About Fenix

Fenix International is a next-generation energy and technology company. Our mission is to improve the quality of life of our customers through inclusive energy and financial services. Our flagship product, Fenix Power, is an expandable, pay-go solar home system financed through affordable installments from just $0.14 per day. We use real-time transaction data to create a next-generation credit score to finance power upgrades and other life-changing loans, unlocking modern financial services for our customers. To date, Fenix has sold over 600,000 Solar Home Systems in Uganda, Zambia, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Nigeria and Mozambique, bringing clean, reliable power for lights, phones, radios, TV and much more to over 3 million people.

In early 2018, Fenix joined forces with ENGIE, one of the world's largest energy companies and a leader in the move to renewable, decentralised and digital energy. This has allowed Fenix to make significant commercial investments to accelerate the path to our mission, via new markets and innovative products. Together, Fenix and ENGIE are making universal access to modern energy a reality.

Job Description

This position will be part of the Engineering team, within Fumba that is based in Kampala, Uganda, led by a The Head of Software and Hardware Engineering. The role will report to the Software Development Manager and will work cross-functionally with our customer service, operations, sales, marketing, and software engineering teams to gather client needs, help define product development strategy, and implement software engineering deliverables. Fenix International is seeking a highly motivated and entrepreneurial Software Product Manager to drive innovation, design, and development of our proprietary web application and backend database systems. The role will report to the Software Development Manager and will work cross-functionally with our customer service, operations, sales, marketing, and software engineering teams to gather client needs, help define product development strategy, and implement software engineering deliverables.

Responsibilities, Deliverables and Activities

Top 5 Key Responsibilities

• Work with key business stakeholders to identify key opportunities for software to positively impact our customers and the business.
• Determine core KPIs and develop monitoring frameworks to frame the goals and to monitor the success of new software products.
• Communicate the product vision and the voice of the customer to your software engineering team, promote engagement and excitement for the product.
• Create user stories and detailed specs and work closely with your software engineering team to iterate to an implementable solution. You should be willing to get their hands dirty with testing, monitoring, querying, or whatever it takes to ensure the product is built, and built right.
• Be the voice of the engineering team for the business stakeholders; communicate any issues and changes to the scope or schedule of your product.
• Ensure comprehension and competence of the team with new tools; take feedback critically and iterate for an exceptional user experience.
• Prioritise ruthlessly, don’t be afraid of saying no, champion progress over perfection.
• Manage the documentation of the SDLC by creating Software requirements specifications documents, Software design documents, User stories documents, Test reports, Release notes, user guides etc.
• Train and support users of the system as modules are developed/rolled out.

Key Deliverables and Activities

• Product Functionality: Ensure that there is end to end product software support by prioritizing tasks and collaborating with teams to ensure that the product is fully functional
• Solution driven approach to problems: A solution driven mindset is essential for this role and nothing should be viewed as being “impossible”. A successful Software product manager will be able to demonstrate the solutions that they have implemented with minimal time and resources at their disposal.
• Cross Functional Team engagement: The Software product manager will demonstrate an ability to engage with other team members and clearly communicate their needs and timelines for providing support. The Software Product Manager is also expected to provide insight to the different teams and department heads on key functions such as how to iterate the product and come up with innovative solutions that can enhance the customer experience.

Required Skills & Experience

• 4+ years of experience developing and launching software products
• Leadership and project management experience (Agile software development practices strongly preferred)
• Two year minimum commitment to live and work in East Africa
• Experience administration of web applications / strong technical acumen
• Strong communication skills to translate needs between technical and non-technical teams
• Experience using issue tracking software, e.g. JIRA
• Willingness to be flexible and do whatever task is needed to get the right product shipped
• Ability to maintain big-picture vision while being detail-oriented
• Outstanding written and verbal communications skills (English, French a plus!)
• High competency in Microsoft Office products
• Willingness to relocate (if necessary) to Kampala, Uganda

Desired Skills

• An understanding of Human Centered Design and working UX / UI experience
• Education and/or work experience in East Africa
• MySQL database familiarity
• Programming background, preferably background inJava / SQL /  Django / Python

Compensation details

Competitive salary and benefits package, including:

• Health insurance & evacuation cover
• Awesome off-sites rafting, climbing, kayaking
• The opportunity to travel throughout East Africa and visit our customers in the field
• A fun and friendly work environment with ping-pong, table football and delicious lunch cooked every day by our in-house chefs, Carol & Lilian