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Who We Are

At EarthEnable, we believe that our clients deserve our very best, that morning high-fives are the best way to start the day, and that the best ideas could come from any part of the company. We celebrate each other’s wins, learn from our setbacks, and are deeply proud of the impact we make every day. We believe that a clean, dust-free floor means more than living in a healthy home. It means pride and dignity in the place our customers most treasure: their homes. Being a part of our team means more than building floors: it means building an organization and building a better future for rural families.

What We Do

EarthEnable is transforming the way people live, by making homes healthier for families across rural Rwanda. 80% of Rwandans live in homes with dirt floors which are dusty, unsanitary, and fertile breeding grounds for parasites and germs. While replacing a dirt floor with concrete has significant health benefits (e.g. reducing diarrhea by 50% and parasitic infections by 80%), concrete is unaffordable for many who need it. EarthEnable addresses this pressing and ubiquitous problem by selling high-quality, earthen floors that are 80% cheaper than concrete with 90% less embedded energy. Earthen floors are already prevalent in modern homes in the United States and are composed of natural materials (gravel, clay, sand, and laterite). EarthEnable trains and hires local masons to install the floors which are sealed using a proprietary drying oil that makes them waterproof, strong, and polished. In our first 2 years of operations, EarthEnable has installed over 300,000 square feet of flooring and employed over 100 Rwandese staff. We have recently begun expanding into Uganda to grow our impact, and are looking for someone to manage the new country’s operation.

About The Role

We are looking for a dynamic and visionary Country Director who is excited to work within a high-impact organization and scale EarthEnable’s operations across Uganda. The job will involve managing government relations, hiring staff, overseeing office and field operations, managing the branch’s budget, and providing regular input to hone and improve EarthEnable’s service delivery in Uganda. There is significant opportunity to lead the company and be part of its early growth. This Country Director will receive supervision and guidance from the CEO and the Director of Operations. This is a field-oriented leadership position, with a consistent blend of office and field work. The successful candidate will be willing to get his or her hands dirty and work closely with masons and sales reps, while having an eye for the bigger picture and growth projections of the company. We are looking for someone who is adept at detailed planning, a quick learner, and an entrepreneurial self-starter. In the short to medium-term, the position will be based out of Jinja while the business anchors itself, but will then be expected to be present and active during expansion to new regional offices, underwriting the success of every venture within Uganda. This is the highest position within the organization that will be based full-time in Uganda, and will be the one ultimately responsible to the CEO for the success of this new branch. The specific tasks of this role are as follows (this list is non-exhaustive, and serves only to illustrate some of the focus areas for the job):

General Administration

• Represent EarthEnable and its organizational ethic to senior government officials and other partner organizations
• Manage all staff, administration and operations of EarthEnable in Uganda
• Take ownership of all country-specific projects and deliverables

Strategic Planning and Execution

• Work with CEO to develop scale strategy and to set operational targets, and then manage execution of strategy
• Roll out willingness to pay study alongside execution (randomizing pricing), working with academic researchers
• Work with Marketing Managers to develop and execute marketing strategy
• Refine and adapt business model to fit the Ugandan context based on field learnings
• Support CEO in developing partnerships with institutional suppliers and buyers
• Continuously assess and refine incentive systems

Follow-up of Operational Systems

• Oversee the implementation of EarthEnable’s corporate systems to scale (construction planning, inventory management, supply chain management, quality control management, customer relations management, financial management, etc.)
• Manage field operations and all operations managers and marketing managers, providing mentoring, capacity building, and training as needed
• Apply results from R&D department to continuously improve floor quality in Uganda
• Identify and implement process efficiency improvements

Financial Oversight

• Manage country P+L, while understanding and managing differences in performance between operational units
• Work with CEO to oversee country-level budgeting and audit
• Work with finance to assure that accounts are up to date and that taxes are paid on time

Oversee Human Resources

• Grow EarthEnable’s Ugandan staff by hiring along with the needs of the organization
• Mentor new hires and develop staff to ensure the autonomy and success of the Ugandan branch
• Ensure that EarthEnable complies with Ugandan labor laws

