Rwanda Head of Commercial

Job Title: Rwanda Head of Commercial 

Department: Commercial

Reporting Line: Country Director, Rwanda

Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Job Grade: 18 

About ENGIE Energy Access 

ENGIE Energy Access is one of the leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) and mini-grids solutions provider in Africa, with a mission to deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable energy solutions and life-changing services with exceptional customer experience. The company is a result of the integration of Fenix International, ENGIE Mobisol and ENGIE PowerCorner; and develops innovative, off-grid solar solutions for homes, public services and businesses, enabling customers and distribution partners access to clean, affordable energy. The PAYGo solar home systems are financed through affordable installments from $0.19 per day and the mini-grids foster economic development by enabling electrical productive use and triggering business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities. With over 1,700 employees, operations in 9 countries across Africa (Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), over 1.5 million customers and more than 8 million lives impacted so far, ENGIE Energy Access aims to remain the leading clean energy company, serving millions of customers across Africa by 2025.  

www.engie-energyaccess.com 

Job Purpose/Mission  

The Head of Commercial will support ENGIE Energy Access (EEA) mission to deliver affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy solutions and life changing services with exceptional customer experience by creating, leading and executing against our Commercial strategy in Rwanda. 

The role is responsible for driving growth & quality customers in Rwanda over the next few years and will also be responsible for the sales, repayment, product portfolio, and marketing functions for the Rwandan market.

This exciting position has many important responsibilities, including driving year over year sales growth, achieving revenue and profitability targets, improving the quality of our portfolio and leading our marketing efforts in Rwanda. In addition to acquiring new customers, the Head of Commercial will create and execute the upgrade sales strategy with the ultimate goal of building long-term, high value relationships with our customers.

The role reports to the Rwanda Country Director, and they will work closely with our central and local customer finance, product, operations, finance, technology and customer experience teams.  The Rwanda Head of Commercial will also share best practices with Commercial teams in other markets as we work to build a successful commercial strategy across Africa.

Responsibilities 

Commercial Strategy & Planning

• Maintain our position as market leader in Rwanda and grow the customer base from (78,000 + to over 126,000+)
• Develop annual Commercial strategy, goals and key performance indicators. You will work with the Commercial leadership team to ensure that all customer-facing teams understand how their goals, targets, and incentives align with the overall strategy.
• Collaborate with other departments such as Customer Finance, Customer Experience and Operations to design strategies and deliver results.
• Oversee the Commercial department’s financial performance at the highest level by providing support and strategic guidance to the finance team to properly budget, forecast, and review expenses and revenues. You will build and track to an annual budget.
• Own Rwanda’s product portfolio including acquisition products, upgrades, and digital financial products. You will work to improve customer lifetime value by driving upgrades sales and building long-term relationships with our customers. Realize >50% of customers upgrading.

Commercial Operations & Innovation

• Take overall responsibility for marketing, sales, customer repayment and customer experience in the field. Continuously iterate to improve on processes that maximize efficiency, compliance and customer engagement.
• Spend time at our touchpoints across the country to develop strong working relationships with our customer-facing teams and hear from our customers. Ensure team and customer feedback reaches leadership and the wider team.
• Build on already-strong data systems and develop a strong understanding of how to use this data to design, rigorously test and roll out needle-moving sales and repayment strategies.
• Update reports with insights and analysis on key performance indicators and progress towards targets. Exchange best-practices with other EEA markets.
• Ensure key team members are skilled in project management and execution to deliver results and projects set out in the Commercial vision and strategy.

At EEA, we have high expectations for our managers. Each manager plays a key role in creating an exceptional experience not only for our customers but for every person on our team. Our managers help EEA realize our ambitious goals while developing their own leadership skills and facilitating growth for their direct reports.  

We believe that great managers: 

• Deliver ambitious results: As a high-performing and accountable leader, you create an enabling environment for effective action and bold decision which contribute to successful delivery of results. 
• Act with integrity: As an ethical leader you are honest, respectful, objective, and transparent. You create and build upon a foundation of trust and openness. 
• Inspire and mentor the team: As an inspirational leader you walk the talk. You empower and coach your team with trust and humility. 
• Are accessible: as an accessible leader, you develop and maintain deep connections with stakeholders through approachability and active listening. 
• Ensure diversity and inclusion: as an inclusive leader, you ensure diversity and foster a sense of belonging. 

Knowledge and skills  

  Experience: 

• At least 5-8 years' experience in sales, customer finance, marketing or other relevant functions.
• 3-5+ years proven experience leading large teams and/or business functions; ideally in sales, customer finance (portfolio management), and marketing, though other functions are also possible.
• 5+ years of B2C & B2B commercial experience in Africa, mass market and/or last mile commercial or customer service experience desired.
• Demonstrated passion for our mission, values and customers.
• Team Management and Leadership experience. We are looking for someone who has led large, diverse teams with multiple layers of management. 
• Entrepreneurial experience and mindset; demonstrated entrepreneurial experience or intrapreneurial experience inside of a larger company.
• Project Management Experience: Exceptional project management abilities with the ability to delegate and mentor individuals to successfully run end-to-end projects. 
• Budgetary and Financial Experience: Will be responsible for developing and tracking annual budget. 
• Experience improving Systems and Process demonstrates clear history of identifying operational weaknesses and implementing systems and process improvements. 
• Strong track record of results. A strong, proven track record of achieving strong results and hitting ambitious targets in previous positions. 
• Data Driven with experience working with large/complex data sets. Experience working with large databases and building strong, operational data visualization systems is highly valued.
• Commitment to live and work with EEA in Rwanda for at least 2 years. 

Qualifications: 

• BA Degree required, MA degree a plus.

Language(s):  

• English 
• Kinyarwanda
• French is a plus.

 Technology: 

• Microsoft Office proficiency (word/excel/ppt/slides),
• Data systems: strong experience with Tableau/Power BI/data visualization software is a huge plus.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however due to the large volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.  

ENGIE is an equal opportunity employer, promoting diversity and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. All applications are screened based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without any regard to origin, age, name, sexual identity, orientation or preference, religion, marital status, health, disability, political opinions, union involvement or citizenship. Our differences are our strengths!