About Us:

UpEnergy (www.upenergygroup.com) brings aspirational products that save energy and improve lives within reach of low-income customers. Specifically, we strive to produce valuable health and environmental outcomes by providing customers with products that they love and use every day. Our approach combines a hyperlocal, on the ground team that works closely with partners and customers alike along with the generation and sale of carbon emission reductions that allow us to provide our products to end users at affordable prices.

We sell products under our SmartHome brand, and through partnerships with other brands. We operate local distribution networks and build relationships directly with customers through the SmartHome sales operation. We’ve seen 100%+ year on year growth for many years and have reached over 800,000 African households with products that deliver health and income benefits. A typical SmartHome stove saves each family we reach about 9% of their annual income while reducing air pollution.

UpEnergy has a 10+ year track record of building bespoke projects that outperform expectations in the generation of emissions reductions, and that deliver on the energy savings promise to our customers. We are one of the largest developers by volume of projects focused on poverty alleviation through energy savings and fuel switching. Our team has a collective 50 years of experience and is at the forefront of Paris-era project finance.

About the role:

UpEnergy is at a time of exciting growth, both in terms of team and geographic location. We are seeking a Group Management Accountant who will manage and direct the financial planning, analysis and forecasting processes for the Group.

This role will require someone who is both very organized and thrives in a fast-paced environment with energy, tenacity and passion to drive through challenges that arise.

This role will report to the Global Finance Operations Director and the location is flexible, but ideally in an UpEnergy market in Africa.

Key Responsibilities

Management of the financial planning and budgeting process

• Ensure the short-term and long-term budgeting process runs smoothly, linking strategic intent and climate finance with operational execution. Working with individual countries and global functional teams to prepare and consolidate their budgets into one overall corporate budget.
• Consistently and constructively challenging the assumptions of the country/business unit leaders. Comparing historical results against budgets and forecasts, performing variance analysis to explain differences in performance and make improvements going forward.
• Build capability within the country accounting teams to better analyse the actuals and think commercially, fully understand and clearly present the financial trends and opportunities. The key deliverables will be the production of comprehensive management reports which will support critical business decision making at Group and country levels.
• Creating, updating and maintaining financial models and detailed forecasts of the Group’s future operations.
• Preparing internal reports and business cases for executive leadership and supporting decision making.

Development and enhancement of BI and analytical tools

• Lead development and rollout of best-in-class BI and analytical tools throughout the Group.
• Leverage automation, BI, ERP and AI as appropriate to build capability, efficiency and a competitive edge.

Evaluation of assets, new investments and risk

• Evaluate new capital projects and monitor them during implementation and post completion, tracking and evaluating whether the projects have delivered against NPV, IRR>WACC, and Payback investment criteria.
• Evaluating whether the Group’s current assets and investments are the best use of working capital, by looking at ROI and comparisons with viable alternatives (e.g., other possible investments, dividends, etc)

Gauging the Group’s overall health

• Using key financial ratios such as performance, efficiency risk and liquidity ratios to generate actionable insights.
• Lead companywide internal and external financial benchmarking that guides management to establish priorities and growth plans.
• Develop and maintain value-chain and profitability analysis for each product by country.
• Examine and evaluate the cost-efficiency of each function by country, implement leanings and insights into the planning process.

Does this sound like you?

Must Have

• Relevant Bachelor’s degree and MBA and/or CPA/ACCA/CIMA
• 5+ years of accounting and/or FP&A experience.
• Experience working within the FP&A function of a global entity.
• Experience leading rollout of BI and reporting tools in a global entity.
• Advanced and proven financial modelling skills, including advanced MS Excel skills.
• High work ethic.
• Strong leadership and team building abilities.
• Excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills.
• Exceptional attention to detail.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Willing to travel occasionally to our different markets.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with project finance and/or the development of energy or carbon projects. Experience in carbon project development is a huge plus.
• An understanding of customers and business culture in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Why Join us?

A Unique Culture

UpEnergy encourages teamwork, creativity, and experimentation. We are not afraid to develop new project types, or to roll up our sleeves and tackle challenging operating environments. We stay close to our market, understand our customers, and have a lot of fun while doing our work!

Opportunity to do things in a new way

As a leader in a fast-moving industry, our team is constantly evolving, iterating and learning how to improve our business. This means endless opportunities for a self-starter to initiate new ways of doing things to help us improve.

Personal and Career Growth

At UpEnergy we value both personal and professional growth. We have built a culture of mutual learning and encourage our team to take on projects that expand their knowledge and expose them to parts of the business they are most interested in.

Create Lasting Impact

Our clean energy products bring positive impact to both our planet and the low-income communities we work in. We pledge to recycle revenue into the communities we serve and we work alongside our customers to make sure they benefit from our products.