Community Engagement Associate at Husk Power Systems

Job Description

• Husk is seeking a Community Engagement Associate, to join the Project Development team in Nigeria towards achieving its targets.
• This individual will play an integral role in coordinating progress actions for community engagement activities as the initial point of contact for the communities.
• You will be required to contribute to engagements for the deployment of HUSK’s mini grid portfolio, supporting all community engagement activities.
• The role will directly support engagement across many levels of stakeholders including community representatives, local authorities, paramount rulers, and relevant industry related stakeholders within areas where Husk is operational and/or intends to site its operations.
• We are looking for someone with experience in community engagement stakeholder management and engagement, report writing and on ground business development support.
• We require someone who is a people’s person and understands the importance of constant engagement for achieving business objectives.
• The individual must be passionate about contributing to solving one of Nigeria’s most critical challenges – energy access deficit.
• This position provides the opportunity to join a growing team that is changing the face of rural electrification in many countries including India and Nigeria etc.

Key Responsibilities
General:

• Play a key part as a member of the Project Development Team responsible for providing support towards expanding and maintaining project sites’ portfolio.
• Work with cross-functional teams towards project development activities ensuring that relevant community stakeholder relationships are built and maintained.
• Support information and data gathering for use by the relevant teams for market intelligence insights within and around proposed IMG deployment locations.
• Assist with robust community engagement strategies to ensure minimal community related issues arising.
• Other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Manage relevant stakeholder relationships within the communities through the paramount rulers, village heads, district heads, VPC etc
• Maintain a repository of all critical stakeholders across communities and areas where Husk is operational and/or is intending to site its operations.
• Maintain active relationships with relevant stakeholders across communities.

Regulatory Agency Engagement:

• Support in providing documentation to ensure relevant regulatory permits (and submissions) are registered and/or applied for in time with regulators and other government stakeholders.
• Maintain an active data of all government agency engagements within Husk operational areas.

Community Engagement:

• Drive active community engagement with selected communities from pre-development to post-development and a successful handover to relevant teams.
• Assist Customer Engagement team with developing customer experience strategies for customer signups as well as collections and upselling.
• Maintain an active database of the minutes and pictures of all community engagement meetings and relevant agreement documentation.
• Provide regular updates on community engagement on a periodic basis.

Business Growth:

• Support the Mini Grids, Customer Engagement and other teams during community/customer engagement exercises, as required.
• Provide relevant support for the Security Coordinator in documenting possible security insights gathered during community engagement exercises.
• Provide support to best practices in ESG engagements.

Qualifications & Requirements
Does this sound like you?:

• Graduate from a leading institution with a related degree in Science, Engineering or Social Sciences. Graduate degree or relevant trainings or certifications in sales; a plus.
• Understanding of policies and best practices for ESG engagements, desired.
• 3-5 years of experience in a similar role within the power or telecommunications sectors, supporting project development, rural development, stakeholder management and sales support activities
• Ability to ensure closure for tasks and business initiatives; drawing insights for business growth
• Excellent skills with MS Office, and effective report writing skills suited to various audiences.
• Superb interpersonal skills, including the ability to quickly build rapport with both customers, representatives, and relevant stakeholders
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, multi-diverse environment coordinating with multiple stakeholders

General Skills & Attributes:

• Excellent knowledge of MS Office, Google Suite and other relevant tools
• Highly motivated and target driven with a proven track record in delivering tasks in a timely and effective manner
• Excellent communication skills
• Highly numerate and analytical with an ability to make strategic inputs for driving and achieving business goals
• Responsive with great time management and organizational skills
• Ability to create and deliver presentations tailored to the audience needs
• Relationship management skills and openness to feedback
• A Can-Do attitude with a knack for taking ownership of deliverables

Physical Demands:

• Have full range of mobility in upper and lower body
• Could work in outdoor weather conditions at certain times
• Have adequate visual and hearing acuity to follow instructions; and determine accuracy of the work assigned
• Ability to work in rural, peri-urban locations as required
• Ability to drive a vehicle during the normal course of business. Must possess a driver’s license, maintain a clean driving record with the ability to pass a driving background check.

Additional Information:

• You are driven to support the delivery of business growth in a new market.
• You have a robust industry network and understand effective client engagement practices.
• You are an effective planner and have a strong orientation to process
• You building strong relationship built on trust, and are a strong verbal communicator
• You pride your communication skills.
• Most importantly, candidate must fit company spirit where people work smart, play hard, have fun and are dedicated to success.