Multi-Tier Food Traceability Platform Director — Export Supply

The mandate

The exporter can trace finished cartons from packhouse to customer but struggles to reconstruct mixed grower lots, field treatments and rework when a quality concern crosses aggregation points. Proposed platforms assume smartphones, constant connectivity and individual labelling that many small suppliers cannot sustain. Leadership needs a recall-capable operating design whose evidence remains credible under real rural and seasonal conditions.

The deliverable is a Multi-Tier Food Traceability Blueprint for two crops and three sourcing models, covering actor, plot, harvest, treatment, aggregation, processing, lot, custody and export identity. It will define minimum evidence, offline capture, correction, mass balance, recall, supplier support and cost. Reference journeys must include low-connectivity and paper-assisted suppliers rather than selecting only digital leaders.

Milestone one at week four supplies field observation, journey maps and risk-tiered evidence. Week nine concludes milestone two with identity, contracts and architecture options. At week sixteen, milestone three delivers recall and mass-balance trials across all sourcing models. The accepted blueprint, supplier adoption plan, economics and implementation governance form milestone four at week twenty-two.

Acceptance requires Quality to trace fifteen unseen cartons to contributing harvest and treatment evidence, reconcile quantity through aggregation and identify every affected customer within target. Small-supplier representatives must complete correction and recall tasks without unaffordable equipment. The sponsors sign only after an internal team runs one surprise recall and explains unresolved uncertainty without consultant assistance.

The client will provide supplier registers, plot references, farm treatment records, aggregation and packhouse histories, logistics events, customer requirements and recall cases. Growers, cooperatives and field officers will join trials; client engineers implement reference tools. Quality retains product-release decisions, while Supplier Development resolves participation and support constraints within five working days.

Why this is external work

Export and technology teams favour customer-facing traceability, while field teams understand why ideal capture fails during harvest. Platform bidders demonstrate compliant supply chains rather than mixed real ones. External work can arbitrate minimum defensible evidence, inclusion and cost without selling hardware or shifting impossible obligations onto small growers.

What you will own

• Map grower, plot, crop, treatment, harvest, aggregation, process, lot, custody and customer relationships through each sourcing model.
• Define risk-tiered minimum evidence, identity, timing, correction, acknowledgement and retention for connected and offline participants.
• Design mass balance that exposes unexplained gain, loss, mixing and rework without claiming impossible unit-level certainty.
• Create recall paths for supplier aggregation, split processing, relabelling, delayed field record and inaccessible network.
• Trial paper-assisted, offline and shared-device capture with representative small suppliers during genuine operating conditions.
• Model participation cost, support, device, connectivity, verification and exception effort across supplier segments.
• Transfer recall rehearsal, supplier onboarding and contract change to Quality, supply and field-development owners.

Candidate qualifications

• Designed food or agricultural traceability across smallholders, cooperatives, aggregators, processors, logistics providers and international export customers.
• Reconciled mass balance through mixed lots, rework, repacking and physical transformation without presenting false unit-level precision.
• Built offline or assisted capture suited to low-connectivity suppliers, shared devices and intense seasonal field operations.
• Led surprise recall exercises where treatment, grower or aggregation evidence crossed several legally independent organisations and jurisdictions.
• Balanced buyer and regulator requirements with proportionate supplier burden, field support and measurable adoption economics.
• Delivered vendor-neutral operating models that internal Quality, supply and field teams could sustain after external engagement closure.

Non-negotiables

• The named director must conduct field observation outside Nairobi and lead every recall trial with suppliers.
• No reseller, device commission or certification referral may influence the technology or supplier recommendations.
• Product safety and release remain with authorised Quality officers regardless of platform trace completeness.
• Supplier participation and personal data must be proportionate, transparent and protected within approved uses.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a recall where aggregation made unit-level traceability impossible and mass balance became decisive.
2. 49 words maximum. How would you design correction for a low-connectivity grower using shared or paper-assisted capture?
3. 49 words maximum. Which client records are indispensable before a surprise export recall can be credible?