Chief Commercial Officer

Arifu, an early stage tech company in Nairobi, is looking to hire an ambitious and seasoned Chief Commercial Officer to provide leadership in scaling Arifu to realize our bold vision of placing a smart personal learning assistant in the hands of those with the greatest need for information and opportunity globally. This is a full-time position with equity participation based at Arifu’s headquarters in Nairobi.
Job Description:
In short, you will oversee aggressive commercial growth for Arifu as we expand our company and platform from 1 million learners in 5 countries with 40 team members to 10+ million learners in 50+ countries with hundreds of team members. As the CCO, you are a critical part of the leadership team reporting directly to the CEO with the following responsibilities:

Contribute to the overall vision and goals of Arifu together with leadership;
Lead the functional teams of Business Development and Marketing;
Set and track KPIs for your functional teams;
Design and implement sales strategies and initiatives to achieve strong commercial growth in key sectors including financial services, agriculture, humanitarian, health, energy and others in a way that is aligned to our impact framework improving outcomes such as financial inclusion, smallholder livelihoods, micro-enterprise growth, youth employment, and health and safety;
Design and implement marketing strategies with campaigns that establish Arifu as a leading brand among key audiences (learners, clients, investors, team);
Design and oversee the development of a sales and marketing workforce capable of expanding partnerships and platform regionally in Sub Saharan Africa and globally as we enter Asia, Latin America, and MENA;
Maintain a climate that attracts, retains and motivates a high performance team including direct management of sector and regional leads;
Design and implement GTM strategies for new products and new regions as we grow from 5 countries in SSA to 50+ countries globally;
Scale up key client relationships with leading firms and iNGOs to each have multi-million dollar ACVs reaching millions of learners;
Secure large strategic grant financing to fuel growth, research, and innovation;
Support the CEO to raise investment financing for growth;
Identify opportunities for product innovation and research to improve product-market fit and optimize our financial and impact outcomes;
Contribute thought leadership through publications and speaking engagements.

Core Qualifications:
Ambition, grit, and a desire to achieve impact are essential qualities for everyone on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone who meets the following criteria:

Master-level degree in Business Administration or a related category of study;
Experience leading business development teams within organizations that have over 40 employees;
15+ years of relevant professional experience with a solid understanding of B2B sales, strategic partnership development, sales operations, tech/mobile industry, market entry, and marketing;
Demonstrated results driving product sales and strategic partnerships with large firms and iNGOs;
Ability to guide complex research and analysis that will fuel growth and expansion strategies for the entire company across multiple sectors;
Local market knowledge and connections in Sub Saharan Africa, preferably including East Africa;
Experience structuring teams and upskilling talent;
Fluency in English;
Ability to live and work full-time in Nairobi, Kenya;
Ability to travel at least 20%.

Preferred Qualifications:

Industry experience in content, education, advertising, or technology;
Deep working knowledge of priority verticals including financial services, agriculture, health, energy, humanitarian, and consumer goods;
Fluency in Swahili.

Compensation and Benefits:
We aspire to be competitive on compensation although, as an early-stage social enterprise, many on the team work below market rate. To make up for that, staff are able to participate in the Arifu employee share program. We also offer a comprehensive health insurance package and will cover the cost of a work permit for foreign staff. Other benefits include monthly airtime allowance, extra leave, a stocked kitchen, and plenty of ping-pong and foosball.