Africa Pre-Commercial Seeds Supply Planner at Bayer

Main Purpose:

• In charge of End-to-End crop plan and inventory planning for Africa Foundation Seeds incl. Licensing, Experimental and TELA 
• Strives for visibility on future and actual foundation seed availability starting from crop plan building and validation to availability monitoring, including in-season supervision of quantity and quality of batches used for Foundation Seed
• Liaise with Africa Product Mission Teams, Commercial Planners and Global Parent Seed team to ensure the required volumes of Foundation seed is produced for all relevant parties
• Brits preferred location; Waterfall an alternative one with a regular travel to Brits

Key Working Relations:

• Reports to EMEA Supply Planning Lead

Works closely with:

• Foundation Seed Leads, Pre-Foundation Manager, Africa Product Portfolio Managers
• Supply and Product Mission Teams
• Breeding, Quality, R&D, Regulatory, Commercial, SCM functions

Key Tasks & Responsibilities:
Foundation, Experimental & Licensing Planning

• Responsible for driving and managing foundation, experimental, TELA and licensing Crop Plans in line with Africa demands and inventories to ensure a reliable production. Support Breeding with pre-foundational crop planning
• Collaborate with Foundation Seed Lead, Field Operations Manager & Warehouse Manager to define production planning operations, planting plan scheduling and allocation to the appropriate areas for accurate and on-time availability
• Provide feedback to all relevant stakeholders with queries related to the stock volumes, availability timelines and shipment of Foundation Seed and Experimental hybrids
• Coordinate sourcing (imports & exports) of foundation seed to/from global partners and customers.
• Maintain export production file (flow file) and communicate latest updates.

Inventory management / Deterioration & Obsolescence

• Assist with control and steering of Foundation seed inventory and D&O reporting (periodic D&O forecast, inventory and D&O optimization ideas to optimize inventory levels and reduce costs)
• Facilitate decision taking in Product advancement (Pre-PMT & PMT) processes by supporting with inputs on Pre-Foundation and Foundation availabilities in Africa. Work with Master Data to facilitate material creation for new varieties. 
• Monitor levels of seed availability, and liaise with Pre-FND to keep seed stocks of each generation at adequate levels

Process improvement and Operational Excellence

• Contribute to process improvements and/or new tools implementation in the planning team
• Support reaching overall goals for the region by driving operational excellence in planning
• Support business with requests to AG - Excellence and maintain data for varieties, inbreds, pedigree and yields in enterprise systems & databases
• Maintain updated ISO9001 documents and processes and ensure that compliance status is maintained

Skills & Qualifications (education, skills, experience):

• BA/MA degree or equivalent, preferably with focus in Supply; alternatively equivalent working experience
• 5+ years of experience in Planning, Quality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and/or Finance
• Knowledge of Seeds business and Agriculture industry

Key Competencies:

•  Analytical mindset with a commitment to accuracy and precision
• Strong planning and organizational skills. Can deal with complexity 
• Ability to drive decision making in cross-functional teams
• Ability to work autonomously and take initiative
• Continuous improvement mindset
• Proficiency in English