Zambia Sugar Plc. is a subsidiary of Illovo Sugar Africa (Pty) Ltd Group and is the leading sugar producer in Zambia.  Its main activities are the growing of sugar cane, the production and marketing of sugar and other sugar downstream products.  The Company invites applications from suitably qualified and experienced persons to fill the position of Refinery Manager in the Manufacturing Department, on Permanent basis.

The position reports to the Production Manager. The successful candidate will be responsible for Providing direction, technical guidance, and leadership in refined Sugar operations to ensure the production of highest quality products are produced as per agreed plan and targets. Please see below specific areas of focus:

KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS

• Together with the team, drive the planning of shift, daily, weekly, monthly Refinery performance targets against business/operational goals
• Lead sucrose recovery agenda, with support and input from Raw Sugar Production, Maintenance, and the Factory Manager
• Identify loss/waste/barriers to flow areas and prioritize weekly activities to address these, to ensure that improvements are made
• Ensure compliance with group minimum operating standards and processes for Refining, ensuring products are within in-specification
• Drive compliance with Group production and laboratory audit minimum requirements to ensure optimal performance for the factory
• Provide Production Foremen with refining guidance and support, including conducting RCAs, making operational trade-off decisions, preempting production problems
• Identify production knowledge and skill gaps and coach and mentor to improve individual and shift capability
•  Drive operational excellence in Refinery production by making informed tradeoffs and driving initiatives, including capital improvements, that will deliver products at cost and quality levels that optimize profitability
• Together with Maintenance Engineers, agree the daily work and performance of the operational maintenance team, assigning work activity to achieve team and company objectives safely
• Drive synergies with the group, effectively partnering with group counterparts to identify, share and embed opportunities for optimisation
• Ensure alignment with commercial requirements and drive effective supply side planning processes
• Interface with customers for product audits, investigations, and other quality related issues
• Report on performance and key adverse or positive developments to Production Lead including the review and assessment of production results and production forecasts.
• Set direction, implement, and monitor continuous improvement by driving work practices, and ensuring that tools and techniques are being applied
• Plan, structure and lead the execution of improvement events/projects in Refining using appropriate processes and tools
• Manage and coordinate sharing of identified best practices, frameworks, and minimum standards within Refining through Head Office platform, and provide additional opportunities for problem identification and knowledge sharing
• Drive rigorous performance management, biased towards rewarding strong performance and compliance with critical behaviours, and including managing consequences where required
• Ensure enablers are in place to promote success (e.g.,systems and processes)
• Identify and monitor KPIs to track performance and flag any issues
• Promote and adhere to Illovo’s procedures, policies, and guidelines, including, without limitation, those relating to SHERQ, Competition Law and Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC). This includes loss of Refining production (LOP) reporting for the production team

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Degree in Chemical Engineering
• 5-7 years of working experience in the Sugar Factory, with a successful track record in handling issues related to sugar production, associated process controls, refinery operations and laboratory analyses associated with the processes.
• Good business acumen, with ability to anticipate, interpret and respond to changes impacting on production
• Strong track record in operations management and in building and leading teams