M-KOPA Solar Product Development Associate Job Vacancy in Nairobi Kenya March 2015
Vacancy: Product Development Associate
About M-KOPA Solar: M-KOPA Solar, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, is the global leader of “pay-as-you-go” energy for off-grid customers.
Since its commercial launch in October 2012, M-KOPA has connected more than 150,000 homes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to solar power, and is now adding over 500 new homes each day.
The success of M-KOPA (M= mobile, KOPA= to borrow) stems from making solar products affordable to low-income households on a pay-per-use installment plan.
Customers acquire solar systems for a small deposit and then purchase daily usage “credits” for US $0.45, or less than the price of traditional kerosene lighting. After one year of payments customers own their solar systems outright and can upgrade to more power.
All revenues are collected in real-time via mobile money systems (such as M-PESA in Kenya) and embedded GSM sensors in each solar system allow M-KOPA to monitor real time performance and regulate usage based upon payments.
This connected design means that M-KOPA is processing vast amounts of data (i.e. over 10,000 mobile payments per day) via the company’s proprietary cloud platform, M-KOPAnet.
As of January 2015 M-KOPA employs over 500 full time staff across East Africa and sells through a network of 1,000 direct sales agents. It has also commenced licensing its technology to partners in other markets.
M-KOPA has been recognised for its pioneering business mode and scale, notably winning the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize, being selected as the top New Energy Pioneer at the 2014 Bloomberg New Energy Finance awards and earning the 2013 FT/IFC Excellence in Sustainable Finance Award.
Role Profile: M-KOPA is seeking an experienced professional to join the M-KOPA product team and support the management of the the development of the company’s product (device) roadmap.
Position Title: Product Development Associate
Location: There is a strong preference that the person be based in M-KOPA’s Head Office in Nairobi, Kenya. The role may require international travel to partner facilities in China, Hong Kong, the UK, and other M-KOPA markets.
Position Start: As soon as possible
Reporting to: Senior Product Development Manager
Overall Purpose: This Product Development Associate will be a part of the Product Development Team, which operates on a matrix basis with senior managers from engineering, technology, and production teams.
Key tasks will include:
- Supporting the delivery of all the products on the M-KOPA product roadmap
- Owning the delivery of discrete projects that support new product development including early stage research on accessories.
- Supporting the coordination of all of the work tasks being done by the various teams as they work on new product concepts, design and testing, taking products through the new product development cycle into mass production.
- Supporting the development of customer requirement design guidance on all products
- Ensuring good management of product details (specifications, drawings, data etc) through the design stages and hand over of this to Production team at mass production
Key Accountabilities
Incumbent Requirements
- Background in Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science and looking to transition into a management role
- 2-3 years experience managing and executing complex projects, ideally in multiple countries with exposure to multiple cultures
- Detail and process oriented while maintaining a vision of the big picture
- Strong communicator able to collaborate with teams across time zones and cultures
- Ability to get others to do things on time
Knowledge / Skills:
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Analytical and problem solving skills
- Decision making skills
- Effective verbal and listening communications skills
- Attention to detail and high level of accuracy
Remuneration: Competitive covering a monthly salary, performance bonus and medical benefits reflective of the candidate’s experience and skills.
How to Apply
To apply, send an updated detailed copy of your CV and a cover letter expressing why you feel you would be an excellent candidate for the role to careers@m-kopa.com with the subject EV-PDA-315
Please Note: Due to the large number of applications received by us, we regret that you will not be contacted unless you are short listed for the post and invited for an interview. Therefore, if you have not heard from
M-KOPA within 4 weeks of the date of the deadline your application, you should assume that you have not been successful on this occasion.
This measure has been taken in the interests of efficiency and cost effectiveness and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.