Cocoa Credibility Project Leader

Do you want to be involved in the international dynamics of sustainability, where ideals and pragmatism meet?

UTZ Certified is a label and program for sustainable farming worldwide. Our mission is to create a world where sustainable farming is the norm. Sustainable farming helps farmers, workers and their families to fulfil their ambitions and contributes to safeguard the world’s resources, now and in the future.

UTZ Certified is one of the largest programs for responsibly produced coffee, tea and cocoa in the world, working across all continents with leading brands and retailers, such as Mars, Nestlé, Heinz, Ahold and IKEA. UTZ Certified’s standards and certification services, field support network and traceability system enable markets to reward good practices.

UTZ Certified is headquartered in Amsterdam and works closely with its partner network in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We are looking for a:

Cocoa Credibility Project Leader

The Standards & Certification department is the ‘guardian angel’ of the UTZ requirements and vision. Here, the UTZ-codes and certification protocols are developed and protected in close dialogue with all stakeholders.  You will manage the (implementation of the) cocoa standards in close collaboration with an important UTZ partner; creating capacity to certify an increasing amount of farmers and optimizing the processes. Special attention in this position is on integrity issues , identifying and dealing with possible fraude.

You will have frequent contact with industry partners, NGO’s, developing organizations, as well as certification bodies. You are an experienced professional who likes to travel regularly. You like working in a dynamic and demanding international context. 

Responsibilities:

• Manage, implement and monitor a well delineated part of the UTZ Cocoa portfolio
• Develop and implement a model to safeguard transparency of premium distribution
• Develop an approach on integrity management and fraude prevention
• Integrity & improvements of the processes
• Coordinate with different UTZ departments, including Standards & Certification and collaborate closely with our external representatives and partners on the implementation of UTZ standards in the cocoa-chains
• Contribute to development of local guidance documents and facilitate local documents for origin countries
• Participate in the multi-stakeholder dialogue and revision process of the UTZ Certified standards and assess relevance for standards of sustainability topics

You are member of the S&C department and will report to the Standards & Certification Manager.

Candidate requirements:

• Master degree in agronomy, environmental science, international development or (forensic) accountancy
• Minimum of 5 years working experience including dealing with integrity and fraud issues. Your background is preferably a combination of finance / accounting, project management and working in smallholder-, agri-related project implementation in tropical countries, ideally in cocoa / (west) Africa
• Good knowledge of cocoa or agricultural markets and social standard system.
• Having a vision on sustainability in general, support the vision of UTZ
• Sensitive, good communicator, teamplayer
• Quality-minded, analytical, able to quickly gain overview and insight
• Fluency in verbal and written French and English (must have), Spanish and Portuguese are an asset

Employment is based upon 40 hours/week. The position is based in Amsterdam and implies regular travel to producing countries (about 20% of your time). We strongly advise non-Dutch candidates to apply, but can only consider candidates who have a work & residency permit for the Netherlands/EU. Please note that we will check your references at the end of the procedure.

This is your opportunity to create real value for a meaningful global sustainability initiative!

Please send your application to application@duurzaamheidwerkt.nl before March 25, mentioning Cocoa Credibility Project Leader in the subject line. For more information about this position please contact Janneke Verwey: +31 (0) 6 10 90 24 92.

More information about UTZ Certified: www.utzcertified.org.