Poultry Hatchery Manager

Agrited

Farming & Agriculture

Responsibilities:

• Oversee all hatchery operations, including egg setting, incubation, hatching, and chick handling.
• Monitor and maintain optimal conditions (temperature, humidity, ventilation) in incubators and hatchers.
• Manage and train hatchery staff to ensure high performance, safety, and compliance with SOPs.
• Implement and enforce strict biosecurity and hygiene protocols to prevent disease outbreaks.
• Monitor hatchability, chick quality, and mortality rates; identify areas for improvement.
• Maintain detailed records of hatchery performance, egg sources, and production data.
• Coordinate with breeder farms, logistics teams, and sales to ensure smooth supply chain operations.
• Maintain inventory and order supplies such as vaccines, disinfectants, and hatchery equipment.
• Ensure compliance with animal welfare, food safety, and environmental regulations.
Analyse performance metrics and generate regular reports for senior management.

Requirements:

• Experience as Hatchery Manager – 5 years
• Experience of more than 8 years of work in a Hatchery environment
• Familiar with sophisticated digital hatchery Equipment /machines (Pas Reform / Emka / HatchTech machines); also with Data Logging tools
• Knowledge about statistics and Excel forms.
• Experience and ability to manage employees and coordinate their functions, guidance to work in Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and safety practices
• Ability to train staff on basic issues of Animal welfare, safety protocols, and technical procedures
• Ability to coordinate workers on all aspects of hatchery functions: Hatchery technical, Cold room function, Egg Setting, Incubation, temperature monitoring, humidity, turning cycles, Hatching, hatch window, Quality control, Hatch results analysis, Chick yield, Chick handling, Vaccination of chicks, and Biosecurity, sanitation, hygiene protocols
• Maintaining accurate records with checking mechanisms for egg inputs, hatch outputs, mortality, and vaccination schedules
• Inspect equipment regularly and plan maintenance cycles to be in sync with hatching cycles
• Ability to plan and order inventory (packaging, vaccines, equipment spares)
• Willingness to work hard.
• Good skills in the English language - reading, writing & speaking
• Computer – very good knowledge of Excel, MS Office & e-mail
• Ability to approach problems with calm, methodical solution proposals and escalate where required
• Must be a team player within the Hatchery team as well as other departments, eg Farms delivering eggs for hatching; Sales department responsible for sales of chicks; Human Resources for staff management; Finance dept for inventory control and financial matters; Logistics; maintenance dept
• Agric background is an advantage
• Technical background/experience is an advantage