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 ICS and water projects with experience in managing and optimising across the product life cycle. The candidate should have an entrepreneurial approach and be dedicated to making a tangible impact in communities accross Africa.

The product manager's objective within the improved charcoal stove (ICS) is to maintain, lead, and execute initiatives that optimise the product's performance end-to-end. The role requires an end-user-centric focus, thinking both strategically and execution-driven. For water projects (institutional and household) the role will be instrumental in developing commercial strategies and plans around current learnings and involve different stakeholders in the organisation to scale up the vertical.

The individual will be instrumental in leading the product's end-to-end life cycles, including, but not exhaustively, cost optimisation activities, supply chain management, and the effective rollout of initiatives accross countries.

Product strategy and RoadMap

• Work with the Head of Product to develop the ICS and water product strategy, identifying initiatives, activities, and critical projects and documenting them in the product 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, distribution, carbon, origination, and operations teams, to ensure alignment on product 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. And where applicable, manage the relationship with local manufacturers.

Product development, optimization and performance

• Develop market research to inform the execution plan and strategically prioritise initiatives to product, process or platforms.
• Collaborate with engineering and development teams to prioritise and plan product enhancements for optimisation.
• Analyse feedback from customers, sales teams, and support teams to identify areas where the product can be improved or optimized.
• Managing Updates and Releases: Plan and oversee updates on features, improvements, and releases to ensure the product remains competitive, meets evolving market needs, and is efficient in its carbon production (i.e longer life, fuel efficiency, materials, etc)
• Address local market needs regarding behaviour change, affordability, and cultural considerations.
• Collaborate with Up Energy’s country operation team to gather constant market feedback, which will create a feedback loop in the design process.
• Coordinate documentation and presentation of experimentation learnings (water)
• Coordinate the feedback loop process from the ground to the product team to facilitate the iteration process. (water)
• Collaborate closely with UpEnergy's carbon team to optimise the experimentation design for usage and carbon credit generation, ensuring alignment with sustainability objectives.

Commercial development

• Manage the product's budget and resources effectively, ensuring investments align with strategic goals and expected returns through unit economics optimization.
• Explore opportunities for revenue growth through pricing strategies, new distribution methods and new market penetration.
• Support all product lifecycle stages, including research, market analysis, competitive evaluation, planning, positioning, roadmap development, requirements definition, and product launch.
• Support efforts to optimise product’s COGs and ER profiles, working closely with operational excellence to achieve cost reduction objectives.
• Work in tandem with the distribution team to optimise 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.