Authenticity Assurance Manager at Burn Nigeria

Burn is the largest vertically integrated modern cookstove company in the world, providing world-class R&D, manufacturing, and carbon offset projects from our HQ in Kenya and across 10 countries in Africa. We are working to create a world where cooking positively impacts all life on Earth by producing the world’s most efficient biomass, liquid fuel, and electric cookstoves. Our team of 900 people - 51% of whom are women - is on track to produce and sell over 150,000 stoves per month in 2022 at our solar-powered facility in Kenya.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Authenticity Assurance Manager

Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Job type: Full-time

About the Role

• We are looking for an Authenticity Assurance Manager who will play a pivotal role in developing and executing counterfeit enforcement strategies to ensure all our core brands and intellectual property rights are protected across all our commercial markets.
• In this role, the Authenticity Assurance Manager will implement and oversee strategies to identify, investigate, and combat counterfeit activities related to our organization's intellectual property portfolio.
• The ideal candidate will have a strong background in law enforcement, excellent analytical skills, and a passion for protecting the integrity of our brand.

Duties and Responsibilities
Enforcement and surveillance activities:

• Conduct in-depth market research to understand the supplier, distributor, and points of sale for distributing counterfeit products in the various destination markets.
• Proactively collaborate with commercial teams in various domestic markets and implement surveillance programs to monitor online and offline channels for potential counterfeit activities.
• Enforcing intellectual property rights, collaborating with enforcement authorities, establishing relationships with customs officials and staying abreast of brand enforcement practices across all our key commercial markets.

Counterfeit detection:

• Conduct thorough investigations into reported incidents of counterfeiting, working closely with internal teams and external partners.
• Use investigative techniques to identify and track counterfeit products or activities.

Collaboration and Coordination:

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with government officials and consultations with anti-counterfeit agencies, port authorities, regulatory authorities and police agencies in different markets to reduce the presence of counterfeit enforcement.
• Proactively conducting brand awareness training with customs and port officials to intercept illegal shipments of counterfeit products.
• Collaborate with government agencies to provide expertise, insights, and recommendations on counterfeit enforcement matters.
• Coordinate with commercial and legal teams to gather necessary data and insights to inform well-rounded and impactful responses to an influx of counterfeit in the market.

Legal Knowledge:

• Conversant with intellectual property, and anti-counterfeit laws to identify potential infringement actions.
• Work closely with the commercial and legal team to initiate legal actions against counterfeiters and provide necessary evidence for litigation.
• Coordinate with the legal team to proactively register for any intellectual property rights that may support a wider scope of enforcement options.
• Ability to write white papers that showcase regional thought leadership in nascent legal markets where intellectual property laws are yet to be formulated.

Requirements

• Strong enforcement background with a degree specializing in law or related fields.
• Proven experience in interpreting and navigating complex legal frameworks with a strong track record of engagement with government bodies, the ability to engage with port authorities, customs officials, anti-counterfeit agencies and other stakeholders.
• Proven experience working in multiple countries key among them counterfeit nations such as China, India Nigeria and other African countries where counterfeit imitations are prevalent.
• Good project management experience and managing internal and external stakeholders across our priority markets such as port authorities and counterfeit agencies.
• Extensive experience in conducting secret shopper experiences, landscape assessments, counterfeiting as viable competitors, and ideal counterfeit channels across our B2B and B2C Channels and formulating multipronged strategies to combat the same across various points of sale and retail platforms.
• Good understanding of government structures at local, national, and international levels facilitating effective communication and collaboration.
• Familiarity with the legislative processes and decision-making mechanisms related to counterfeit enforcement.
• Demonstrated track record of cultivating and maintaining relationships with government officials and relevant decision-makers.
• Collaboration with Commercial Teams across the market to understand brands currently in the market, and who is bringing in the counterfeit stoves.
• Ability to represent the organization at conferences, workshops, and government-related events.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.