About the role
Food for Education (F4E) feeds over 600,000 children across Kenya every school day, and we're scaling to one million meals a day. That growth only happens because people show up in the field every day with ownership. As an Area Operations Officer, you are the operational backbone of 4 production sites (kitchens) in your area. Each site comprises 2-4 Kitchen Officers (cooks). You're not a supervisor passing down instructions, you're the person who makes sure every kitchen under your watch runs safely, efficiently, and to standard. You know your sites better than anyone: their performance, their challenges, their opportunities. You bring solutions, not just reports.
This is a field-based role. You'll visit 1-2 sites each day - you're on the ground, in the kitchens, with the teams.
Your Mandate
Site Operations & Standards
Conduct structured audits of your sites, ensuring compliance with F4E's SOPs, food safety policies, and operational standards.
Train kitchen staff on SOPs and communicate policy updates — you're the bridge between the service centre and the sites.
Ensure every site has what it needs to operate: stock, PPE, equipment, and supplies are
Validate stock takes twice a month at every site you oversee.
Financial Oversight
Own your understanding of cost-per-meal (CPM) variance across all your sites. You are the person who knows why costs moved, and you surface both concerns and opportunities to your manager.
Support billing processes in partnership with your Regional Coordinator and the finance team.
Drive timely procurement: 90% of orders submitted on time, every cycle.
Data, Reporting & Analysis
Track, synthesize, and report on performance trends at the school and kitchen level
Respond to data requests from the service centre with accuracy and speed.
Own yield variance analysis — understand the drivers, flag anomalies, and recommend corrective action.
Capacity & Growth
Understand your site's capacity: you know when sites are over- or under-utilized and proactively bring that intelligence to your manager.
Stakeholder Management
Build and maintain relationships with other field teams and school leadership in your area. This includes occasional check-ins with the schools you serve to learn about how you and your team can improve the experience.
Coordinate and host site visits for F4E staff and donors.
Facility Maintenance
Own 100% reporting and escalation of facility maintenance issues; nothing is left unreported, nothing is someone else's problem.
Who You Are
You have experience in operations, field management, or program delivery, ideally in food systems, health, or a service organization.
You're comfortable spending your days in the field. You don't manage from a desk.
You're analytically strong. You can read data, spot a trend, and explain the 'so what' clearly.
You hold yourself and others to high standards. You don't wait to be asked to escalate a problem.
You build genuine relationships with community stakeholders, local officials, and school leaders.
You communicate clearly, upward and downward, and you know the difference between information and insight.
Core Competencies:
Technical:
Program Implementation
Data Literacy & Reporting
Budgeting & Financial Management
Quality Assurance
Logistics & Field Coordination
Stakeholder & Community Engagement
Risk Assessment & Management
Digital tools & data collection
Capacity building & training
Project/activity management
Soft Skills & Behavioral:
Communication
Problem Solving & Adaptability
Independence & Proactivity
Attention to Detail
Partnership Coordination
Planning & Coordination
Compliance & Ethics
Ownership & Accountability