The Ugandan Jobline

Job Title:   Commercial Strategy Manager   

Organisation: UpEnergy

Duty Station:  Kampala, Uganda

About US:

UpEnergy is at a time of exciting growth, and rapidly expanding into new geographies and new product categories. As part of this growth, we are looking to build and execute commercial best practice across all our markets ranging from the much developed markets to our very nascent markets.

Job Summary:  In this context, UpEnergy is seeking an experienced and passionate individual to support country commercial teams to first identify best practices, and work closely with them to execute tactics and build capacity that is tailor made across our different product lines. The role will be responsible for designing and implementing strategic commercial projects across UpEnergy, as well as supporting UpEnergy markets with annual sales plan support, developing growth strategies and developing tactical sales turnarounds,

This role requires a keen ability to work cross-functionally with country teams and key central functions including Customer Experience, Carbon Operations, Business Development, Finance and others. The right candidate will be able to develop robust and actionable strategies, possess strong critical thinking and analytical skills, strong commercial capability, and a willingness to “get their hands dirty” to take charge and make results happen.

The UpEnergy Commercial Strategy Manager is an exciting position that will provide the opportunity to work across multiple UpEnergy markets. If you are eager to gain incredibly rich, hands-on 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;

• Design and implementation of strategic sales and commercial projects across
• Hands-on sales support for countries, particularly with undertaking performance improvement strategies for countries
• General advisory and strategic support for countries with developing overarching sales strategies / supporting individual sales projects, particularly for new market launches and scale
• Training & capacity development for country sales teams

Main Activities

Strategic UpEnergy Commercial Projects (approx 40%)

• Design, scope out, implement and monitor strategic projects to improve the effectiveness and/or efficiency of our sales strategy, operation and execution capability across UpEnergy markets
• Some of these projects may include, but are not limited to:
• Developing our optimal last-mile strategy across markets
• Exploring alternative distribution channels to attract new customer segments and reach further into the last-mile
• Optimising our end-to-end sales team performance management approach, including sales target setting and forecasting, commissions and incentives, tools, reporting, governance and accountability
• Working cross-functionally with Product and CX to support our product growth strategy further meet the needs of our existing and new customers
• Designing strategies to mitigate key strategic commercial risks, e.g. market saturation, competitive landscape shifts and market entry
• These projects will require working end-to-end across the entire strategic process – from developing framing questions, to developing an approach and project plan, conducting research (including quantitative analysis, field work, secondary research), designing solutions and recommendations and then working cross-functionally across the Global UpEnergy team and / or UpEnergy country teams to implement solutions to deliver meaningful results.

Country support: Tactical commercial turnarounds (approx 30%)

• Work closely with the Commercial Director and Country Directors to monitor sales performance at the portfolio level and of individual countries
• Where there are key challenges and areas of underperformance at the country level, provide “hands-on” tactical support for countries to undertake sales turnaround strategies to deliver results
• Where required, support the country to undertake analysis and identify key issues impacting performance, as well as the key levers at their disposal to achieve results
• Coordinate with Commercial Leads, Country Directors and Global UpEnergy leadership to advocate for and align the organisation around the most important factors in the turnaround and what’s required for success
• Support the development of tactical turnaround strategies, review their robustness and provide hands-on support throughout their implementation, as required

Country support: General advisory and growth strategy (approx 20%)

• Serve as a strategic thought partner to Country Directors and Head of Sales on key areas of sales strategy, guide strategic thinking, build structure around key decision-making and sharing best practices on sales strategies
• Provide “hands-on” support for new markets with launches and scale, particularly with their go-to-market strategies
• Provide general advisory and strategic support for countries developing overarching sales growth strategies, especially in key areas such as customer segmentation, unit economics and pricing, sales forecasting and key technology enablers
• Support country teams to articulate, submit and gain approval for important decisions that require support of senior management at the global level

Training & capacity development (approx 10%)

• Coach sales team members in each market to develop their commercial strategy skills and build robust and localised sales strategies

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Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• At least 4-6 years in business / commercial strategy, management consulting or transformation / project management roles (or similar)
• Experience in sales and marketing (ideally B2C), particularly in sectors like FMCG, microfinance or telecommunications
• Experience living and working in Africa (ideally 1-2 years minimum)
• General strategic, analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to breakdown a problem, conduct research and analysis, develop an evidenced-based strategic response, then communicate and align stakeholders around the direction
• Decent analytical skills and ability to synthesize and interpret qualitative and quantitative data into practical strategy recommendations.
• Critical thinking and analytical skills, with the ability to work with large amounts of data (including Excel modelling) to develop strategies and make rigorous decision.
• Project leadership, with the ability to lead high-impact cross-functional strategic commercial projects end to end (including planning, analysis, conclusions and implementation) to achieve result
• Commercial capability across sales and marketing (particularly in B2C), with a demonstrated history of delivering strong commercial results
• Stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to develop relationships with key country Commercial leads and Managing Directors and global functional teams
• Exceptional judgement, problem-solving skills, and ability to “Think Big & Make it Happen” both independently and collaboratively
• Excited to be part of UpEnergy’s growth story
• Open to significant travel to UpEnergy’s markets in sub-Saharan Africa
• Language: French/Portuguese is a big plus

Why Join Us?

• Not your average 9-5: UpEnergy encourages teamwork, creativity, and we’re not afraid to get our hands dirty. We stay close to our market, understand our customers, and have a lot of fun while doing our work! If you’re looking for a conventional 9-to-5, you’d be missing out on our adventures!
• Personal and Career Growth: Wouldn’t it be a pity to spend so much time working but not growing and learning? At UpEnergy we value both personal and professional growth, and we want to grow as a team. From classroom training to coffee chats to performance review, we want to support every team member to grow into the best version they can.
• Opportunity to do things in a new way: As one of the largest compliance credit issuers in Africa, we need to be constantly improving and rethinking our way of work. This means endless opportunities for a self-starter to initiate new ways of doing things or experimenting ways to help us improve.
• Create Lasting Impact: Our clean energy products bring positive impact to both our planet earth and for the low-income communities we work in. We don’t just focus on sales – we follow up and truly understand our customers to make sure that they continue to benefit from our products. Your work will create much longer-lasting impact than what you can see!

How to Apply:

All suitably qualified and interested candidates should send their CVs and applications online via Email to: jobs@upenergygroup.com

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