Background

Victory Farms is a tilapia fish farm established in 2015. VF is located on the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria and has distribution capacity throughout Kenya. The Company is rapidly expanding its farm operation, fish processing, and sales & marketing capabilities. By the end of 2017, VF is on track to be the largest aquaculture farm in East Africa.

Key Responsibilities:

Maintenance strategy and reliability

• Determine asset criticality and set the maintenance approach accordingly, balancing scheduled, condition-based and corrective work.
• Develop the department from reactive repair into a planned maintenance operation, evidenced in performance data.
• Analyse recurring and high-consequence failures to root cause and implement lasting corrections.
• Set reliability targets by asset class and track performance against them.

Planning and work management

• Maintain a rolling preventive maintenance programme across all trades, driven by running hours and scheduled around peak production.
• Operate a single work-order system from request to close-out, so all work is recorded, prioritised, assigned and visible.
• Batch work by area, trade and shutdown window so each visit and each outage delivers maximum useful work.
• Reserve capacity for breakdown response while keeping the planned programme on schedule.

Asset management and lifecycle

• Participate actively with ERP personnel to build and maintain a complete asset register in ERPNext, each asset uniquely identified with its cost, history and downtime recorded against it.
• Weigh continued repair against replacement on cumulative cost, remaining life, downtime consequence, parts availability and residual value.
• Work with Finance on depreciation, book value and disposal so the asset ledger reflects the condition of the fleet.
• Identify assets nearing end of economic life in time for planned capital replacement, and prepare hire-versus-purchase analysis

Budget, cost and procurement

• Own and control the maintenance budget across labour, spares, consumables, contractors and capital, and report variance with explanation.
• Manage total cost of ownership, accounting for the production cost of downtime alongside direct repair cost.
• Assess best-value-for-money form Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) items on quality, price, lead time, warranty and support.
• Set spares and critical-stock policy against lead times and criticality, and determine the balance between in-house and contracted work.

Leadership and accountability

• Establish a clear departmental structure in which every member of staff reports to a named supervisor and every trade has an accountable lead.
• Delegate defined authority covering work approval, release of equipment to service and expenditure within set limits.
• Maintain clear communication with production and support functions, including notice of planned shutdowns, reliable recovery estimates and defined escalation thresholds.
• Assign ownership of every asset, closure of every work order and conclusion of every incident investigation.
• Formalise resources shared with Construction in writing, covering direction of work, funding and accountability.
• Assess capability against requirement, recruit and train to close gaps, build cover across trades and conduct performance reviews.

Facilities, safety and reporting

• Establish and equip trade workshops, control tools and protective equipment, and organise stores so stock is traceable and charged to the correct work order.
• Own safety within maintenance operations, including permit-to-work, isolation and lock-out discipline, and verification of competence before assigning hazardous work.
• Maintain statutory inspection and certification for lifting equipment, pressure systems and regulated plant, and meet Kenyan regulatory and environmental requirements.
• Report monthly on availability, unplanned downtime, schedule completion, repair time, time between failures and cost, using measured data.
• Represent maintenance in operations forums, advise management on emerging risk and the cost of deferral, and contribute engineering input to capital projects.

Qualifications & Requirements:

Required:

• A degree (or equivalent) in engineering from a recognised university and recognised by Kenyan certifications and mandatory regulations.

Advantageous:

• Registration with the Engineers Board of Kenya as a Professional Engineer, or as a Graduate Engineer working towards it.
• Maintenance or reliability certification (CMRP, RCM, TPM); project management certification; a recognised safety qualification; a master’s degree in engineering, engineering management.

Experience:

• Minimum 8 years post-qualification in engineering and maintenance within industrial, agro-industrial or estate operations, including at least 4 years leading a multi-trade department of 20 or more staff.
• Responsibility for a site that runs continuously, where breakdowns translate directly into lost production. Aquaculture, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, food processing and agro-processing all qualify.
• Assets spread across distance rather than concentrated in a single plant, and supply lines long enough that spares must be planned rather than bought on demand.
• A preventive maintenance programme built and delivered: asset register established, schedules set, spares policy defined, and a measurable reduction in unplanned downtime achieved.
• Direct accountability for a maintenance budget, covering forecasting, variance reporting and supplier negotiation.
• Kenyan operating experience, or the demonstrated ability to work within Kenyan regulatory, labour and supply conditions.

Knowledge & Skills

Engineering knowledge

Breadth across the following, with the judgement to reason about unfamiliar systems, evaluate proposed solutions and direct trade specialists:

• Power generation and electrical distribution: prime and standby generation, load management, protection and fault-finding.
• Pumping and water systems: pump selection and duty, reticulation, filtration and drainage.
• Refrigeration and cold chain: refrigeration principles, cold room and transport performance, temperature control for food safety.
• Mechanical plant and fleet: diesel engines, hydraulics, transmissions and lifting equipment.
• Welding, fabrication and structural repair.
• Marine assets: the ability to lead a specialist marine team and acquire the domain quickly.

