Uganda Country Director

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.