Summary
Date Posted: Wednesday, March 29 2023, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:

About Us:
UpEnergy (www.upenergygroup.com) brings aspirational products that save energy and improve health within reach of low-income customers. We develop distribution channels that distribute efficient and clean energy and safe water technologies. We finance our product subsidies and our growth via bespoke projects that generate carbon emissions reductions that we produce for global partners seeking emissions reductions and social impact co-benefits.
We operate regional distribution hubs and build relationships directly with customers through various channels. We’ve seen 100%+ year on year growth for years and have reached over 1 million African households with products that deliver health and income benefits. A typical UpEnergy stove saves each family we reach about 9% of their annual income while reducing air pollution.
UpEnergy has a 10-year track record of building projects that overperform expectations in the generation of emissions reductions, and that deliver on our performance promises to our customers. We are one of the largest developers by volume of projects focused on poverty alleviation through energy savings and fuel switching. Our team has a collective 50 years of climate finance experience and is at the forefront of Paris-era project finance.

About the role:
UpEnergy is at a time of exciting growth, rapidly expanding into new geographies and new product categories. The Uganda market is the oldest and largest one among UpEnergy’s operating markets. It also serves as a central hub for a lot of new ideas and pilots to be tested and reinforced, before they are introduced to newer markets. Having been in operations for over 10 years in an international organization that has only been recently expanded, the Uganda team faces some unique operational and cultural challenges.

In light of this dynamic challenge, we seek an Associate Business Operations Director who is experienced and passionate about growing our team and business via solid strategizing and excellent implementation. This senior member of the team will report to the Country Director and will manage 2-3 functions/ departments.

This is a unique role in the context of UpEnergy where ‘operations’ encompass the function of distribution, marketing, and potentially telesales/ call center operations. We seek a driven and passionate individual who has solid management experience and is able to see the big picture and align the departments’ development with organizational goals. The successful candidate will at the same time have the humility, willingness, and detail-mindedness necessary to ensure excellent implementation and day-to-day operations. If you are eager to gain incredibly rich and dynamic experience while being part of one of the fastest growing social enterprises in Africa, and believe you’re up for the challenge (as well as a lot of fun!), we’d love to hear from you!



Key Responsibilities
Distribution & Operational Strategy
1. Analyse market trends and current strategies, and recommend improvements and solutions
2. Support the Country Director in developing and implementing strategies for the functions of distribution, marketing, and to set up a potential telesales / call center / customer experience function if applicable in the near future
3. Evaluate distribution and marketing channel strategy, for example, but not limited to, whether / how to grow the saving groups channel, to gear the distribution team towards a ‘community officer’ model as opposed to a traditional ‘sales’ mindset, and to develop appropriate above-the-line (ALT) marketing activities etc.

Operations management and execution
1. Oversees the day-to-day operations of the aforementioned departments
2. Work closely with other departments such as supply chain, customer service, data & carbon team, HR, and other global functions
3. Work closely with the global product/ pilot team during both the pilot phase and the transition of product to the core country portfolio
4. Evaluate the needs of a telesales/ call center function, and build the appropriate structure either from scratch or in collaboration with existing teams to arrive at a hybrid solution
5. Improve distribution team knowledge and customer-facing communications regarding product assembly, usage, and maintenance
6. Develop thorough understanding of the carbon finance market and its operations, and align our in-country operations with strategic carbon finance goals
7. Compiling and presenting reports on distribution, marketing campaigns, pilot projects etc.
8. Implementation, monitoring of progress, following up, and making a final recommendation for future projects

Team Management, Culture, and others
1. Act as a positive supporter of the culture that UpEnergy wants to build. An exemplary model for other members of staff in navigating the changes and ever-evolving team dynamic
2. Work closely with the Country Director and other senior members of the team to achieve operational excellence and foster a dynamic, collaborative, and fun culture
3. Coach people, work with the team & Talent department to ensure healthy growth of team skills
4. Accountable for distribution targets, data quality targets, credit collection targets, & other department goals
5. Develop budgets, monitor expenditures, and request for additional resources when necessary to achieve desired results or adjusted targets, at the same time improving operational efficiencies
6. Act as the team’s face in maintaining external relationships, particularly with governmental/ ministry engagement.

Does this sound like you?
1. Minimum 7-10 years of solid team management experience
2. Bachelor or Master degree in business administration, management, sales & marketing, public relations, organizational behaviour, or related field
3. Possess a strong business and commercial acumen
4. Feels confident and comfortable with uncertainty. We’re looking for someone with the proactiveness in identifying problems and looking for solutions. Ask for forgiveness rather than permission in moving fast towards problem-solving
5. Demeanour to be able to speak to a wide range of audiences - from motivating field agents to articulating the complexity of carbon finance market to middle managers in the office, to presenting detailed analytics report and recommendations to senior leadership/ C-suite executives
6. A unique blend of experience in commercialisation, marketing, and general operations
7. A strong people person who are comfortable with managing an ever-changing team, and a collaborative team player who can work seamlessly with a variety of departments
8. Be part of the solution; happy to lead the process of finding out what the problems really are. We’re in a fast growth stage in which we cannot assume the answer lies somewhere just to be found. We need a team member with entrepreneurial spirit, and someone who is comfortable with enjoying the exploration phase as much as the harvesting-result phase
9. Self-driven and ambitious, ability to see the big picture while maintaining solid on-the-ground execution and humility to get their hands dirty
10. An eye for detail and the ability to manage multiple functions and projects simultaneously
11. Proficient in Google suite and Microsoft Office
12. Basic experience with a call center or telesales/ telemarketing team management
13. Communications skill, including excellent listening skill
14. Basic understanding of the carbon finance industry and/or willingness and ability to quickly learn about the carbon market


Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 84

Level of Education: Associate Degree

Job application procedure


Interested and Qualified, Click here to Apply


All Jobs

QUICK ALERT SUBSCRIPTION