Field Operations Lead at Pula

Pula is seeking a well-rounded, experienced Field Operations Lead to grow their agricultural insurance products. The incumbent must have a love for rural fieldwork, while also being comfortable building a cutting-edge start-up company.

The Field Operations Leader is expected to dive-in to the details of execution in order to drive it forward effectively across Kenya: tasks will range from running large scale trainings, to doing quality check field visits, compiling data reports, writing Standard Operating Procedures, mentoring and training staff, and tracking performance in a data-driven manner.

The position will be based in Kenya.

A detailed Job description for the position is as follows;

• Manage a team of 100-300 staff, including several regional managers and supervisors. These team members will be executing on several pre-specified tasks across Kenya. The Lead is expected to track that all tasks are completed in due time, with high quality and high levels of customer service.
• Solve problems and build relationships with local partners such as telecom companies, insurance companies and agricultural firms, among others
• You will have to interface with our technology and product teams at times, and thus be comfortable with translating your operational observations and needs into language that they can understand.
• Manage the budget and make sound financial decisions from an operations standpoint
• Analyse data and use it to make key operational decisions
• Hire new team members and terminate non-performing staff
• Conduct periodic performance evaluations of staff
• Travel to field sites and conduct visits to rural locations up to 75% of the time
• Train, follow up, and enforce financial management rules of engagement with staff
• Write training documents and other content as needed

Desired Candidate Profile

The right applicant would have the following skillset:

• You have a University degree
• You have 5+ years of overall operations experience with at least 2 years of team management experience, with no fewer than 20 direct reports
• You have a proven track record of actively managing performance: hiring and interviewing, running performance assessments, terminations and being in-charge of disciplinary action
• You are willing to appropriately critique and intervene on poor performance as well as speak up independently when there is a problem to be solved
• You have the ability to translate concepts into logical, detailed, written action-plans
• You are able to respond reliably on email to your managers, even when you are remote.
• You are on top of all of your own tasks and are very well organized (your manager should never have to remind you about tasks and deliverables, deadlines, email responses, etc.)
• You have the ability to professionally and respectfully dissent, and logically debate challenges
• You have the ability to use data and KPIs to make management decisions
• You have substantive experience working and/or living in rural African farming contexts
• You are fully comfortable with Google Drive applications such as Google Sheets, Google Docs etc
• You will be asked to demonstrate fluency in key work tools such as Microsoft Excel,
• Google Sheets, Google Forms, etc. Full comfort with Pivot tables is considered a minimum standard measure of fluency.

Does this sound like you?

• Love working with a diverse and multicultural team
• Very detail-oriented and highly organised
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Possess high levels of integrity and ethics
• Are proactive and results-oriented
• Okay with field sites and conduct visits to rural locations up to 75% of the time
• Lead from the front - ready to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
• Strong planning and organisational skills to run a streamlined operation
• Problem-solving ability, to resolve issues as they arise.
• Exceptional cooperation skills - the ability to both work in and lead a team