Your Role

As a Business Solutions Associate, you will be responsible for preparing KOKO Networks for an exciting period of growth and scale by defining best practices, codifying, and implementing them in conjunction with the Product Department and Operations Department. This role is highly cross-functional and will be a critical enabler for KOKO Networks to meet its ambitious goals in the short, medium and long term

What You Will Do

• Work closely as a key partner to both the Operating Business and the Technology Business, running projects with a specialized team
• Develop Business Playbooks (SOPs) for all our key organizational processes to allow KOKO Networks to scale in existing areas and expand into new operating locations
• Identify inefficiencies and problem areas in business processes, then work with a cross-functional team to improve the process (Solutions Design)
• Implement improvements in tandem with Business Process Owners (Implementation)
• Become a process expert, able to translate complex ideas between various stakeholders and serving as a mediary between them
• Establish the Business Solutions function as an essential service provider across KOKO, increasing collaboration and communication between relevant teams and functions
• Jump in to processes- be just as comfortable drawing insights from a spreadsheet as you are riding around with our fuel tankers observing processes up close
• Take on ad hoc projects and request/requirement of business needs

What You Will Bring to KOKO

• 6+ years of work experience, with tenure managing or leading a team and/or project deliverables
• Education: requirement of a Bachelor’s degree with preference for Post-Graduate or Master’s
• One of Two background types preferred:
• Generalist: Experience in a fast-paced business/working environment such as management consulting or a high-growth StartUp/ScaleUp company
• Technical: STEM, Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Design, Product/Project Management, Analytics, Statistics or related field/experience
• Specialization or experience in a key business vertical highly favorable, for example:
• Operations [Warehousing, Logistics, Quality Management, etc]
• Commercial [Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, etc]
• Technology [Product Management, UX Design, etc]
• Detail Oriented approach is essential
• Experience working as a stakeholder while still being accountable for end deliverables; executing with a team who you may not have a reporting line to
• Personal qualities: Self-Motivated, Strong Leadership/Interpersonal Skills, Team-Oriented, Goal-Oriented, Strong Attention to Detail; familiar with and comfortable in a global work environment
• Technical competencies: Understanding of technology and systems at a high level to translate complex or specialized ideas between an expert and a non-expert (ie- Product team to Operations team; Operations team to Product team); comfortable working through ambiguity 

Your Role

As a Principal Product Manager you will lead our product efforts in one business area and play a key role in enabling KOKO’s long term success, including our expansion across and beyond Kenya. This is a very visible leadership position and has the potential to help increase revenue, make complex logistics and operations more efficient, and delight our colleagues, customers, and partners.

You will be a member of the Product leadership team and work directly with executive team members on key company priorities and with other leaders across Engineering, Operations, Marketing & Sales, and Manufacturing. 

This is both a creative and analytical role - building on insights gained from data, refining product strategies, and building solutions to better acquire and retain customers, support our employees, and broaden our product offering.

This role requires significant time in the local market and close to our operations in Nairobi. We will consider candidates based there, willing to relocate there, or able to travel there for ~30% of their time.

What You Will Do

• You will be a senior leader in the organisation, defining the KOKO product roadmap and vision, identifying opportunities to innovate and drive value for our customers and colleagues
• You will lead across the entire product lifecycle, from research and requirements to working with designers and engineers, to user testing, to measuring impact and optimising
• You will think about the end-to-end customer and user journeys, across functional and solution boundaries to ensure their experience is compelling, coherent, and consistent
• You will help us build, lead, and mentor a world class team of product managers
• You will develop strong partnerships with KOKO business teams and partners and empathy for our customers, creating continuous feedback loops that allow us to better understand their pain points
• You will ensure we are solving the right problems by sourcing input from multiple channels and prioritising effectively to drive maximum impact
• You’ll create an environment that fosters high quality, metrics-driven experimentation and set high standards for how we measure product success
• You will bring and build deep domain knowledge and experience; people across the company will look to you as an expert; and you leverage it through teaching, guiding and coaching others

What You Will Bring to KOKO

• We are looking for a hands-on leader with a strong blend of business and technical savvy as well as strategic thinking and tactical execution, who is passionate about shaping markets in Kenya and beyond
• 8+ years experience in product management with a strong track record of shipping high quality products
• Proven ability to deliver business results by developing, prioritising and delivering on a roadmap that addresses customer needs and pain points via innovative products
• You may have managed PM teams but would prefer to get back closer to the product work itself
• We strongly prefer if you have had experience working in combined software and hardware businesses (with manufacturing and logistics)
• You are a strong leader, very confident and competent at leading individuals and teams.
• You have excellent communication skills in any medium
• You have a growth mindset; a willingness to own problems
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, have a passion for building product, a desire to make things better, and a sense of optimism
• You’re able to easily switch between thinking creatively and analytically for best results