Lead, C&I Business at Husk Power Systems

Role Summary

Husk is seeking a C & I Business Lead to help expand its C & I business within Nigeria and across other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. We seek a business professional to take up the challenge of developing a wide range of functions and who will be committed to executing at a high level in a fast-paced environment.

The Lead, C & I Business is a leadership position responsible for organizing, motivating, and leading efforts to build the C&I business within the country and other sub-Saharan African countries. This role is ultimately responsible for the projects and operation, safety, quality, efficiency, and customer experience of solar and biomass installation projects for commercial and industrial clients. The Lead, C&I Business, is accountable for their area’s financial performance in partnership with the Country Director. Required to drive continuous improvement through operations in alignment with functional leadership. The candidate will have a track record of proven leadership abilities (communication, relationship building, training & and development, employee relations, performance management, etc.) as well as biomass/ solar industry knowledge. In continuing to guide various clients to the path of cleaner energy use, Husk Power is seeking to provide Solar Energy to large corporates, MNCs, and SMEs across Nigeria. This will be done through our unique Solar(hybrid) solutions being installed on multiple facilities and locations for such clients.

Key responsibilities:

General

• Play a key role as a member of the Management Team in crafting a robust C&I Business Strategy.
• Work closely with the Country Director and other members of the Nigerian Management Team to deliver on business objectives.
• Support the optimization of various Husk NG activities to ensure best practices are entrenched towards more efficient processes.
• Support in driving “Best Practices” across the business. Once a “Best Practice” has been identified, ensure that the practice is visible nationally and to another subsidiary.
• Support in negotiating solutions, resolving conflicts, and providing solutions in the best interest of Husk Power Systems, and our clients and employees across the potential mini-grid (and other) locations.
• Lead efforts in the training and mentoring of new employees for capacity-building.
• Understand the priorities of the country operations and support the Country Team when necessary.
• Provide requisite support and inputs on building and aligning various company processes and policies according to global best practices.
• Other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Business Development

• Market research across the C&I business, including but not limited to marketing, business development, review, and budgeting, across major cities in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa.
• Development of accurate segmentation and targeting of the market including identification of client and market opportunities, market entry strategy, and establishing a balance of long-term pipeline and short-term revenue.
• Create country market intelligence packs to inform price and place decisions. Establish scalable promotional tools and processes.
• Structure and industrialize the process around identifying and serving clients’ needs to match the company’s corporate strategy between teams.
• Lead efforts in sourcing potential leads for partnerships, joint ventures, and possible equity investment for C&I deployment.
• Design cooperation structures, define role-sharing, and assess the economics of these partnerships or joint ventures.
• Performance will be assessed by pipeline generation, projects closed, project profitability, revenue, customer relationship enhancement, brand influence, enhanced competitiveness, and team building.

Pipeline and Sales Management

• Formulating sales strategy and ensuring sales goals are achieved.                    
• Develop and implement robust sales management processes. Stringently monitor pipeline to ensure pipeline conversion.                                    
• Collaboration and convergence with the relevant internal teams to ensure successful implementation of business plans. 
• Forecasting and planning monthly, quarterly and yearly sales targets and executing them in a given time frame.

Business Growth and Support

• Ensure support for other Business Units to drive alignment with C&I-related activities.
• Support efforts for business communications internally and externally, including project press releases, case study development, and videos.
• Support business growth and continuous cost & and quality improvements in the business.

Organizational Strategy

• Actively contribute to developing the company's Business plan, ensuring alignment with the global outlook.
• Contribute towards long-term organizational strategic goals, build key customer relationships, identify business opportunities, and negotiate and close business deals.

Required Skills & Attributes

• Graduate from a leading institution with a related degree in Engineering. Postgraduate degree in business and/or related professional qualifications, a plus.
• A minimum of 7 years of work experience and minimum 3 years of experience in a similar role within the energy sector particularly solar, EPC, or C & I project development, RE + BESS projects.
• Ability to conduct cost-benefit analyses and calculate the Internal Rate of Return for clients' investments. Experience in proposal drafting and fundraising.
• Ability to identify and convert new clients while maintaining existing relationships.
• Understands the various business models for power sales, and how best to diversify and mitigate portfolio concentration risk.
• This position requires an in-depth understanding of business development, critical thinking, and the ability to provide time-bound solutions to the benefit of the company, and projects.
• Experience with proposal writing, deal structuring, and debt structuring for projects.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to leverage data and insights to drive decision-making and customer-focused initiatives.
• Hands-on experience in selling power solutions to clients within target markets.
• Excellent negotiation, project, and contract management skills
• Highly motivated and target-driven
• Has a collaborative attitude and ability to drive that through across business units/work functions.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build strong relationships with customers and stakeholders at all levels.