COUNTRY MANAGER-VACANCY

Job Description

The social enterprise, VisionSpring, seeks a dynamic and experienced Country Manager to grow VisionSpring’s pioneering portfolio of Vision Access Programs and eyeglasses sales which advances the income-earning potential and livelihoods of people living on less than $4 per day. The Country Manager joins with an exciting mandate to scale up evidence-based programs, grow sales channels, identify and introduce innovative approaches that further advance the mission, catalyze collective action within the vision sector and with allied parties, and influence systems change globally.

Responsibilities

Leadership & Strategic Direction (15% of time)

As a Member Of The Africa Leadership Team

• Model VisionSpring’s core values and sustain an inclusive team culture built upon them: 1) Help others to do; 2) Advance equity; 3) Constantly adapt, relentlessly improve; 4) Default to transparency, reveal hard truths; and 5) Learn together.
• Work with the Africa Region Director and Global Programs Vice President to develop a five-year Nigeria strategy, aligned to enterprise-wide goals, for scaling-up Vision Access Programs. Pharmacy and Institutional Sales to serve more target customers and maintain eyeglasses coverage rates.
• Oversee the implementation of annual plans and budgets. Help Nigeria team members to develop work plans, meet milestones and targets, and adapt in the face of challenges and risks.
• Make recommendations for building team capacity and processes to deliver on growth objectives.
• Foster cross-organizational learning. Share best practices from Nigeria and absorb lessons from other markets into Nigeria.
• Identify opportunities for partnerships with government, professional bodies, private sector and non-profit organizations to facilitate scaling.

Product Sales and Institutional Partnerships (20% of time)

• Support the sales team in developing market penetration plans and achieving eyeglasses sales targets.
• For Institutional Partners, guide key account management, negotiations and resolution of customer complaints.
• Ensure all sales activities are tracked in Salesforce, VisionSpring’s CRM system.
• Ensure sales performance is recorded by the Nigeria finance department.
• Ensure marketing campaigns are implemented across all channels.

Program Planning and Management (30% of time)

In Collaboration With The Global Program Office To

• Guide the expansion and achievement of outcomes for Vision Access Programs, particularly: See to Earn: Work with the Africa Program Coordinator and Nigeria Program Lead to rapidly expand the implementation of vision screening and eyeglasses dispensing, particularly for farmers, artisans and micro-entrepreneurs particularly in cocoa-growing regions. Pharmacy Channel: Work with the Global Pharmacy Sales Manager and Nigeria Pharmacy Lead to develop a scalable channel to establish durable points of sale of reading glasses. Leverage the demand generation work of See to Earn programs.
• Ensure programs are achieving targets on time and budget. Guide team members in making data-backed decisions and problem solving.
• Lead continuous improvement. Establish routines to gather and act upon customer and frontline team member feedback. Oversea the introduction of new technologies, products and approaches to improve quality, efficacy and efficiency of service delivery.
• Ensure implementing partners have information and steady support to achieve goals.

Shared Services: People, Supply Chain and Financial Management (20% of time)

• Work with human resources to strengthen team members’ abilities to deliver results and assume greater responsibilities, manage performance and address concerns.
• Maintain a culture and working environment that fosters high levels of mission alignment, diversity, cohesion and motivation.
• Plan and guide promotions and recruitment, including the timely release of job requisitions.
• Inform procurement and supply chain activities, including inventory planning and new product introduction.
• Manage the country budget in accordance with the profit & loss statement. Manage costs and margins. Effectively use financial resources, demonstrating value for money.
• Support the global finance team to deliver accurate and timely financial reporting and annual audits.
• Manage resources with transparency and proactively respond to suspicions of fraud. violations of VisionSpring’s Code of Conduct and other complaints.

Resource Mobilization (15%)

Partner with the global resource mobilization and global program offices to effectively build relationships and secure terms of service contracts and raise philanthropic funds, from corporates, foundations and governments.

• Identify and pursue funding opportunities to advance VisionSpring’s strategic priorities.
• Contribute to proposals and reports that accurately convey context, progress against objectives, lessons learned, and detailed budgets and utilization.
• Support proactive and transparent communication with donors and stakeholders.
• Represent VisionSpring in forums to share what we are learning, build external relationships and advocate for our mission.

Qualification

• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in public health, international development, fast-moving consumer goods, pharmacy/medical sales, or other relevant business.
• Prior responsibility for teams of at least 5 people and budgets of $500,000 or more.
• Experience in growth-stage, target driven operations for sales and/or program objectives.
• Business development or fundraising experience resulting in more than $100,000 in revenues.
• Experience managing network of partners and/or multi-stakeholder collaborations.
• Timely decision making, follow-through and a strong personal sense of accountability.
• Committed to respectful collaboration with colleagues from diverse backgrounds.
• Must meet the highest standards of ethics, with a demonstrated capacity for discretion and for handling sensitive information with care.
• Fluency in English, written and verbal.
• Preferred experience: (1) Project Management Professional (PMP) certification; (2) Consultative sales experience; (3) Graduate education in a relevant field; and/or (4) Familiarity with Salesforce, SAP or similar systems.

Location: Lagos, Nigeria

For More Information: COUNTRY MANAGER