Systems and organisational skills

• ERP: ERPNext or a comparable ERP or CMMS — asset master data, work orders, requisitions, stock and maintenance history — configured around departmental practice.
• Projects: Planning and resourcing multi-stage work, delivering installations and upgrades to time and budget, and coordinating with Construction and external contractors.
• Measurement: Command of how availability, repair time, failure intervals and cost per asset are derived from primary data, and the discipline to report only figures that reconcile.
• Budgeting: lifecycle costing, depreciation and payback, with the ability to make a capital case in financial terms.

Personal competencies

• Perspective: Directs attention across the whole site to what carries the greatest consequence, and anticipates failure while managing daily demand.
• Leadership: Grants real authority to supervisors and builds capability within the team.
• Judgement: Decides on the available evidence and is clear about assumptions.
• Communication: Carries credibility with directors and technicians alike.
• Integrity: Imposes structure and sustains it; reports accurately and owns departmental performance.
• Commitment: Willing to be based at a remote lakeside site and available to the operation.

Benefit

• Visibility into the world’s fastest growing aquaculture company.
• Ideal for a candidate looking to dive into a mission-oriented Organization.
• The team is committed to the candidate’s success and will provide coaching, mentorship, and unique exposure to people and experiences that come from the most successful leaders in the entrepreneurial community and the social sector.

• Determine asset criticality and set the maintenance approach accordingly, balancing scheduled, condition-based and corrective work.
• Develop the department from reactive repair into a planned maintenance operation, evidenced in performance data.
• Analyse recurring and high-consequence failures to root cause and implement lasting corrections.
• Set reliability targets by asset class and track performance against them.
• Maintain a rolling preventive maintenance programme across all trades, driven by running hours and scheduled around peak production.
• Operate a single work-order system from request to close-out, so all work is recorded, prioritised, assigned and visible.
• Batch work by area, trade and shutdown window so each visit and each outage delivers maximum useful work.
• Reserve capacity for breakdown response while keeping the planned programme on schedule.
• Participate actively with ERP personnel to build and maintain a complete asset register in ERPNext, each asset uniquely identified with its cost, history and downtime recorded against it.
• Weigh continued repair against replacement on cumulative cost, remaining life, downtime consequence, parts availability and residual value.
• Work with Finance on depreciation, book value and disposal so the asset ledger reflects the condition of the fleet.
• Identify assets nearing end of economic life in time for planned capital replacement, and prepare hire-versus-purchase analysis
• Own and control the maintenance budget across labour, spares, consumables, contractors and capital, and report variance with explanation.
• Manage total cost of ownership, accounting for the production cost of downtime alongside direct repair cost.
• Assess best-value-for-money form Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) items on quality, price, lead time, warranty and support.
• Set spares and critical-stock policy against lead times and criticality, and determine the balance between in-house and contracted work.
• Establish a clear departmental structure in which every member of staff reports to a named supervisor and every trade has an accountable lead.
• Delegate defined authority covering work approval, release of equipment to service and expenditure within set limits.
• Maintain clear communication with production and support functions, including notice of planned shutdowns, reliable recovery estimates and defined escalation thresholds.
• Assign ownership of every asset, closure of every work order and conclusion of every incident investigation.
• Formalise resources shared with Construction in writing, covering direction of work, funding and accountability.
• Assess capability against requirement, recruit and train to close gaps, build cover across trades and conduct performance reviews.
• Establish and equip trade workshops, control tools and protective equipment, and organise stores so stock is traceable and charged to the correct work order.
• Own safety within maintenance operations, including permit-to-work, isolation and lock-out discipline, and verification of competence before assigning hazardous work.
• Maintain statutory inspection and certification for lifting equipment, pressure systems and regulated plant, and meet Kenyan regulatory and environmental requirements.
• Report monthly on availability, unplanned downtime, schedule completion, repair time, time between failures and cost, using measured data.
• Represent maintenance in operations forums, advise management on emerging risk and the cost of deferral, and contribute engineering input to capital projects.

• Power generation and electrical distribution: prime and standby generation, load management, protection and fault-finding.
• Pumping and water systems: pump selection and duty, reticulation, filtration and drainage.
• Refrigeration and cold chain: refrigeration principles, cold room and transport performance, temperature control for food safety.
• Mechanical plant and fleet: diesel engines, hydraulics, transmissions and lifting equipment.
• Welding, fabrication and structural repair.
• Marine assets: the ability to lead a specialist marine team and acquire the domain quickly.
• ERP: ERPNext or a comparable ERP or CMMS — asset master data, work orders, requisitions, stock and maintenance history — configured around departmental practice.
• Projects: Planning and resourcing multi-stage work, delivering installations and upgrades to time and budget, and coordinating with Construction and external contractors.
• Measurement: Command of how availability, repair time, failure intervals and cost per asset are derived from primary data, and the discipline to report only figures that reconcile.
• Budgeting: lifecycle costing, depreciation and payback, with the ability to make a capital case in financial terms.

• A degree (or equivalent) in engineering from a recognised university and recognised by Kenyan certifications and mandatory regulations.
• Registration with the Engineers Board of Kenya as a Professional Engineer, or as a Graduate Engineer working towards it.
• Maintenance or reliability certification (CMRP, RCM, TPM); project management certification; a recognised safety qualification; a master’s degree in engineering, engineering management.