IT Product Manager at Grassroots Economics Foundation

Why work with us?

Grassroots Economics seeks to be a leader in Financial Technology with a unique product of Community Currency. You will learn a lot! You will have the chance to help marginalized communities excel and build business management capacity in others.

About The Team

Our small and growing team is highly committed, we share information and learn together. We are self-starters and passionately believe in community development. We do exchange visits between Mombasa and Nairobi and hold our annual strategy retreat at the coast. We entrust you with great responsibility and match this with freedom and space for ideas.

Over the last year, Grassroots Economics Foundation’s activities have grown a lot, with plans to exponentially scale in the next 12 months. Our Operations team enables and supports all field activities. We are now aspiring to build a first rate tech team to lead us into the second phase of our program, which includes the rollout of Android based smartphones, custom applications and and our digital community currency.

About This Role

As the IT Product Manager you will lead the way in designing, implementing and monitoring our diverse projects from a tech perspective. You’ll work closely with the field and operations teams, coordinate internal resources as well as external resources and have direct responsibility over project outcomes. You’ll deliver every project on time and within budget and scope.

Over time you will transform GEF staff tech aptitude and lead Android application development as well as hardware implementation as well as build a capable and innovative tech team.

You will begin this journey in Nairobi, but we expect that you will also duplicate your successes in Mombasa and any other regions GEF is active in.

What You Will Do

• System Building
  • Develop program & project management standards
  • Identify and prioritize significant opportunities for tech innovation – then lead research, design, prototyping, and scaling of our best solutions
• Program Management
  • Plan and implement an android phone rollout plan
  • Conduct trainings and planning sessions for both new and existing members on asset usage.
• Project & Product Management & Development
  • Coordinate internal resources and third parties/vendors for the flawless execution of projects
  • Supervise Android development, manage external stakeholders
  • Conduct Android app development
• Team Management
  • Oversee, audit and support the work of all tech staff, contractors and third party developers
  • Lead, coach, correct and discipline tech team members as needed

Your deliverables will include

• Develop tech PM system
• Preparation of weekly, monthly and quarterly reports based and in alignment with defined OKRs and KPIs
• Create any other reports on demand by M&E Manager , Program Manager and SLT
• Create and monitor work plans for department staff
• Monitoring our program and project plans
• Identify, prepare solution recommendations and escalate challenges to SLT
• Procure, rootkit and customize 1,000+ Android phones
• Lead and assist in Android app development

What You Should Have

Strong passion for progress in low-income areas and empathy to relate with small business owners and the community. You are interested in the larger questions of building economies, livelihoods, collateral, lending and credit questions. Excited to get on the ground, roll up your sleeves and work with our team to figure out what needs to be done to scale GEF.

You Should Bring To The Table:

• Bachelor’s Degree, Project Management, IT
• PMP or PRINCE2 Certification
• Minimum of five years IT product management experience  for large East Africa based organizations with sizeable field operations as well as proven track record of Android app development
• Experience operating in bottom-of-the-pyramid environments in urban slums and rural areas
• Solid ICT skills with PM tools and software
• Experience with Agile, Scrum & Kanban style PM

If You Also Have

• Master’s degree
• Proven track record developing Android apps
• Lean Six Sigma Certification
• Team management
• Training experience

….., it would present you with an unique edge in this recruiting process.

In Addition, You Are

Energetic, enthusiastic, flexible & self-motivated to do what is necessary to get the job done. Comfortable working in a startup culture that is dynamic, unstructured, and frequently changing with ambitious international expansion plans. Self-directed and intellectually curious, seeking feedback in the pursuit of continuous improvement. A collaborative problem solver who seeks the opinions of other teammates and departments in the development of creative and sustainable solutions, and able to work independently with minimum supervision

What We Expect

You will be based in Nairobi and work from our main office. You will visit our community operations frequently and interact with CC members. Occasional travel to visit the Mombasa project sites will be scheduled as needed.

You will work closely with the Chief Operations Officer who is also based in Nairobi. And work closely with the operations team on collaborative projects.