Qualifications

• 5 years of work experience, including at least 2 years of experience managing teams
• Experience with fast-growing social ventures is a plus
• Excellent analytical skills, including Excel modelling
• Excellent people management skills and extensive management experience
• Strong understanding of accounting, budget management, and financial management
• Hard working and gritty to push through challenges; thrives in a bootstrapped culture
• Flexible and adaptable to changing environments
• Ability to work on a variety of tasks at the same time
• Maturity and poise under stress
• Passionate about international development and social enterprise
• Experience living and working in a developing country, preferably in Rwanda/East Africa
• Entrepreneurial attitude, creative problem solver, patient team-player, sense of humor
• Some experience with impact evaluation and academic economics research
• Some engineering background (civil or structural) preferred, but not required
• Graduate degree (MBA, MPA/ID, MPA, MPH, etc.) a plus, but not required

To Apply

Please submit a resume and cover letter through the EarthEnable website https://earthenable.org/jobs/uganda-country-director/. In your cover letter, please state what excites you most about this role, and what you think will be most challenging about it.

About EarthEnable EarthEnable is transforming the way people live, by making homes healthier for families across rural Rwanda. 80% of Rwandans live in homes with dirt floors which are dusty, unsanitary, and fertile breeding grounds for parasites and germs. While replacing a dirt floor with concrete has significant health benefits (e.g. reducing diarrhea by 50% and parasitic infections by 80%), concrete is unaffordable for many Rwandans who need it. EarthEnable addresses this pressing and ubiquitous problem by selling high-quality, earthen floors that are 80% cheaper than concrete with 90% less embedded energy. Earthen floors are already prevalent in modern homes in the United States. They are composed of natural materials (gravel, clay, sand, and laterite) commonly found in Rwanda. EarthEnable trains and hires local masons to install the floors which are sealed using a proprietary drying oil that makes them waterproof, strong, and polished. In our first 2 years of operations, EarthEnable has installed over 300,000 square feet of flooring and employed over 100 Rwandese staff.   About the Role This role will work with our sales team at the headquarters in Nyamata, Bugesera District. The person in the role will be exposed to a wide range of sales and marketing activities, and will gain experience in organizing and carrying out sales and marketing events as well as managing sales representatives. The job will also include significant on the ground selling. If the person in this role is successful they may be offered a position as a sales associate in one of the EarthEnable offices in another district after completion of the internship. The specific tasks of this role include:

• Assisting with marketing events: assisting with the planning and execution of marketing events such as tables at market days and open houses.
  • Creating budgets for marketing events
  • Mobilizing sales representatives to be present at marketing events
  • Organizing the logistics of marketing events such as booking speakers and gathering marketing materials
• Assisting with sales representative management: working with the sales manager to monitor and improve the performance of our sales representatives.
  • Assisting with the recruitment and training of new sales representatives
  • Communicating regularly with sales representatives to check in on their performance and assist them as needed
  • Spending time with sales reps as they are selling and helping them to organize themselves and sell effectively
• Creating marketing materials: developing marketing materials such as brochures and banners as needed.
  • Creating drafts of potential marketing materials and incorporating suggestions from the management team
  • Translating marketing materials as needed
• Presenting at community events: presenting about EarthEnable at events such as umudugudu and cell meetings and recording the names of potential leads.
• Assisting with other events: generally assisting the sales team as needed.

  Qualifications

• A knack for sales and a passion for helping people to improve their lives through our product
• Strong people management skills and a passion for helping to build a strong team of sales people
• Commitment to impact and strong interest in community development
• Ability to work extremely independently
• Fluency in English
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and Google Docs
• Strong written and verbal communications skills
• Positive attitude, self-starter, entrepreneurial spirit, sense of humor and willingness to learn new things
• Commitment to excellence, outstanding work ethic, and attention to detail
• Resourcefulness and creative problem solving

About EarthEnable

EarthEnable is transforming the way people live by making homes healthier for families across rural Rwanda. 80% of Rwandans live in homes with dirt floors which are dusty, unsanitary, and fertile breeding grounds for parasites and germs. While replacing a dirt floor with concrete has significant health benefits (e.g. reducing diarrhea by 50% and parasitic infections by 80%), concrete is unaffordable for many Rwandans who need it. EarthEnable addresses this pressing and ubiquitous problem by selling high-quality, earthen floors that are 80% cheaper than concrete with 90% less embedded energy. Earthen floors are already prevalent in modern homes in the United States. Our floors are composed of natural materials (gravel, clay, sand, and murram) commonly found in Rwanda. EarthEnable trains and hires local masons to install the floors which are ultimately sealed using a proprietary drying oil that makes them waterproof, strong, and polished. In its first 20 months of operations, we have installed over 200,000 square feet of flooring and employed over 90 Rwandese staff.

