Job Opportunities at UpEnergy

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement Biochar project ideation that helps remove/store/reduce carbon through agricultural or non-agricultural applications. The project will also be registered and monitored with one of the leading carbon standards (VERRA, GS, Puro Earth).
• Support project operation in accordance with host country regulation with relevant Ministries of countries where UpEnergy’s plan to operate;
• Train and Engage with various project stakeholders- farmers and union, Forest authority, briquette manufacturers, institutions, waste collection agents, supply chain partner to review usage, addresses concerns, educate on our program and associated environment, financial benefits;
• Support carbon technical team to design monitoring regime and procuring necessary equipment’s for monitoring biochar project impact in accordance with applicable methodology.
• Research relevant waste streams in the country of operations to design briquette composition to produce good quality biochar.
• Choose best pyrolizer in the market including TLUD technology stoves for institutional scale and RoCC Kiln for small/medium scale project etc..
• Develop specific action plans tailored to customer needs regarding the reprocessing and collections of raw material to produce Biochar;
• Build project team in the country operation for waste collection, processing, fuel/biochar supply chain management, agricultural/non-agricultural application etc…
• Support carbon operations team in field data collection as per carbon standard methodologies;
• Ensures a safe, secure, and legal work environment with respect to specific carbon standard methodologies;

Must Have

• A postgraduate degree in Agricultural Science, Earth Science, Environment Science, Environment Engineering or any other related field;
• Research experience and use of laboratory/field equipment related to soil chemical and physical analyses and greenhouse gas flux measurements;
• Demonstrated experience in Life Cycle Analysis/Life Cycle Analysis Software
• Demonstrate research experience in the area of bioprocessing especially thermochemical conversion of biomass and biochar production from agricultural and forest residues, and also documented evidence of the ability to conduct research;
• Documented academic and or industrial experiences in bioprocess engineering, ecological engineering, biobased products engineering or any other similar topics;
• Interest and curiosity to explore and work in Carbon market and development of carbon projects;
• Polished MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, other data analysis tools a bonus;
• Ability to work in a decentralized, global team; 

go to method of application »

Key Responsibilities;

Business Intelligence, Reporting & Data Visualization (approx 60%)

• Develop effective business intelligence strategies and analytics / visualization solutions for overall operational excellence, and broader strategic metrics for use by key decision makers (CEO, Country Directors, Commercial Director, etc.)
• Design, develop and own interactive Tableau dashboards to track key performance indicators, summarize sales and data trends, and to enable UpEnergy to manage and monitor their distribution performance.
• Generate regular reports including: (1) monthly sales performance reviews; (2) monthly reports to leadership; (3) other ad-hoc requests

Analytics, Insights & Monitoring (approx 40%)

• Monitor on an ongoing basis performance against key Operational Excellence, Supply Chain, Carbon Operations, and other agreed metrics across UpEnergy, identifying improvement opportunities
• Conduct ad-hoc rigorous analysis (including statistical analysis and data modeling) to evaluate performance, to form new insights, to highlight areas for improvement, and to drive decision making and distribution strategies
• Support analytics projects to extract, manage, and analyze sales data from multiple applications or sources (including SQL & field research)
• Work closely with the Data Team to develop and validate predictive models, forecasts or other data tools for sales and customer service
• Provide support on broader analytical needs of the UpEnergy Team,, including analysis of pilots, interventions, distribution operations or field research work
• Support industry reporting, competition reporting, or other external reporting, where opportunities exist
• Conduct quantitative and/or qualitative investigations to better understand customer expectations in a given segment, and to calculate market sizes
• Keep abreast of industry best practices and standards for performance analysis, reporting, etc.
• Support piloting and A/B tests across major commercial levers including pricing, team structure and commissions and scale best practices for commercial activities amongst country teams
• Analyze pilots and projects to determine their efficacy and potential for scale

Must have;

• 5+ years of experience
• Experienced building clear and insightful data visualizations with TABLEAU and MS Excel. Experience in R, SQL etc. is an added advantage.
• Exceptional analytical skills and ability to synthesize and interpret qualitative and quantitative data into practical strategy recommendations
• Able to build advanced queries using PostgreSQL, and comfortable with basics of with database management and data engineering
• Demonstrated ability working across teams and functions on technical project
• Spoken and written Portuguese or French is an added advantage.
• Keen eye for detail and thoughtful investigation of data before relying upon it
• Exceptional judgment, problem-solving skills, and ability to “Think Big & Make it Happen” both independently and collaboratively

Nice to have;

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a quantitative subject such as Math, Statistics, Economics, Engineering or related field, relevant Master’s degree preferred but not required
• Skilled in project management, with an exceptional ability to collaborate, influence, and execute against strategy
• Innovative mind‐set oriented toward constructive problem‐solving and collaboration with stakeholders from various sectors
• Exceptional organizational skills, attention to detail, resourcefulness, and ability to multi‐task and adjust to changing priorities
• Excited to be part of UpEnergy’s growth story
• Open to significant travel to UpEnergy’s markets in sub-Saharan Africa

go to method of application »

