Position: Project Officer (Operations)

Organization: CEC

Location: Assam

Job Responsibilities:

Out of the two Operations Officers, one will focus on Existing TPCs and the other on the New TPCs.

The responsibilities of the Project Officers-in charge of Operations would involve:

1. Visit TPCs and its members on a regular basis, develop enduring relationship with them and ensure that the project activities are on track.
2. Empower farmers by making individual visits to farmer households, and conducting group meetings and training sessions.
3. Liaise and manage relationships with various stakeholders.
4. Take all steps to help small tea farmers to set up collectives, convert them into statutory bodies, ensure shareholding rights or other legal membership rights to farmers, prepare business plans.
5. Take all steps to purchase land, building factory infrastructure, negotiating with machinery suppliers and the installation of required machinery, help with operation readiness to run and manage the TPCs post commencement of commercial operations.
6. Manage, supervise and coordinate project activities for TPC operations, such as-

1. Set up the machines and a safe environment for production of tea.
2. Manage the workflow for production of tea.
3. Ensure efficiency during the process.
4. Oversee the quality assurance of produced materials or goods.
5. In conjunction with the above, Operations Manager will do the following tasks:

• Establish goals for production of tea, and coordinate a plan to meet those goals.
• Ensure green leaf are of required quality and standards.
• Ensure production stays on schedule.
• Assure products meet quality standards.
• Write production reports.
• Analyze production data and optimize for efficiency.
• Direct an efficient layout of equipment and flow of materials.
• Ensure workers and equipment meet performance and safety requirements.
• Watch for hiccups in the process, and look for opportunities to improve operations.
• Hire, train, and assess the performance of workers.
• Support workers as questions, concerns, or feedback arise.
• Supervise staff and delegate tasks to employees.
• Communicate with other team members, such as the accounts and financial department to record expenses and establish budgets, or the Supply chain Manager to ensure the delivery of products.
• Support and facilitate the members of the TPCs of small tea growers in legal and financial compliances.
• Facilitate the necessary capacity building for the STGs to be able to successfully run the factories, manage the business, manage stakeholders, manage and liaison with crucial partners, provide decision?making support, enable leadership development and facilitate team working among the STGs.

Required Qualities, Competencies, and Qualifications:

• Ambitious and hard-working professional with at least two years of experience as Project Officer, in the implementation of livelihood specific programmes.
• Post-graduate in Management/ Social Sciences/Social Work/ Agriculture or a relevant discipline. Experience of working in close collaboration with government systems will be desirable.
• The candidate must have good knowledge about the tea sector, including production & marketing, and livelihood issues in general. 
• Willingness to be based in Assam and travel extensively within the state, as well as occasionally to Delhi.
• The candidate must have working knowledge of Assamese. Fluency in English is required.