Refurbishment Line Manager
Sun King
Kenya
About the Role:
The Refurbishment Line Manager oversees end-to-end refurbishment operations in Kenya facilities, ensuring that returned and recovered solar products are efficiently assessed, repaired, graded, and returned to a saleable condition. This role also encompasses full inventory accountability for spare parts, refurbished goods, and field return goods — maintaining accurate stock records, minimising losses, and ensuring materials are available to sustain uninterrupted refurbishment throughput. The role requires strong operational management skills, hands-on technical expertise, and a focus on continuous improvement.
- Department
- Operations
- Employment Type
- Permanent - Full Time
- Location
- Kenya
- Workplace type
- Onsite
What you would be expected to do:
- Plan, organise, and oversee daily refurbishment line and After Sales warehouse operations.
- Set and monitor production targets to ensure throughput, quality, and turnaround time (TAT) KPIs are consistently achieved.
- Manage the end-to-end flow of returned products — from intake and diagnostics through repair, grading, and dispatch.
- Coordinate closely with logistics, warehouse, and supply chain teams to ensure smooth material flow.
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date inventory records for spare parts, refurbished goods, and field return goods across all locations.
- Oversee the intake, logging, and classification of all field return goods, ensuring proper condition assessment and traceability from receipt to final disposition.
- Manage spare parts inventory to ensure adequate stock levels for uninterrupted refurbishment operations while minimising excess or obsolete inventory.
- Implement and enforce stock control processes, including cycle counts, periodic stock audits, and reconciliation of physical versus system inventory.
- Work with procurement and supply chain teams to forecast spare parts requirements based on return volumes and repair trends.
- Ensure refurbished goods are properly graded, labelled, and stored, with clear visibility of available stock ready for redeployment or resale.
- Identify and escalate inventory discrepancies, shrinkage, or losses, and implement corrective actions.
- Manage, coach, and develop technical and non-technical teams within the Refurbishment Centre function.
- Conduct regular performance reviews, identify skill gaps, and facilitate development plans.
- Foster a culture of accountability, safety, cross-functional partnership, and continuous improvement on the shop floor.
- Implement and enforce quality control standards at every stage of the refurbishment process.
- Oversee product grading frameworks to ensure accurate classification of refurbished units.
- Investigate and resolve quality concerns or recurring defect trends through structured root cause evaluation.
- Process Improvement & Reporting
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and lower refurbishment costs.
- Maintain accurate operational records and produce regular reports on output, quality, inventory, and costs.
- Contribute to the implementation of new systems, tools, and processes as the refurbishment programme scales.
- Ensure the refurbishment facility operates in full compliance with health, safety, and environmental regulations.
- Conduct regular safety audits and maintain a safe working environment for all team members.
- Manage the disposal of non-recoverable components in line with e-waste and local regulatory requirements.
You might be a strong candidate if you have:
- A degree in Engineering or a related discipline from a recognised regional or global university.
- An advanced degree is an added advantage.
- 5+ years of experience in a refurbishment, manufacturing, repair, or related operations environment.
- Experience managing production lines or technical teams in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong knowledge of solar PV systems, electrical wiring standards, and power electronics.
- Demonstrated experience in inventory management, including spare parts, returned goods, and finished goods stock control.
- Strong knowledge of quality control, grading processes, and defect management.
- Proficiency in ERP systems for inventory tracking, production planning, and spare parts management is an added advantage.
- Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities across locations.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to simplify information and adapt communication to different audiences.
- A customer-focused approach and dedication to resolving issues effectively.
- The ability to remain calm and effective under pressure.
- Strong planning and organisational capabilities.
- Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to structure complex issues and identify practical solutions in evolving situations.
- Resourceful and proactive, with the ability to navigate new situations, apply innovative thinking, and develop practical solutions.
- Demonstrates humility and a willingness to learn from others.
- Motivated by the social mission of expanding energy access and creating employment opportunities in rural communities, with strong alignment to Sun King's values.
What Sun King offers:
- Professional growth in a dynamic, rapidly expanding, high-social-impact industry
- An open-minded, collaborative culture made up of enthusiastic colleagues who are driven by the challenge of innovation towards profound impact on people and the planet.
- A truly multicultural experience: you will have the chance to work with and learn from people from different geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds.
- Structured, tailored learning and development programs that help you become a better leader, manager, and professional through the Sun Center for Leadership.
About Sun King
Sun King combines energy generation, energy-efficient appliances, installation, and financing into one seamless offering. Think of it as a distributed utility, designed for wherever energy is needed and designed to scale with its users as incomes and energy needs grow.
Sun King makes solar products affordable to low-income households and businesses via ‘pay-as-you-go’ (PAYG) purchase financing. Sun King installs solar after customers pay a small deposit. Customers then make small, manageable payments of as little as US $0.14 a day via mobile money or cash.
Sun King collects payments digitally through mobile money systems and its 35,000 field agents — over 1 million payments each day. To date, Sun King has extended more than $1.4 billion in PAYG loans to customers.
Sun King began by powering homes and businesses with solar systems delivered through PAYG financing. Now, we’re using the same model to make smartphones and clean cooking equipment affordable: helping households connect to the digital economy and transition from wood-based fuels to modern, sustainable alternatives.
Sun King employs 3,500 full-time staff in 14 countries, with specialties spanning product design, data science, logistics, customer service, sales, software, operations, and more — all with a passion to serve off-grid families. Sun King is committed to gender diversity in the workplace. Women represent 42% of Sun King’s workforce.

