About Us:

UpEnergy delivers high-impact, emission-reducing projects that accelerate decarbonisation and create long-term benefits in local communities. We make life-improving clean technologies available to local communities and environments across Africa. Whether protecting the local environment, delivering health benefits, or reducing poverty through financial savings and employment, our projects sustainably benefit and enable people to live better lives within climate-resilient communities.

UpEnergy has delivered over 95 emission reduction projects, impacted over 4 million lives, and reduced over 4 million tons of CO2 Emissions across seven countries. UpEnergy prides itself on deep local knowledge and established teams on the ground to ensure the highest impact and results. The UpEnergy team continues to grow, across multiple countries and continents and seeks diligent, entrepreneurial, fun, and motivated talent excited to join us in delivering even more impact. Learn more here: www.upenergygroup.com

About the role:

UpEnergy is seeking a Product Manager for its Electric vertical - currently electric pressure cookers and induction stoves - with experience in the clean cooking industry and/or developing retail products -FMCGs, retail, general merchandise- and a dedicated commitment to making a tangible impact.

The product manager's objective is to initiate, lead, and execute initiatives across the product's life cycle to increase the product’s adoption and performance. The role requires an end-user-centric focus, thinking both strategically and execution-driven.

A fundamental part of the role will be leading interventions to drive higher usage, understanding end-user behaviour and patterns, and informing tactics and best practices on distribution, communication, product features, education, pricing, and other areas for the different end-user segments and personas. The candidate must be an actor of change, owning activities from beginning to execution and engaging all organisational stakeholders.

The individual will be instrumental in leading the end-to-end life cycle of the electric product, including, but not exhaustively, cost optimisation activities, supply chain management, and the effective rollout of electric cooking products. Collaborating closely with external partners, they will contribute to the creation and refinement of products and the design of pilots.

Main Activities

Electric cooking strategy and yearly RoadMap

• Work with the Head of Product to develop the electric cooking strategy, identifying initiatives, activities, and critical projects and documenting them in the electric RoadMap.
• Identify country-based needs and adequately include them in the strategy and execution plan.
• Lead and develop an internal culture of constant innovation, speed and collaboration within the department and overall organisation.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across the organisation, including executives, marketing, sales, carbon, origination, and operations teams, to ensure alignment on electric products goals and effectively communicate product updates and milestones.
• Manage relationships and logistics related to third-party suppliers to unlock better prices and technologies for a more significant end-user impact.

Product development and performance

• Lead experimentation exercises to improve usage and other relevant metrics for potential carbon production.
• Lead experimentation to develop best-in-class electric cooking stoves for UpEnergy’s markets (i.e., pricing, features, adoption levels) involving engineering, software and supply chain.
• Develop market research activities to inform the execution plan and strategically prioritise improvements to processes or products.
• Address local market needs regarding behaviour change, affordability, and cultural considerations.
• Collaborate closely with the engineering (software and hardware) and supply chain teams to create technical requirements documentation to guide product development and inform the overall technical RoadMap.
• Organise initiatives with the product technical team, updating the priorities according to business needs. (Sprint planning tasks)
• Collaborate with Up Energy’s country operation team to co-design and execute pilots and interventions across different markets.
• Coordinate documentation and presentation of pilots and experimentation learnings.
• Coordinate the feedback loop process from the ground to the product team to facilitate the iteration process.
• Collaborate closely with UpEnergy's carbon team to optimise the pilot design for usage and carbon credit generation, ensuring alignment with sustainability objectives.

Commercial development

• Support all product lifecycle stages, including research, market analysis, competitive evaluation, planning, positioning, roadmap development, requirements definition, and product launch.
• Utilise insights from pilots to formulate and execute commercial launch strategies for Electric Cooking in new markets, collaborating with various departments such as Distribution, Marketing, Carbon, and Operations/Logistics.
• Support efforts to optimise electric COGs and ER profiles, working closely with operational excellence to achieve cost reduction objectives.
• Work in tandem with the distribution team to devise innovative distribution strategies.

Why Join Us?

Not your average 9-to-5

UpEnergy encourages teamwork and creativity, and we’re not afraid to get our hands dirty. We stay close to our market, understand our customers, and have a lot of fun while doing our work! If you’re looking for a conventional 9-to-5, you’d miss out on our adventures!

Opportunity to do things in a new way

As one of the largest compliance credit issuers in Africa, we need to constantly improve and rethink our work. This means endless opportunities for self-starters to initiate new ways of doing things or experiment to help us improve.

Personal and Career Growth

Wouldn’t it be a pity to spend so much time working but not growing and learning? At UpEnergy, we value both personal and professional growth, and we want to grow as a team. From classroom training to coffee chats to performance reviews, we want to support every team member in becoming the best version they can be.

Create Lasting Impact

Our clean energy products have a positive impact on our planet and the low-income communities we work in. We don’t just focus on sales—we follow up and truly understand our customers to ensure that they continue to benefit from our products. Your work will create a much longer-lasting impact than what you can see!

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a relevant field such as Engineering, Product Management, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in product management or a related electric product industry role.
• Specialised Experience in Electric Products or Retail: Demonstrated expertise in the electric products industry or retail industry, with a proven track record of successful product management and rollout.
• Product Lifecycle Management: Proficiency in overseeing the entire lifecycle of electrical products, from conception to market rollout, including technology sourcing, prototyping, pilot design, and commercial strategy development.
• Strategic Thinking: Strong strategic thinking skills, with the ability to align product initiatives with organisational objectives.
• Collaborative Approach: Proven ability to collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders, including manufacturing teams, distribution partners, and cross-functional departments.
• Analytical Skills: Excellent analytical skills, with the ability to leverage data-driven insights to inform decision-making and drive continuous improvement in product design, pilot execution, and commercial strategy development.
• Understanding of Electric Cooking: In-depth knowledge of electric cooking technologies and usage patterns, with the ability to translate this understanding into actionable strategies and interventions.
• Adaptability and Quick Learning: Adeptness at quickly grasping organizational requirements and adapting to evolving market dynamics, technology trends, and consumer behaviors.
• Communication Skills: Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to articulate complex ideas and concepts to diverse audiences, including executives, team members, and external partners.