Senior Manager - Agroforestry Operations

Farmers for Forests; Pune District; On-site; INR 480,000 - 720,000; Full time

Job summary

Farmers for Forests in India is seeking an experienced Project Manager to lead multi-donor agroforestry initiatives across several clusters, ensuring delivery on time, within budget, and to donor standards.

You will mentor field managers, coordinate with cross-functional teams, manage budgets, and monitor plantation outcomes with a target survival rate of over 90%, travel frequently to project sites.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Agriculture, Forestry, Rural Management, Environmental Science, or related field.
• 6–8 years of experience in large-scale project management and operations.
• Proven end-to-end on-ground project execution including planning, budgeting, and closure.
• Experience leading cross-functional and geographically dispersed field teams.
• Strong budgeting, financial planning, cost estimation, and expense monitoring skills.
• Fluency in English; Hindi is preferred, Marathi an added advantage.

Responsibilities

• Lead the planning, execution, monitoring, and closure of multi-donor agroforestry projects across 3–4 clusters.
• Develop annual, seasonal, monthly, and weekly implementation plans with budgets and targets.
• Mentor and monitor Field Managers and field teams to achieve 90% plantation survival.
• Recruit, onboard, train, motivate, and evaluate field teams and resolve bottlenecks.
• Drive farmer outreach, stakeholder engagement, and post-plantation maintenance activities.
• Prepare budgets, monitor expenditures, optimize costs, and ensure donor compliance.
• Oversee stock and procurement, including saplings, irrigation systems, and inputs.
• Ensure documentation via FieldHQ, Kobo, and other platforms with QA processes.

Skills

Budgeting

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

Project management

Excel/Google Sheets

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in relevant field

Tools

FieldHQ

Kobo

Google Sheets

Excel

Job description

About Us

F4F is a Hybrid Social Enterprise working to protect and increase India’s biodiverse forest cover in close collaboration with rural communities. Founded in December 2019, F4F is one of the few organizations in India working in the forestry sector and using a payment-for-ecosystem services model for its environmental protection and restoration activities.

F4F was incubated at Mulago, Fast Forward, NSRCEL-IIMB, The Nudge Institute and Shakti - The Empathy Project. Our work has been supported by several organizations including Accenture, ACT Grants, Opus Software Solutions, Rainmatter Foundation and Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.

We have also featured on DW TV and Scroll's Eco India series as well as DW Hindi. We have also been selected as one of India's top innovators working in the ecosystem restoration and conservation sector by the World Economic Forum.

Job Description

• Lead the planning, execution, monitoring, and closure of multi-donor agroforestry projects across 3–4 clusters, ensuring implementation is completed as per SOPs, within approved budgets, timelines, and quality standards.
• Develop annual, seasonal, monthly, and weekly implementation plans, monitor Plan vs. Actual progress and budgets, and ensure timely achievement of operational targets.
• Manage, mentor, and monitor Field Managers and field teams, ensuring adherence to implementation models, effective planning, timely execution, and a plantation survival rate of over 90%.
• Recruit, onboard, train, motivate, and evaluate field teams, conduct regular review meetings, resolve implementation bottlenecks, and manage employee lifecycle activities.
• Drive large-scale farmer outreach, mobilization, stakeholder engagement, and post-plantation maintenance activities, including monitoring at least 25% of current and previous years' plantation sites by self.
• Prepare cluster-wise and project budgets, monitor expenditures, optimize costs, and ensure compliance with organizational financial procedures, procurement SOPs, and donor requirements.
• Oversee stock supply unit operations, inventory management, procurement planning, vendor identification, and timely delivery of saplings, drip irrigation systems, compost, and other project inputs.
• Ensure timely and accurate completion of all operational documentation through FieldHQ, Kobo, and other designated platforms while enforcing data validation, quality assurance, and compliance with internal and donor audit requirements.
• Establish robust monitoring and reporting systems, prepare project reports, dashboards, and donor submissions, and use advanced Excel/Google Sheets for costing, tracking, and performance analysis.
• Coordinate effectively with cross-functional teams including Technology, Data, Finance, HR, Admin to ensure seamless project implementation.
• Drive operational excellence by strengthening processes across procurement, implementation, monitoring, documentation, and reporting, proactively resolving operational challenges and ensuring continuous process improvement.
• Ensure strict compliance with organizational SOPs, quality standards, statutory requirements, and project guidelines while performing any other responsibilities assigned by the management in support of organizational objectives.

Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Agriculture, Forestry, Rural Management, Environmental Science, Project Management, or a related field.
• Minimum 6–8 years of experience in large-scale project management, operations, or implementation, preferably in agroforestry, rural development, natural resource management, CSR or other field-based development projects.
• Demonstrated experience in end-to-end on-ground project execution, including planning, implementation, monitoring, budgeting, and project closure.
• Proven experience in leading and managing cross-functional and geographically dispersed field teams.
• Experience in stakeholder and client relationship management, including coordination with donors, government agencies, NGOs, FPOs, vendors, and community institutions.
• Strong budgeting, financial planning, cost estimation, and expense monitoring skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets and digital documentation and data collection platforms.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills with high attention to detail.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills with fluency in English; proficiency in Hindi is preferred, and Marathi will be an added advantage.
• Comfortable with frequent travel across multiple project locations and working in rural and remote areas.
• Self-driven, adaptable, and capable of working effectively in fast-paced, dynamic, and multicultural environments.
• Demonstrates high integrity, accountability, professionalism, and alignment with the mission and values of Farmers for Forests.

Benefits

Salary Range: INR 4.8 - 7.2 LPA