About The Role

The person hired for this role will have a unique and urgent opportunity to catapult us to the next level of impact. We are in a great place; we have developed an excellent product that our customers cherish and that has multiplicative health, employment, and environmental benefits. We have scaled rapidly to reach over 600 customers in just over a year and a half. Now, we are ready for a visionary Director of Sales and Marketing to pilot and implement innovative strategies and business models to fundamentally disrupt the home improvement market for the rural poor. The Director of Sales and Marketing will lead EarthEnable’s swift expansion to new geographic regions as well as to even lower socio-economic segments of the population. The job will include piloting, iterating, and implementing strategies to improve all aspects of customer relationship management: marketing, sales, branding, payment plans, promotions, pricing, and after-service support. It will also include developing and testing scaling models (Organic growth? Franchising? Partnerships? Licensing our oil? The options are endless!). We need someone who is wildly creative and intellectually curious, excited to take big risks that yield high returns, looks forward to days in the field getting their hands dirty and talking to rural customers, and who runs towards the most challenging of problems, never giving up.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Developing marketing strategies for EarthEnable across Rwanda, e.g. organizing market days, door-to-door sales, village events, village meeting announcements, and a rock-solid customer referral strategy (most of our sales are currently referrals, yet we don’t have a referrals system in place, given the challenges of tracking them)
• Piloting innovative savings and credit mechanisms to help customers finance the floor over time (including collateral for savings)
• Constantly assessing willingness to pay and elasticity of demand to optimize both impact and revenue
• Developing a training academy for sales representatives and supervisory structures (as needed)
• Identifying potential partnerships and negotiating partnership agreements (for financing, marketing, sales, etc.)
• Enacting an efficient customer follow up system to obtain satisfaction scores and respond to complaints
• Ensuring customer default rates and cancellation rates are low
• Collecting live and accurate data on leads and clients (including their location) via mobile technology
• Working closely with Operations team to align supply and demand
• Supporting local brand development and ensuring excellent deals for branded collateral
• Building a team that efficiently handles marketing, sales, financing, customer service, and partnerships
• Working closely with other senior leadership to determine the optimal business model to scale

Qualifications

• Educational level of A1 or B.A. in business, management, marketing, economics or a related field
• 2+ years of marketing and sales experience; experience with fast-growing start-ups is a plus
• Commitment to Rwanda and specifically working in rural environments for 2+ years
• Experience living and working in a developing country (preferably Rwanda / East Africa)
• Creative and artistic with an eye for strong visual design and video design
• Experience managing and analyzing budgets; modeling cost-effectiveness of marketing strategies
• Resourcefulness and critical thinking skills to quickly determine why something isn’t working and iterate quickly to try to solve it; creative problem solving
• Exceptional people skills and managerial skills; avid team player; coaching and mentoring approach
• Ability to work on a variety of tasks at the same time
• Maturity and poise under stress
• Excellent attention to detail, commitment to excellence, and outstanding work ethic
• Positive attitude, sense of humor, entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity to learn new things, patient with others
• Passionate about international development and social enterprise
• Strong technology skills (knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, Google Docs, and Dropbox)
• Graduate degree (MBA, MPA/ID, MPA, MPH, etc.) a plus, but not required
• Fluency in English

About EarthEnable

EarthEnable is transforming the way people live, by making homes healthier for families across rural Rwanda. 80% of Rwandans live in homes with dirt floors which are dusty, unsanitary, and fertile breeding grounds for parasites and germs. While replacing a dirt floor with concrete has significant health benefits (e.g. reducing diarrhea by 50% and parasitic infections by 80%), concrete is unaffordable for many Rwandans who need it. EarthEnable addresses this pressing and ubiquitous problem by selling high-quality, earthen floors that are 80% cheaper than concrete with 90% less embedded energy. Earthen floors are already prevalent in modern homes in the United States. They are composed of natural materials (gravel, clay, sand, and murram) commonly found in Rwanda. EarthEnable trains and hires local masons to install the floors which are sealed using a proprietary drying oil that makes them waterproof, strong, and polished. In our first 20 months of operations, EarthEnable has installed over 200,000 square feet of flooring and employed over 90 Rwandese staff.

