About KOKO NetworksKOKO Networks is a venture-backed technology company currently operating in Kenya and India. Our mission is to imagine and deliver technology that transforms life in the world’s fastest growing cities. We build and deploy cloud-connected "KOKO Points" inside local retail outlets, which provide mass market consumer goods in partnership with major suppliers. Our first solution is liquid ethanol cooking fuel, which offers significant cost savings and quality of life improvements in the multi-billion dollar urban cooking market. In Kenya, this solution is delivered in partnership with Vivo Energy, the operator of Shell-branded fuel infrastructure across Africa. KOKO offers a fast-paced and highly collaborative work environment with significant opportunities for professional growth. We are looking for people who share our passion for technology and our vision for global impact.
Your RoleAs a Principal Product Manager you will lead our product efforts in one business area and play a key role in enabling KOKO’s long term success, including our expansion beyond Nairobi and Kenya. This is a very visible leadership position and has the potential to help increase revenue, make complex logistics and operations more efficient, and delight our colleagues, customers, and partners.
You will be a member of the Product leadership team and work directly with executive team members on key company priorities and with other leaders across Engineering, Operations, Marketing amp; Sales, and Manufacturing.
This is both a creative and analytical role - building on insights gained from data, refining product strategies, and building solutions to better acquire and retain customers, support our employees, and broaden our product offering.
This role requires significant time in the local market and close to our operations in Nairobi. We will consider candidates based there, willing to relocate there, or able to travel there 30-40% of their time.What You Will Do- You will be a senior leader in the organisation, defining the KOKO product roadmap and vision, identifying opportunities to innovate and drive value for our customers and colleagues
- You will lead across the entire product lifecycle, from research and requirements to working with designers and engineers, to user testing, to measuring impact and optimising
- You will think about the end-to-end customer and user journeys, across functional and solution boundaries to ensure their experience is compelling, coherent, and consistent
- You will help us build, lead, and mentor a world class team of product managers
- You will develop strong partnerships with KOKO business teams and partners and empathy for our customers, creating continuous feedback loops that allow us to better understand their pain points
- You will ensure we are solving the right problems by sourcing input from multiple channels and prioritising effectively to drive maximum impact
- You’ll create an environment that fosters high quality, metrics-driven experimentation and set high standards for how we measure product success
- You will bring and build deep domain knowledge and experience; people across the company will look to you as an expert; and you leverage it through teaching, guiding and coaching others
What You Will Bring to KOKO- We are looking for a hands-on leader with a strong blend of business and technical savvy as well as strategic thinking and tactical execution, who is passionate about shaping markets in Kenya and beyond
- 8+ years experience in product management with a strong track record of shipping high quality products
- Proven ability to deliver business results by developing, prioritising and delivering on a roadmap that addresses customer needs and pain points via innovative products
- You may have managed PM teams but would prefer to get back closer to the product work itself
- We strongly prefer if you have had experience working in combined software and hardware businesses (with manufacturing and logistics)
- You are a strong leader, very confident and competent at leading individuals and teams.
- You have excellent communication skills in any medium
- You have a growth mindset; a willingness to own problems
- You are comfortable with ambiguity, have a passion for building product, a desire to make things better, and a sense of optimism
- You’re able to easily switch between thinking creatively and analytically for best results
What we offer- We believe that our people are critical for our ambitious growth plans in Kenya and beyond. We want to build an organisation where people thrive, feel included, grow professionally, and enjoy having high impact through their work