Tupande Biochar Compliance Specialist (Fixed-Term)

About One Acre Fund

Founded in 2006, One Acre Fund equips 5.5 million smallholder farmers to make their farms more productive. Across nine countries that together are home to two-thirds of Africa's farmers, we provide high-quality farm supplies, tree seedlings, accessible credit, modern agronomic training, and a wide range of other agricultural services. On average, this model enables any farmer to increase their income and assets on supported land by more than 35 percent, while permanently improving their resilience. This is all made possible by our team of 9,000+ full-time staff, drawn from diverse backgrounds and professions. To learn more, please see our Why Work Here blog post.

Our Kenya program, founded in 2006, operates under the local brand Tupande. Close to 500 staff in our Kakamega headquarters support 1,747 field staff and serve more than 1 million farmers. In Nairobi, around 50 staff support global functions like procurement, recruitment, government relations, and communications.

About the Role

Owns the facility's Compliance function, combining leadership of the Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) programme with responsibility for facility Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) programme design and oversight. Designs and runs the data system that captures feedstock, production, quality, and end-use data to the standard required by the external verifier. Owns HSE programme design, training, documentation, and audit readiness. Serves as the primary interface with external verifiers, auditors, and regulators (NEMA, DOSH, third-party carbon verifiers). Reports to the Biochar Lead.

Responsibilities

Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) Leadership

• Design and maintain the facility's HSE programme, including risk registers, emergency response plans, and safety-critical procedures

• Design and deliver HSE training for all facility staff, including inductions, toolbox talks, and emergency drills

• Ensure PPE distribution, safety signage, and site safety infrastructure are in place and maintained

• Support the Production Shift Supervisors, who carry shift-level safety accountability, with the programme, tools, and training they need to enforce safety on shift.

• Coordinate scheduled third-party HSE testing and audits (fire safety, emissions, occupational health)

Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Leadership

• Design, implement, and manage the facility's MRV system covering feedstock inputs, production outputs, quality measurements, and carbon removal calculations.

• Ensure data collection processes across all shifts are accurate, consistent, and traceable to the carbon standards the facility reports against

• Oversee and support the Lab and Quality Technicians in their data recording responsibilities to ensure the standard required for verification

• Develop and maintain data management systems, dashboards, and reporting templates for MRV purposes

• Stay current on evolving carbon standards, methodology requirements, and MRV best practices in the biochar sector

Audit Readiness

• Serve as the primary point of contact with external verifiers, auditors, and certification bodies during verification and audit cycles (carbon, HSE, environmental)

• Prepare and submit monthly and quarterly reports required for carbon credit verification

• Prepare the facility for audits, including documents, site walkthroughs, and evidence for the verifier

• When auditors flag issues, own the corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) through to closure

• Maintain audit-ready documentation across MRV, HSE, and environmental compliance streams at all times

Staff Training

• Train all relevant staff at the facility on MRV data recording requirements, HSE procedures, and the importance of data and safety discipline

• Coordinate cross-functionally with Production, Quality, and Administration on the completeness and accuracy of the data they record for MRV and safety reporting

Farmer Engagement