Optical Technical Advisor at VisionSpring

Job description
Do you know and love eyeglasses? Are you ready to help others restore vision and create access to eyewear for low income customers across Nigeria and West Africa?

VisionSpring, an international social enterprise, seeks an Optical Technical Advisor to support VisionSpring’s B2B customers in introducing optical goods and eye screening into their services and product lines for people earning less than $4 per day. The Advisor plays a strategically important role, training health workers and community champions to conduct presbyopia screening and appropriately dispense eyeglasses. S/he will collaborate with the Nigeria based business development representative to generate new partnerships and steward relationships. The Advisor will report to the Global Partnerships Coordinator (based in New York) ]. S/he will be based in Lagos.

About You

• People view you as the go to person for everything optical. You are a wealth of knowledge and know-how about vision screening and eyeglasses.
• You want to solve supply and demand side sales challenges. You understand how introduce vision programs into work places and health services.
• You understand consumer behavior – concerns about and interests in getting eyeglasses.
• You are a natural teacher. You love sharing your knowledge and getting others excited about what they are going to do.
• You have the maturity and confidence to interact with clients in senior positions.
• Working for a high growth, socially oriented business feels like the right next step in your career.

What You’ll Do
Partner Assistance & Training

• Collaborate with partners to help them design their Vision Access Programs. This may entail the introduction of vision screening and eyeglasses into: primary care services and community outreach, livelihood and workplace programs, and mass market retail.
• Assist business development representatives and partners in making frame and power selections, and customizing orders to meet their unique needs. Proactively field questions and offer support.
• Maintain and adapt a standardized collection of sell-through support materials (advice on marketing, pricing, screenings, etc) for new partners.
• Tailor training materials and train partner personnel in the following competencies:
• Conducting a vision camp
• Presbyopia screening, ready made glasses power selection and referral for refractive errors, cataract and other eye conditions
• Customer engagement and optical sales
• Vision Entrepreneurship
• Provide periodic onsite monitoring and assistance at vision camps in rural communities, slum neighborhoods and within health facilities and other retail outlets.
• Cross-Function Support
• Collect customer profile data and customer stories to understand customer satisfaction, preferences and barriers to vision and optical care. Share findings with Global Partnerships team to improve customer experience and market segmenting, and ensure we are achieving our mission objectives.
• On board and train new VisionSpring sales representatives in the fundamentals of vision, eye health and optical products.
• Draft field reports and customer stories to assist with investor relations and communications.

New Business Development

• Proactively network and identify high potential partners, sales and collaboration opportunities
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• Collaborate with sales representatives to pursue and structure new opportunities.
• Represent VisionSpring at local industry forums, marketing events, conferences, workshops, etc.
• Advise VisionSpring Global Partnership team on the trends, actors, policies and regulations shaping the Nigerian optical market. Identify and map out key players and processes.

What’s Required

• Five years’ experience in the Nigerian optical industry.
• Willingness to travel up to 40% of the time within Nigeria, and potentially within the region.
• Excellent communication skills in English.
• Candidates with some of the following preferred qualification will be prioritized:
• Optometrist qualifications
• Community-based work with NGOs or government agencies, including health camps
• Demand generation, awareness raising or advocacy around eye health, livelihood development or school learning outcomes
• Broad professional network within Nigerian health, vision, foundation, NGO and/or retail sectors
• Conversational in other major Nigerian languages or French is a plus.

Compensation

• One year contract, renewable
• Compensation based on experience and education.
• Exciting performance incentives