Field Associate Manager- Ethiopia
Pula Advisors
About Pula
We are an insuretech firm that provides agriculture insurance design and execution services, specialising in index based insurance and are backed by top tier VC investors who have invested more than $25 million in the business. Since 2015 we have provided climate insurance to 15.4 million smallholder farmers, 41% of which were women across 19 markets in Africa and Asia who pay an average of $6.8 per season to insure their crops. So far we've unlocked over $2.22 billion of capital from local and international insurance markets for climate risks since we started in 2015 and paid out $40.8 million to our client farmers.
Pula is a fast-paced space, constantly adapting to new opportunities and challenges and we are made up of a high-performance, multi-cultural team. We expect our team to value performance, results and professionalism.
At Pula, our values are:
- Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!
- Connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.
- Have a Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.
- We have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better.
According to the UN’s InterGovernmental Panel for Climate Change more than 3.3 billion people globally live in hotspots with high vulnerability to climate change and are now already feeling the impact of climate change through increased temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall.
Insurance is a tool for vulnerable households in these affected regions to adapt to the effects that climate change is already having today on these households. It is a tool that enables for compensation payment for losses and damages that these households had no part in causing. Insurance compensation enables these households to make adjustments to their day to day livelihoods and practices and therefore allows for an equitable and just transition.
At Pula, we are building the systems that enable farmers worldwide to access insurance, using technology to insure this previously uninsured worldwide. We work in over 17 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2021, have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 6 million farmers, 30% of which are women, across Kenya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Zambia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. We are a for profit, and have raised over $10 million from leading venture and institutional investors as well as developed philanthropic relationships with private foundations and bilateral donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German Insure Resilience Solutions Fund that have accelerated investments in our target markets.
Pula is proudly fast paced, constantly learning from the challenges we face and overcome. We are proudly culturally diverse but united in our ambition of continuous high-performance. By challenging ourselves we believe that we can overcome the hard problems we love solving.
At Pula, our culture is defined by our:
1.Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!
2. Ability to connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.
3. Our Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.
4. Ability to have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better.
What you will be doing:
Every year, Pula runs a series of operational activities including farmer sensitization campaigns, training of clients and Crop Cut Experiments (a survey designed to measure the yield of different crops).
Working under the Vision, guidance and direction of the Director of Field Operations, Pula is seeking the services of an experienced Field Operations Associate Manager in Oromia region, Ethiopia who will be responsible for overseeing and executing all the operational activities within the country. The ideal candidate will be results driven, good at people and operations, project management, and shifting comfortably between strategy and execution. The ideal candidate learns quickly, is resourceful and has experience managing teams and running a field project. The scope of work is as follows:
- Participate in Field Coordinators and Field Agents recruitment and selection.
- Assign, schedule, coach, counsel and discipline employees.
- Help set project budgets, recordkeeping for expenses and reconciliation against the budget for each project.
- Management of Field Coordinators and Sr Field Coordinators.
- Conducting Field Coordinators, Sr Field Coordinators and Enumerators training.
- Conducting client trainings, mobilization and workshops.
- Management and support for crop cut exercises.
- Management and support for yield index insurance payouts, if necessary.
- Data collection and data management: that is, refining the study design and survey instruments, overseeing and monitoring data collection exercises using the Business Intelligence dashboard and assisting with data quality queries.
- Coordination with client field staff and insurance auditors.
- Escalating issues experienced in the field.
- Help to go to the field to diagnose issues when required.
- Help with internal data audits when required.
- Handling and resolving customer complaints from farmers and stakeholders as needed.
- Assisting in product launches when required.
- Performance Management: Identify good performers, transparently and honestly report on non-performing staff.
- Clear and consistent communication up and down the reporting lines.
- Any other duties as requested by management
Who you are:
- A BSc degree in Project Management, Agricultural Economics, Agribusiness or a degree in Business/ management related field.
- Experience with (5 years) and proven skills in working with clients, project teams, farmers, field teams and agro dealers.
- Experience in data collection and data management.
- Skills to interact with clients, farmers, field teams and agro dealers.
- Ability to work independently in a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, and multicultural environment
- Excellent communication and organizational skills
- Good understanding of the agricultural bureau in Oromia region
- Intermediate Excel skills is an added advantage
- Fluent in English and Afaan Oromo
Some more expectations:
- Our team is deeply field based. We hire from the areas that we are working, rather than focusing on hiring only from capital cities or major metropolitan areas.
- The individuals best suited for these positions are those who are comfortable speaking in relevant local languages and moving around rural areas.
- Everyone needs to be able to work “on the go”: staff are expected to call into conference calls multiple times a week, and to submit communications on email and other mediums throughout the week. While it is difficult to keep a phone and other devices charged while working in rural areas, the best employees plan their movements well enough to ensure being in contact at the right times.
What Pula will bring to the table
- Growth potential: At Pula, we are building the systems that enable farmers worldwide to access insurance, using technology to insure this previously uninsured worldwide. We work in over 19 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2023, have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 5 million farmers, 40% of which are women. We are a for profit, and have raised over $25 million from leading venture and institutional investors as well as developed philanthropic relationships with private foundations and bilateral donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German Insure Resilience Solutions Fund that have accelerated investments in our target markets.
- Market Leader: Not only is the opportunity massive, but Pula is by far the market leader in it’s category with 11m farmers insured as of 2023.
- Solid: Pula has been funded by leading venture capital investors (Omidyar Network, ACCION, MercyCorps) and global philanthropic institutions (MasterCard Foundation, CGAP/World Bank as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Pula closed an oversubscribed $20m series B funding despite the economic downturn.
- Respected: Winner of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019, Winner of The InsureTech of the Award, Africa. Featured on TED talks, The New York Times, The Economist.
- Impact and creation: This is a high-impact role, that offers a unique opportunity to bring the company to the next level, whilst developing new strategies, approaches and ideas.
- Leadership: The founders & CEO foster a culture of transparency, respect, high performance, pragmatism, execution and personal development.
- Purpose: It is rare to find a professional opportunity that offers accelerated professional development and a life purpose. Pula is going through a second phase of accelerated growth that will naturally provide professional development, whilst contributing to the financial stability of small farmers in the emerging markets.
- Remuneration: Competitive base salary accordingly with seniority and experience, commission on closed sales and an employee share option plan that offers an attractive equity upside.
To learn more about Pula you can visit
TED Talk: Crop Insurance, an Idea Worth Seeding
New York Times: He Grew up on a Farm. Now, He Helps Protect Them
The Economist: The Poor, Who Most Need Insurance, Are Least Likely to Have It
How to apply
Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English.
Pula’s mission is to provide farmer resilience. To achieve this, we put our small holder farmers that use our services and the employees that provide them at the heart of everything we do. For that purpose, Pula was created to be an equal opportunity employer that celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