Key Responsibilities

Legal

• Build the Legal function across UpEnergy Group
• Maintain legal compliance and robust legal agreements for all activities covering commercial, corporate, employment, privacy, intellectual property and other key issues impacting the business
• Review and draft major contracts as well as develop templates and standard commercial agreements across our different geographical and operational areas of work
• Work with the Finance and Commercial / Country teams to negotiate and close project financing and commercial partnerships across Africa
• Work with Carbon team to provide legal support on the origination, due diligence and development of carbon projects, as well as the interpretation of carbon markets law
• Identify and manage legal risks and opportunities across relevant African jurisdictions and other relevant locations
• Understand, interpret and apply current laws and regulations as applicable to our activities
• Manage litigation / potential disputes arising with partners, customers, regulators, employees or other stakeholders of the business
• Select, manage and coordinate external legal counsel across 10+ jurisdictions while efficiently managing legal spend at central and country level
• Be a trusted advisor and thought partner to the Executive Management, the wider global management team as well as Country Directors and Heads of Departments across Africa, and provide proactive and actionable legal and strategic input on a range of complex business and regulatory issues

Ethics

• Design and develop programs to establish high ethical standards of conduct for the organization
• Ensure that policies reflect domestic and international legal requirements and industry-specific codes governing ethical standards and comply with transparency reporting requirements
• Communicate the organization's ethical standards and deliver employee training programs that raise awareness about ethics-related topics such as Anti-Bribery, Anti-Corruption, Antitrust, Conflicts of Interest, and others
• Monitor compliance with policies and investigate and remediate any non-compliant actions
• Maintain confidential reporting systems allowing employees, customers, contractors, and other stakeholders to disclose violations of the organization's ethical standards, violations of law, or policies without fear of retaliation

Does this sound like you?

• 10+ years of professional legal experience in an international context
• Law degree from a top university and admitted to practice in at least one jurisdiction
• Legal experience in a carbon project organisation or in the carbon market is highly desirable
• Familiarity with carbon markets law and carbon industry practices is highly desirable
• High degree of professional flexibility and ability to coordinate many unrelated projects at the same time
• Highly professional and commercial approach to problem-solving
• Ability to build, manage and lead a team
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, including both verbal and written communication. You need to be an excellent and concise writer who can explain complex legal issues to non-lawyers in a quick and accurate manner.
• Self-starter who proactively takes responsibility and ownership of his/her projects, and is excited to be part of UpEnergy’s growth story

go to method of application »

Key Responsibilities;

• Design and implementation of strategic sales and commercial projects across
• Hands-on sales support for countries, particularly with undertaking performance improvement strategies for countries
• Training & capacity development for country sales teams

Main Activities

Training & capacity development (approx 50%)

• Develop training and tool kits for the development of skills across the distribution team
• Coach distribution team members in each market to develop their commercial strategy skills and build robust and localised distribution strategies

Strategic UpEnergy Commercial Projects (approx 30%)

• Design, scope out, implement and monitor strategic projects to improve the effectiveness and/or efficiency of our sales strategy, operation and execution capability across UpEnergy markets
• Optimising our end-to-end distribution team performance management approach, including  target setting and forecasting, commissions and incentives, tools, reporting, governance and accountability
• Designing strategies to mitigate key strategic commercial risks, e.g. market saturation, competitive landscape shifts and market entry

Country support: Tactical commercial turnarounds (approx 20%)

• Where there are key challenges and areas of underperformance at the country level, provide “hands-on” tactical support for countries to undertake sales turnaround strategies to deliver results
• Where required, support the country to undertake analysis and identify key issues impacting performance, as well as the key levers at their disposal to achieve results
• Support the development of tactical turnaround strategies, review their robustness and provide hands-on support throughout their implementation, as required

 Does this sound like you?

• At least 1-3 years in business / commercial strategy, project management roles (or similar)
• Experience in sales and marketing (ideally B2C), particularly in sectors like FMCG, microfinance or telecommunications
• Experience living and working in Africa (ideally 1-2 years minimum
• General strategic, analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to breakdown a problem, conduct research and analysis, develop an evidenced-based strategic response, then communicate and align stakeholders around the direction
• Decent analytical skills and ability to synthesize and interpret qualitative and quantitative data into practical strategy recommendations. Critical thinking and analytical skills, with the ability to work with large amounts of data (including Excel modelling) to develop strategies and make rigorous decisions.
• Project management, with the ability to manage high-impact cross-functional strategic commercial projects end to end (including planning, analysis, conclusions and implementation) to achieve result
• Commercial capability across sales and marketing (particularly in B2C), with a demonstrated history of delivering strong commercial results
• Stakeholder engagement and communication skills
• Exceptional judgement, problem-solving skills, and ability to “Think Big & Make it Happen” both independently and collaboratively
• Language: English. French/Portuguese is a big plus
• Excited to be part of UpEnergy’s growth story
• Open to significant travel to UpEnergy’s markets in sub-Saharan Africa