropical fruit and vegetables covering all aspects from simple grading to more complex processing where the raw material is altered significantly in the process.
- Good knowledge of hygiene, food safety and quality standards and certification requirements in Kenya.
- Familiar with the other food safety legislation e.g. HACCP and ISO standards.
- Good communication skills and oral presentation.
- Fluent in English.
