Responsibilities

• Agro Transformation Lead – Isando Plant Snacks
• We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Agro Transformation Lead to join our team in South Africa. This role is critical in driving our Positive Agriculture agenda by developing and implementing innovative crop development strategies focused primarily on wheat and maize. Through strategic partnerships, innovative finance models, and sustainable agricultural practices, you will play a key role in strengthening our agricultural supply chain.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ownership of the development of new crop direct supply in South Africa, with the emphasis on wheat and maize
• Lead variety specific supply plan that will drive supply resilience, reduce landed cost and improve milling extraction rates.
• Own the agenda on emerging farmer development by establishing scalable partnerships and leveraging Development fund activities to ensure that the agro-supply chain transformation targets are met and upheld
• Working with a range of PepsiCo teams, lead the scaling up of the existing Regen-Ag program to develop a landscape approach for delivery. This will include establishing a coalition of supply chain partners (farmers, suppliers, peer companies, inputs providers etc) as well as refining the existing roadmap to deliver Regenerative outcomes on 1.1 million acres by 2030.
• Developing a coalition of suppliers, partners, donors, and others to work together at the landscape level towards the same goals within maize and wheat (and including other crops where necessary).
• Ownership of the Pep SA digitization agenda as an enabler to deliver on main strategic pillars
• Providing direction, guidance, and support to this coalition, ensuring it is able to articulate and deliver a set of objectives that support PepsiCo’s goals.
• Be the main point of contact for PepsiCo on the ground in South Africa and act as liaison between PepsiCo internal teams, partners, suppliers / farmers, and other stakeholders with regard to Positive Agriculture implementation in alignment with our pep+ goals. This will include representing PepsiCo in local and national forums.
• Provide effective project management to all the Positive Agriculture initiatives in white maize and wheat on the ground, including coordinating and managing partners and other stakeholders in execution and liaising closely with PepsiCo internal teams and other stakeholders as needed.
• Take the lead on developing and articulating the business case for PepsiCo, farmers, suppliers and others to participate and invest in the programme.
• Lead management of data collection and analysis for internal and external monitoring, reporting, and learning.
• Preparation of reporting and communications, including feeding into briefings for senior leadership and regular reviews and insights for internal teams.
• Troubleshooting and support as needed for resolving barriers to implementation.

Qualifications

What will qualify you for the role?

• 10- 15  years of experience in agricultural development, international development, or a related field.
• Bachelor’s degree in agriculture, Business Management, or a similar discipline.
• Proven experience working with maize and wheat, with companies in the region (direct private sector experience preferred).
• Strong project management skills with a track record of managing diverse stakeholders.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and collaboration capabilities.
• Proficiency in data analysis, with the ability to extract and communicate key insights.
• Fluency in English and Afrikaans (written and spoken).
• Ability to work independently and remotely with a high degree of autonomy.
• Experience leading agronomy teams and working with Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) companies is a plus.

Key Competencies:

• Strategic and innovative thinking.
• Strong leadership and communication skills.
• Ability to build cross-functional partnerships.
• Proficiency in creating blended finance models to support agricultural development.
• Deep understanding of the South African agricultural landscape.