Job Vacancies at Open Capital Advisors

We have built a platform to drive change through African markets and are seeking exceptional team members to join us. Our Senior Project Leaders lead multiple client projects, develop our talented Analysts & Associates, co-create new projects, and assume management responsibility for OCA’s growth.

Senior Project Leaders work closely with our clients to develop business & industry strategies, structure capital raises, and build creative approaches to broad development challenges. We count on you to own outcomes, interacting with senior clients around the world, managing multiple OCA teams, and developing deliverables that achieve results.

You will join Open Capital at an exciting time – we are seeking to achieve broad, ambitious growth goals, and leverage our strong international brand in the impact investing and frontier market space. We are being called to solve challenges in many diverse frontier markets – from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa to Sierra Leone, Niger, and the DRC. The right candidate should be excited to take on a new level of responsibility and genuinely motivated by the challenging strategic and financial questions we answer for our clients.

Your Skills And Experience

We are looking for exceptional leaders and executers who share our motivation and drive. Senior Project Leaders should feel comfortable leading multiple client projects, developing complex strategies and analyses, contributing fresh ideas, and feeling personally accountable for the impact we achieve. Our team is energetic and driven and we are quick to reward performance and initiative. We are open to a variety of backgrounds but top candidates will typically have the following:

• 7-10 years of proven experience at a top global management consulting firm, investment firm, or experience as an entrepreneur or leader in a high-growth business, with significant responsibility for deliverables and client service;
• Strong interest in building teams and managing talented colleagues;
• Strong communication skills and analytical abilities and insightful, structured way of presenting information;
• Ability to effectively work with clients at all levels and backgrounds;
• Desire to work and live in Nairobi or Kampala for at least 24 months and broader interest in the region;
• Multiple languages and previous Africa experience useful but not required.

Several recent clients

We Highlight Several Recent Client Engagements Below

• Strategy and finance for water utilities (Kenya, Senegal, South Africa)
• Engaged in a Pan-Africa project supporting large water utilities to design strategies, increase efficiencies, and access additional commercial finance.
• Goal: improve and extend water delivery to growing urban areas across Africa, contributing to solve the world’s coming drought problem; link commercial finance to sustainable expansion.
• Strategy, roll-out, and financing for early-stage LPG business (Kenya)
• Supported an early-stage company developing innovative cooking fuel distribution for low-income populations in Africa. Conducted analysis to define distribution hubs and fleet configuration; built detailed financial model; supported capital raise through completion.
• Goal: enable company to disrupt the cooking fuels market, providing affordable option to the mass market.
• Due diligence in Ethiopia for family-owned conglomerate (Ethiopia)
• Conducted due diligence on potential investment in Ethiopia for large Kenyan FMCG conglomerate. Involved full commercial due diligence of assets in
• Ethiopia, including proposed strategies for acquisition and approaches to negotiation.
• Goal: expand FMCG access to burgeoning Ethiopian population through strategic partnership between Kenya & Ethiopia.
• Fund structuring & design for conflict country (East Africa)
• Designed new investment fund for large European DFI, focused on a post-conflict country in East Africa. Proposed fund process, created fund financing strategy, evaluated initial pipeline, and designed PPM for launch of fundraising.
• Goal: provide source of capital for high-growth businesses in challenging, post-conflict country.

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The Role

We are looking for a senior leader to serve as Arcadia Head in Kenya, our first market. You will report directly to Open Capital Group’s co-founders, and will be responsible for leading Arcadia across all aspects of its growth and development. We are searching for an entrepreneurial and adaptable leader who is as passionate as we are about our mission and is able to own outcomes as we scale. This is an opportunity to join a proven team with significant resources, with responsibility for a new business model at a pivotal time in our growth.

In This Role, You Will

• Build and manage an exceptional team: You will recruit, manage, and develop the Arcadia team in Kenya, including an expected Deputy Head of Country, a team of Managers overseeing Arcadia Analysts, and any additional roles needed to grow the business (e.g. Business Development, Product Management, etc). We expect your team will grow to 80-100+ in the coming 2-3 years.
• Deliver and prove quality of Arcadia’s service offering: You will ensure the quality of our service, creating a demonstration effect in the market. This will include developing and overseeing processes to ensure consistent quality across Arcadia placements, driving client satisfaction and high Net Promoter Scores, among other KPIs.
• Oversee business development: You will oversee business development for the Arcadia brand in the Kenyan market, overseeing the funnel from leads to contracts for Arcadia placements for the 30-100 OCG analysts expected in country.
• Drive overall strategy: You will identify challenges and opportunities as we grow, suggest approaches and strategies, and take part in budget and agenda setting, working closely with our Founders as we look to replicate your success in Kenya to new markets.

We are looking for someone willing to commit to Arcadia’s long-term growth, including 3 + years in Kenya. We are working towards ambitious, global growth goals and expect to have many global promotion opportunities for strong performers.

Skills And Experience

We are looking for an exceptional leader and operator who shares our passion and drive to scale Arcadia to thousands. You should be experienced managing a multi-cultural team, able to own outcomes from day one, and excited to build buy-in within a broader organization, leveraging significant past success through our Open Capital Advisors operations. Perhaps most importantly, we want you on our team if you take pleasure in the work we do: we are energetic, driven, and quick to reward performance and initiative.

Specifically, We Are Looking For

• 5-10 years+ of experience at a top global consulting firm or best-in-class professional services firm or corporation, or as a leader in a high-growth business, with significant responsibility for people management, deliverables, and excellent client service;
• Demonstrated ability to manage and lead a team, with top reviews as a people manager;
• Proven ability to set strategies and drive these to completion, owning results;
• Adaptability and ability to work across functions;
• Strong communication skills and analytical abilities and insightful, structured way of presenting information;
• Previous experience working across cultures, ideally with proven work experience in Africa.