About The Role

EarthEnable is committed to taking an active management approach to our team. This job is for someone that is deeply passionate about people and their professional development. This role will focus on developing the best team we can as a company, from masons, to sales reps, to interns, to senior management. The Talent Manager will work closely with the company’s founder and senior leadership to build and develop the best team possible, while ensuring their satisfaction. The specific tasks of this role include:

• Professional Development: Creating professional development opportunities for staff, including internal and external trainings, and ensuring there are adequate active coaching structures for junior staff from senior staff.
  • Spending time with all members of the management team to assess levels of professional development required
  • Developing and revising (as needed) a competency matrix for various levels
  • Developing and delivering trainings for sales representatives, masons (e.g. on customer service), and junior management team
  • Conducting performance reviews and working with department heads to help staff members improve their performance in order to get promoted
  • Designing and implementing staff workshops and retreats; seeking external opportunities
  • Matching junior staff with senior staff mentors and facilitating mentor-mentee relationships
  • Implementing a speaker series to bring people to the office to share ideas
• Recruiting and Hiring: Actively seeking out exceptional candidates for internships and jobs, including via networking, posting jobs on lists, and seeking referrals.
  • Working with teams when they need new staff members to identify the specific need
  • Drafting job descriptions and identifying the role within the org chart with the CEO
  • Screening resumes and CVs to identify the ones to be passed on for an assessment
  • Revising and drafting new assessments that reflect daily tasks of the job
  • Conducting phone screens and first-round interviews, contacting references and conducting thorough reference checks (including tertiary reference checks), and making hiring recommendations
  • Applying for work visas and permits for international staff
  • Writing contracts for every new staff member and setting initial bonus criteria
• Termination: Working with CEO to identify cases of poor performance and administering terminations
  • Identifying cases of poor performance early and raising them to the CEO and Director of Operations
  • Developing performance plans to support employee in improving their performance, including reducing the employee’s roles and responsibilities and finding training or coaching opportunities internally or externally
  • Administering warning letters three times and tracking these letters carefully
  • Ensuring that all documents are administered at the time of termination, and that there is a plan for all outstanding loans
• Payroll and Leave:
  • Approving loan requests after consultation with CEO and direct supervisor
  • Approving and tracking leave requests after consultation with CEO (in cases of over 1 week) and direct supervisor (always)
  • Calculating bonuses and deductions monthly
  • Working with our accounting firm and Finance/Accounting Manager to calculate RSSB and PAYE contributions and ensure they are paid on time
  • Working with Finance/Accounting to make the e-transfers
• Staff Support: Keeping all team members happy, comfortable and productive
  • Preparing an onboarding guide for various processes and systems
  • Ensuring that all staff know and understand the internal rules and regulations and any changes that may be approved
  • Keeping an open door and acting as the first point of contact when staff members have interpersonal or other issues at work
    • Mediating interpersonal situations that may arise
  • Working with department managers on their staffing responsibilities
  • Keeping apprised of employment and labor laws in Rwanda (and home countries for international staff) and ensuring EarthEnable’s compliance
  • Administering salaries, payroll and benefits
• Overall Team Development: Ensuring that the EarthEnable is prepared for rapid growth.
  • Creating a plan for the growth of the staff over the next few years, including new roles and teams, based on EarthEnable’s growth plan
  • Work with the senior leadership to develop organizational strategy for team structures, hiring and succession

Qualifications

• College graduate with strong academic record
• 2 years of experience, ideally related to HR
• Passion for people finding and succeeding in their dream jobs
• Commitment to impact and strong interest in international development
• Fluency in English
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and Google Docs
• Strong written and verbal communications skills
• Positive attitude, self-starter, entrepreneurial spirit, sense of humor and willingness to learn new things
• Commitment to excellence, outstanding work ethic, and attention to detail
• Resourcefulness and creative problem solving