Sector Lead Natural Ingredients, Processed Food, Fish & Seafood (100%)

Swisscontact is an independent non-profit development organisation established in 1959 by representatives of the Swiss private sector and civil society. Our development work focuses on private sector-led, sustainable economic development with improved quality of life for all in developing and emerging countries. A key focus is to strengthen the skills of individuals and foster the competitiveness of businesses.

The organisation is currently active in over 130 projects in 41 countries with around 1100 employees. It is headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland.

The Swiss Import Promotion Programme SIPPO is a trade promotion programme of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, implemented by Swisscontact. SIPPO is active in 12 partner countries and in six economic sectors. We develop capacities of local business support organisations (BSO) to improve their export promotion services to their affiliated export-oriented companies, helping them gaining access to new markets in Switzerland and the EU. This leads to stronger local export promotion systems and to better integration of SIPPO partner countries into world trade. SIPPO thus contributes to sustainable, inclusive economic growth through export (further information at www.sippo.ch). The programme is currently in its second programme phase (01.07.2021 - 31.12.2025).

For our SIPPO team in Switzerland, we are looking to recruit a dedicated member of staff with effect from October 1st or by agreement as a

Sector Lead Natural Ingredients, Processed Food, Fish & Seafood (100%)

Place of work: Bern, Zurich and Home office
Contract duration: 31.12.2025 (with option of extension for Phase 3 (01.01.2026 – 31.12.2029))

Accountabilities

• Provide strategic guidance to SIPPO Country Teams on trends, innovations, market mechanisms and requirements in EU / CH for the three food sectors
• Support Country teams in the design of their inverventions in the Food Sectors
• Collaborate and coordinate with Sector Leads Value-added Textil & Technical Wood and Sustainable Tourism
• Provide sector specific expertise to thematic Leads Sustainability & Digitalisation, Monitoring & Resultsmeasurement (MRM) and Knowledge Management
• Build and manage relations to EU / CH importer networks from the Food Sector and bridge between these networks and the SIPPO Country Teams
• Create a global view on activities in the sector across the 12 SIPPO Countries and identify synergies
• Manage and develop the SIPPO international consultant pool for the Food Sectors
• Support SIPPO Country Teams in identifying and securing consultant capacities required for programme implementation in the SIPPO Countries
• Responsible for global annual plans and global progress reports on Food Sector level
• Coordinate and align with Swisscontact peers

Requirements

• Higher education (University, University of Applied Sciences)
• Excellent English, written/spoken, is required, German is important and preferred (French and/or Spanish are a plus)
• Experience in development cooperation, trade promotion and international trade
• Experience in working in an international, intercultural environment
• Good communication skills
• Curious, thorough, determined, persistent
• Self-driven and collaborative
• Data-driven, tech-savy and willingness to learn to work with new technologies
• Knowledge of the EU / CH Food Sectors
• Network in the EU / CH Food Sector
• Industry experience in the Food Sectors (buyer, retail, production) is a plus
• Background in Sustainability and digitalization
• Familiar with Market Systems Development concepts

Swisscontact offers attractive working conditions in an international and intercultural context. We see our work as a joint effort in an agile organizational culture: mutual respect, trust and teamwork.

We look forward to receiving your online application with the following documents: letter of motivation, curriculum vitae, diplomas and references. Please apply exclusively via the online application portal. For further information please visit www.swisscontact.org.