Head of Special Projects at Peach Cars KE

Role description

• So much to do, so little time! As we inch closer to product-market fit, the opportunities at our doorstep grow, and yet our ability to act on them is limited by our existing team and capacity at present. The outcome is that we struggle on two fronts: (1) systematic review and improvement of our existing business operations and (2) project initiation, management, and delivery for strategic business initiatives.
• Efforts cutting across these fronts, shifting based on company priorities and broader operational contexts, would form the foundation of the Head of Special Projects role essentially an internal consulting capacity. The successful candidate will be expected to work collaboratively with the rest of the Peach leadership team to identify priority areas and then fully own efforts according to one of the following modes of engagement…
• Project management ~ At any given point in time, there are 3-5 projects minor to major that Peach can and should be working towards to support the growth of our business today, tomorrow, and beyond. For example, if Peach were to be certified as a valuer, we can not only secure recurring revenue from non-customer payers (insurers) always a major win for businesses! but also create whole new customer acquisition and retention pipelines for our other car sales and maintenance business lines. The same applies to the design, build, and integration of a new, high-tech inspection center to supportn automated inspections for improved data capture and process optimization albeit less about top line growth and more about improvement to our internal systems and processes. The Head of Special Projects would work with company leadership and internal stakeholders to identify projects, scope them accordingly, and then execute - including integration into our broader business operations / functions. This will require an immense amount of flexibility and latitude as a professional, as one project may require expert understanding of the insurance landscape and regulations in Kenya, while the next will demand the ability to lead design and build of a physical structure and all the permitting and engineering checks involved therein. Business operations improvement ~ The auto industry is a treasure trove of data. Peach  has a small, but growing, data set on cars, customers, and how we do what we do (and
• we’re collecting more data each and every day!). Analysis of our data can point to opportunities unseen, ways to address challenges, etc. we’ve seen this happen before and it made waves across our company, altering how we thought about our business (broadly), as well as what we do on a day-to-day basis, how we spend time, effort, money, etc. Here, the Head of Special Projects would work with internal stakeholders and data streams to structure data collection and storage efforts, better understand baseline(s), identify opportunities / challenges, brainstorm levers we might pull for improvement, growth, ROI, etc. and then work alongside the team leads throughout a journey of pressure testing and rapidly iterating on hypotheses. Other ~ Given the right candidate, additional value-adding efforts, such as management of KPI tracking and data-driven decision-making across internal operations, supporting preparation for and execution of fundraising vis-a-vis analyses and communication tools, or expansion planning and implementation, could very well be part of the roles and responsibilities.

Requirements

• Candidates should be a strategic thinker by nature, with demonstrated successes in both project management as well as using data to pull out insights and ask the next question / take the next step of “So what?”. 
• Candidates should also be highly-collaborative and understand how to “work through others” to ensure she is able to scale her efforts and impact across the company. 
• Last,candidates must be expert communicators, knowing how to sit in between multiple (potentially tens) of stakeholders and ensure everyone knows what they need to know, when, etc. and get the feedback as well as results needed to advance. Along these lines, three to five years’ prior experiences in business strategy and analysis, consulting, and/or project management roles are required.

Finally, candidates should be able to speak to how they understand and would add to our company values, which include:

• Ownership ~ Complete work is the expectation; going above and beyond is who we are and what we do
• Respect ~ Communication is key and this is always done in a respectful manner, no matter how difficult; as a team, we may disagree but we commit
• Challenge ~ As a company, we are anti comfort zones; Peach is a place for learning and growth