Operations Launch Manager - Kenya
Cloudline, Kenya
Job Description
Cape Town-based Cloudline designs and operates solar-powered autonomous airships that combine the lifting power of helium with advanced flight control and an all-electric powertrain to offer order of magnitude advantages over alternative UAV platforms. These advantages are most apparent in terms of:
- Cost - minimal ground infrastructure, highly autonomous operations, and user-focused design engineering make our model significantly less expensive than other solutions;
- Range - our airships have virtually unlimited range, as they are solar propelled. As a backup, the airship can travel up to 250 km using onboard batteries, extendable by variable battery carrying capacity and strategically-placed battery swapping stations.
- Payload - Our 50 kg payload capacity allows the integration of refrigerators, cameras, sensors, and data transmission equipment.
- Safety - Airships introduce significant safety advantages over other autonomous aircraft thanks to their float-not-fall nature, combined with high visibility and advanced flight controls to ensure adherence to approved flight paths even through inclement weather.
- Environmental impact - Cloudline uses 100% renewable energy for its operations and is quieter than comparable aircraft.
As Operations Manager, you will oversee the establishment of Cloudline’s first Airship Operating Base in Kisumu, Kenya. Cloudline’s airships will be serving a variety of customers across various industries, including health logistics, aquaculture, wildlife management, and infrastructure monitoring. The Senior Operations Manager will be responsible for operations, stakeholder management, and all other activities required to ensure the success of the deployment. The role will report to the Head of Global Operations in Cape Town.
You have a deep passion for operational efficiency, process design, and high-quality execution. You love the challenge of solving big, bold problems. You have big picture thinking but have an ability to go to ground-level details. You can switch gears from health logistics applications to infrastructure monitoring applications to agriculture applications, and are excited to learn and partner.
You’ll work as part of a cross-functional team to understand key drivers and technical blockers and create plans that help meet functional goals. You’ll work closely with our Nairobi and Cape Town-based teams to rapidly scale and sustain Cloudline’s serviceable market.
Location:
Are you located in Kisumu, Kenya or willing to relocate to Kisumu? Cloudline's inaugural Air Operating Base (AOB) will be strategically stationed in the greater Kisumu area to serve the health clinics and hard to reach areas within the region with health logistics support. Both flight and support operations teams will be based in this area and it will be critical to be present with the teams as operations are built out, and as future customers and delivery sites are onboarded.
Key responsibilities:
Project management- coordinate among all stakeholders, particularly with regards to things happening on site, and ensure project is progressing as per the timeline.
Import/Customs/Logistics- This person will ensure that there are no problems bringing the products into the country, as well as ensure that the team has a place to stay and that the space is ready for them before they arrive.
Flight Operations- oversee all operations, and managing the operator partner, communicating flights plans to them, ensuring operational excellence, ensuring constant culture of safety and accountability.
Health Systems Integration- interface with the various stakeholders (medical warehouses, hospitals, clinics), determine how the handshake happens when a product is passed from one party to the next, develop and implement a plan.
Reporting- all weekly reporting from the site in pursuit of full transparency and consistent improvement.
More detail:
Country Operations
- Accountable for facility establishment, commissioning and operations.
- Identify operational improvement opportunities and analyze them for efficiency (waste, complexity, cost), effectiveness (achieves desired outcome), and quality.
- Clearly and effectively communicate findings and make recommendations for improvement.
- Identify root causes of problems and work with internal and external partners to find resolutions and work to implement resolutions.
- Develop business analytics and insights strategic amp; tactical recommendations.
- Drive insights amp; improvements: working across functional teams, define, creating, and maintaining key operational metrics and dashboards aligned with the Global operations org strategy that enables proactive management and monitoring of performance and forecasting.