Head of Commercial at ENGIE Energy Access

ENGIE Energy Access is the leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) and mini-grids solutions provider in Africa. The company develops innovative, off-grid solar solutions for homes, public services and businesses, enabling customers and distribution partners access to clean, affordable energy. The PAYGO solar home systems are financed through affordable instalments from $0.19 per day and the mini-grids foster economic development by enabling electrical productive use and triggering business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities. With over 1,800 employees, operations in nine countries across Africa (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), over 1.9 million customers and more than 9 million lives impacted so far, ENGIE Energy Access aims to impact 20 million lives across Africa by 2025.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Commercial

Requisition ID:  14873
Location: Lagos (with travel throughout regional Nigeria, 25-50% of the time)
Job Grade: HL 19
Job Type: Full - Time
Contract Type:  Permanent
Deparment: Commercial 
Division:  Energy Access
Reporting line: Country Director
Business Unit:  GBU Flexible Gen & Retail

Job Overview

• The Head of Commercial will play a critical role in ENGIE Energy Access Nigeria (EEAN). As Commercial Director, you are responsible for developing and implementing Sales, Marketing & Business Development (Partnerships) strategies to accelerate growth with our current and new, while maintaining strong customer repayments.
• You are also expected to identify new commercial opportunities, manage marketing efforts and coordinate the execution of market research and analysis to create business plans based on commercial opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Set and manage the overarching strategic direction, priorities and focus areas for sales commercial (sales, marketing and business development), cascading and ensuring alignment throughout EEAN.
• Manage consolidated country P&L commercial performance (primarily revenue and gross profit), with a secondary focus on driving overall EBITDA (given sales team core responsibilities for credit, product, operations, and CX outcomes).
• Where the country is underperforming on sales and commercial targets, manage turnaround efforts to remediate performance.
• Establish a best-in-class commercial operating model, with a high-impact and right-sized organizational structure, tools, reports, standards and systems.
• Lead our go-to-market strategy through understanding our customers, the market and competitive landscape then determining competitive positioning with regards to products, prices, channels and locations.
• Develop and lead a team a commercial team (including State Managers) on a local, regional and national level, with full responsibility for the team’s workplan, coaching and professional development.
• Lead and oversee strategic projects to improve commercial performance.

Detailed Responsibilities
Strategy, Planning & Budgeting (10%):

• Set and manage the overarching strategic direction, priorities and focus areas for commercial across EEAN over the short, medium and long-term
• Develop the commercial strategy to drive efficient customer acquisition and revenue growth throughout EEAN, including directly owning key inputs with our go-to-market strategy (locations, distribution channels, marketing, partnerships etc.) and collaborating cross-functionally to determine other key strategic inputs (e.g. product, pricing, CX, etc.)
• Ensure regions have localised strategies in line with the country strategy and have robust plans to deliver the country targets, including allocating sufficient investment and resources to reliably execute
• As part of the management team, provide thought partnership for cross-functional leads, provide input into strategies, act as a key stakeholder on cross-functional decisions and ensure that core commercial and enabling functions align with the sales strategy
• Develop the sales, marketing and business development team budgets, and track departmental expenditures, financial goals and budgets
• Where required, both lead and oversee strategic commercial projects to drive sales growth across EEAN

Governance, Reporting, Analytics & Performance Management (40%):

• Continuously manage country P&L performance, including:
  • Primary focus on revenue (though sales volumes, kit mix and price), gross profit (through maximizing sales of higher margin withs with a lower COGS) and cost of sale
  • Secondary focus on EBITDA, given sales team core responsibilities for credit, product, operations, and CX outcomes
• Set the overarching sales target setting process, approve regional sales targets
• Oversee the development of reports, analysis and insights for financial performance and other operational KPIs for sales (per sales manager / agent, active agents) and marketing (brand health, marketing spend, referrals, etc.)
• Establish the overarching governance framework to track performance against commercial goals, lead national] governance forums and hold State Managers and other departments accountable for results and plans
• Where there is underperformance, provide hands-on support to turnaround and make key decisions to remediate performance
• Continuously monitor performance of other key functions that drive sales, including product, pricing, sales, distribution, portfolio health, customer experience, software, and service with potential partners, working with them to take remediation action to address underperformance

Commercial Operations (30%):

• Lead and manage development of a robust sales operating model, including:
  • Develop procedures and policies for core sales operations functions (lead and opportunity management; recruitment and training, tools of trade, incentives, size and structure, government reporting and performance management etc.)
  • Implement procedures and policies throughout the sales function, monitor and ensure compliance, continually test and improve
• Lead and manage marketing operations, including:
  • Lead market research, including the market and competitive landscape to identify analyze threats and opportunities.
  • Segment EEA Nigeria’s customers and develop tailored strategies to target
  • Identify trends in customer behavior closely following sales, product usage, customer retention, upgrades and competitors, leveraging this data to enhance our commercial strategy.
  • Supervise all marketing channels and methods to ensure appropriate information is effectively communicated to external audiences (including leading campaigns).
• Establish and manage external partnerships, including negotiating ongoing contracts with suppliers and customers; managing and reviewing contracts and making recommendations regarding commerciality.

Leadership, Management & Culture (20%):

• Develop and lead a team of sales and commercial managers and analysts, including full responsibility for coaching and their professional development
• Manage the team’s work plan and workload to ensure delivery of agreed goals
• Help recruit, collaborate with, coordinate and train diverse teams such as Marketing and especially field sales and credit teams.
• Provide strong leadership, management and coaching for regional sales teams, including with support to other members of the Management Team

Manager Expectations
We believe that great managers:

• Deliver ambitious results: As a high-performing and accountable leader, you create an enabling environment for effective action and bold decision which contribute to successful delivery of results.
• Act with integrity: As an ethical leader you are honest, respectful, objective, and transparent. You create and build upon a foundation of trust and openness.
• Inspire and mentor the team: As an inspirational leader you walk the talk. You empower and coach your team with trust and humility.
• Are accessible: as an accessible leader, you develop and maintain deep connections with stakeholders through approachability and active listening.
• Ensure diversity and inclusion: as an inclusive leader, you ensure diversity and foster a sense of belonging

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration / Communications / Marketing / Journalism/ Public Relations or Business.
• MBA an added advantage.

Required Skills & Experience

• Minimum of 12 years’ experience in progressive business leadership experience, with 3+ years leading a Commercial function (particularly FMCGs, MNOs & financial institutions)
• Strong commercial capability across sales and marketing (particularly in B2C), with a demonstrated history of leading and delivering strong commercial results
• Outstanding leadership, having led large field-based sales teams and the ability to create a performance culture with strong governance, accountability and results
• Strong understanding of the Nigeria commercial environment, ideally with time spent in various regions throughout Nigeria
• General strategic, analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to set and communicate the strategic vision for commercial throughout the organization
• Ability to lead high-impact cross-functional strategic commercial projects end to end (including planning, analysis, conclusions and implementation) to achieve results
• Exceptional judgement and decision-making skills, with the ability to independently assess and take action to achieve results
• Outstanding stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to develop relationships with key functional leads (especially Customer Finance, Customer Experience and Operations) but also with external strategic commercial partners
• Demonstrated passion for our mission, values and customers!

Language(s): 

• English
• French is a plus

Technology:

• Knowledge of the latest communications related software, applications

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online