Associate Fellow, Information Services and Technology

Role Title:
Associate Fellow, Information Services and Technology

Role Type:
12-24 months with future opportunities

Location:
Arusha, Tanzania

Company Description:
Off.Grid:Electric is the world’s first massively scalable off-grid electric company. It exists to provide affordable and reliable energy (M-POWER) to communities that currently lack such power. The company utilizes distributed renewable energy to sell power as a service to customers who suffer from an expensive grid, an unreliable grid, or have no electrical grid access at all. It is headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania and founded by a team of world-class, venture-backed entrepreneurs.

OGE’s Core Values:
1. Deliver more. Our customers deserve the very best. We obsess over exceeding our customers’ expectations.
2. Expect more. ‘This is Africa’ doesn’t fly with us. We hold ourselves and our partners to a higher standard.
3. Think big. We have an audacious goal that will be impossible unless every member of the organization thinks bigger than the average employee.
4. Create value, rather than extract it. Build local management capacity, support small businesses and improve customers’ lives.
5. Pursue personal growth. We invest in ourselves, our employees and our partners more than anyone else. We teach each other how to be better than we think we are.
6. Speak up. All of our employee’s opinions are valuable and we give them tools to express themselves.
7. Integrity above all else. Integrity drives trust and builds the company’s reputation.
8. Build a community you want to be a part of. Like a family, a company builds strong bonds through intentional time together; fun times, challenging times and time spent helping each other. Throughout our organization we encourage teams to treat each other like family.
9. More than just a customer: Our customers are long term partners in our success, and we in theirs. We reward their loyalty continually.

Fellowship Program Description:
As Off.Grid:Electric expands, many new projects are on the horizon. Projects include but are not limited to: expansions into other East African countries, developing recruitment and training programs, research and development of new product offerings, continued improvement and implementation of our enterprise management software solutions, and leading pilots to introduce innovations into the existing business model.

Off.Grid:Electric is in search of people with the desire, determination and commitment to spend an extended period of time (up to 2 years) in East Africa at a leading social enterprise. This position offers an opportunity to work with an established team of business professionals and engineers and to directly contribute to the success of a rapidly expanding company. Candidates must have a passion for entrepreneurship, renewable energy and sustainable development.

As an Off.Grid:Electric Fellow, you will be based in Tanzania working on critical projects with real and immediate impact on the company’s success. You will receive a stipend along with housing and travel expenses as the role will include opportunities for domestic and regional travel. Fellows will also help to co-design projects with leadership based on their background, interests, and career aspirations. Candidates with significant work experience may be considered for full time positions, which offers additional management opportunities, greater responsibilities and a larger stipend. Midway through the Fellowship, we will schedule time with all Fellows to discuss future career opportunities with Off.Grid:Electric in East Africa or other markets where the company is expanding.

Job Description:
Off.Grid:Electric is seeking a highly motivated and entrepreneurial Fellow with leadership experience to work with our local and international operations teams. This will include utilizing both information technology, software, information systems and leadership skills to identify, develop and implement technical solutions to support core company operations.

Additionally, the IT/IS Fellow will significantly support the development of proprietary cloud based software and Android applications. This will include overseeing software upgrade releases, acting as a point of contact with development teams, and training of internal staff on new releases. This is a high touch role that requires working directly with our Operations and Technical teams. You must have the experience and capability to prepare documentation and reports for senior management.

Key Responsibilities:
• Become the go-to power user on OGE’s report-writing / dashboard tool, training others and building more advanced reports
• General IT support: Mac desktop support, LAN support, mobile device support and training.
• Software Development support:
• Training of internal OGE staff on proper use of both proprietary software, as well as standard Google Services platforms. In addition staff may require assistance with computer literacy and other general IT/IS support.
• Act as the point of interface between line staff, local managers and software development teams. Organize, filter and translate field user feedback and communicate to software development teams, and IT contractors.
• Assist operations managers in maintaining computers and other communication technologies.
• Work independently, proactively communicating to supervisors and colleagues.
• Be a representative for management in promoting accountability, self-reliance and a fun positive and collaborative work environment. This is a key factor in a fellows’ success.
• Contribute to new operational technology or processes through assigned research and analysis.
• Assist managers in formalizing manual data collection and analysis tools by analyzing processes and developing manual spreadsheets and simple databases. These databases are sometimes temporary, and if implemented as standard processes, will be integrated into OGE’s cloud based management platform.
• Work with Senior Management to formulate and evaluate projects that are critical to the success of the organization.
Note: Core responsibilities will vary for each Fellow to account for the unique skills and experience that each team member brings, as well as their specific interests and career goals. A portion of each Fellow’s time will be spent on a project that the Fellow identifies and co-design with Off.Grid:Electric leadership.

Required Skills & Experiences:
• Commitment to live and work in East Africa for 12-24 months.
• Minimum Bachelors degree in a relevant field with a record of strong academic performance.
• A demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship, including the ability to flourish in dynamic, ambiguous environments and to drive work independently.
• Leadership and project management experience.
• Experience in working in a high-pressure environment.
• Ability to build effective teams, coach and develop others.
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis, with advanced skills in Microsoft Excel.
• Outstanding written and verbal communications skills (English).
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office software, Google Services applications, and Apple technologies

Highly Desired Skills & Experiences:
• Prior work experience outside of the US, preferably in East Africa, or other emerging markets.
• Two years of post-undergraduate, full time work experience in a relevant field or world class institution.
• Software development (in any languages/platforms), database/SQL, enterprise software implementation, networking technologies (routers, firewalls, etc)
• Basic or advanced competency in Swahili.
• Education and/or work experience in renewable energy or energy access programs.
CV or Resume (required)

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