Website: Website www.arifu.com

  • Product Manager 

Senior Manager, Financial Services

    Product Manager Senior Manager, Financial Services

    Job description
    Arifu is looking to hire a Product Manager to drive the success of our multi-country learning platform and enhance Arifu’s value proposition to our clients and end-users. Arifu reached over one million users in 2019 with a rapidly growing active user base. The Product Manager is responsible for the product planning and execution throughout the product life cycle, including gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met.
    The Product Manager’s job also includes ensuring that the product supports the company’s overall strategy and goals. Delivering excellence at Arifu depends on efficient cross-team collaboration working with learning experts, computer scientists, corporate partnership development teams, as well as social scientists. As such, the Product Manager needs to absolutely love taking on new challenges, bring a problem-solving focus, and be willing to have fun under pressure while being uncompromising on quality delivery. Lastly, they should be driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, be able to write and communicate technical ideas to different audiences, and love learning from the variety of skill-sets and experiences at Arifu and Arifu’s partners.
    Most importantly, if you feel you have many of these attributes, but not all, no worries! We do not expect you to be superhuman. The most invaluable trait you can bring to Arifu is your ability to identify areas for growth, bring a deep willingness to learn, and let us invest in you. This is a full-time position based at Arifu’s headquarters in Nairobi reporting to the CTO.
    Responsibilities
    The Product Manager will be responsible for:

    Defining the product strategy and roadmap; Be an expert with respect to the competition
    Delivering MRDs and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification
    Working with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities
    Running beta and pilot programs with early-stage products and samples
    Acting as a leader within the company; Build an ambitious but achievable product roadmap for the Arifu platform;
    Structuring technical implementation plans with built-in quality assurance processes;
    Running daily scrums and bi-weekly sprint cycles with the engineering team and tracking progress towards all tasks;
    Working with our UX researchers to design focus groups, interviews, and AB tests with users and clients that will continuously inform and validate the product-market fit of features;
    Translating insights from qualitative and quantitative research into specific feature improvements;
    Managing and tracking feature requests from research, product, operations, and business development teams in an organized way that can be prioritized for development;
    Maintaining strong project management capabilities with planning, communicating, documenting, and tracking milestones and results;
    Sharing what you’ll be learning with the broader community through blogs and participation in industry

    Qualifications:
    A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

    5+ years of professional experience with product management, ideally in the tech sector;
    Master’s degree preferred but not required. A technical bachelor’s degree is a
    Excellent written and verbal communication skills; teamwork skills
    Working knowledge of software systems architecture and development. Technical programming skills not essential;
    Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
    Gantt charts and tracking sheets are your best friends;
    Qualitative research skills and familiarity with HCD;
    Quantitative research skills and ability to work with R or STATA will be advantageous but not essential;
    Fluency in English required and fluency in Swahili preferred;
    Innate curiosity, measured skepticism, and a desire to find answers to the difficult “Why’s”;
    Ability to enjoy (and survive) the chaos of a high-growth
    Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products; Examples and at least one sample of an effective document delivered in the past

    go to method of application »

  • Product Manager

    Product Manager

    The Opportunity:
    Arifu is looking to hire a Product Manager to drive the success of our multi-country learning platform and enhance Arifu’s value proposition to our clients and end-users. Arifu reached over one million users in 2019 with a rapidly growing active user base.
    The Product Manager is responsible for the product planning and execution throughout the product life cycle, including gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, sales, marketing and support to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager’s job also includes ensuring that the product supports the company’s overall strategy and goals. Delivering excellence at Arifu depends on efficient cross-team collaboration working with learning experts, computer scientists, corporate partnership development teams, as well as social scientists. As such, the Product Manager needs to absolutely love taking on new challenges, bring a problem-solving focus, and be willing to have fun under pressure while being uncompromising on quality delivery. Lastly, they should be driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, be able to write and communicate technical ideas to different audiences, and love learning from the variety of skill-sets and experiences at Arifu and Arifu’s partners.
    Most importantly, if you feel you have many of these attributes, but not all, no worries! We do not expect you to be superhuman. The most invaluable trait you can bring to Arifu is your ability to identify areas for growth, bring a deep willingness to learn, and let us invest in you.
    This is a full-time position based at Arifu’s headquarters in Nairobi reporting to the CCO.
    Job Description:
    The Product Manager will be responsible for: 

    Defining the product strategy and roadmap; Be an expert with respect to the competition
    Delivering MRDs and PRDs with prioritized features and corresponding justification
    Working with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities
    Running beta and pilot programs with early-stage products and samples
    Acting as a leader within the company; Build an ambitious but achievable product roadmap for the Arifu platform;
    Structuring technical implementation plans with built-in quality assurance processes;
    Running daily scrums and bi-weekly sprint cycles with the engineering team and tracking progress towards all tasks;
    Working with our UX researchers to design focus groups, interviews, and AB tests with users and clients that will continuously inform and validate the product-market fit of features;
    Translating insights from qualitative and quantitative research into specific feature improvements;
    Managing and tracking feature requests from research, product, operations, and business development teams in an organized way that can be prioritized for development;
    Maintaining strong project management capabilities with planning, communicating, documenting, and tracking milestones and results;
    Sharing what you’ll be learning with the broader community through blogs and participation in industry events.

    Qualifications:
    A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

    2-3 years of professional experience with product management, ideally in the tech sector;
    Master’s degree preferred but not required. A technical bachelor’s degree is a requirement.
    Excellent written and verbal communication skills; teamwork skills
    Working knowledge of software systems architecture and development. Technical programming skills not essential;
    Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
    Gantt charts and tracking sheets are your best friends;
    Qualitative research skills and familiarity with HCD;
    Quantitative research skills and ability to work with R or STATA will be advantageous but not essential;
    Fluency in English required and fluency in Swahili preferred;
    Innate curiosity, measured skepticism, and a desire to find answers to the difficult “Why’s”;
    Ability to enjoy (and survive) the chaos of a high-growth startup.
    Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products; Examples and at least one sample of an effective document delivered in the past

    Compensation and Benefits:
    First and foremost, we care about your success. Investment in our team members is the only driver of Arifu’s success. We offer competitive compensation packages including participation in the Arifu Rewards 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 for breakfast and snacks, monthly phone credit, and plenty of ping-pong and foosball among other extra-curricular activities.

  • Project Management Associate

    Project Management Associate

    The Project Management Associate is responsible for collaborating effectively with the project management team to manage and streamline all project management processes across multi-functional teams to ensure quality implementation and delivery of Arifu’s products and services to our partners and learners. Delivering excellence at Arifu depends on efficient cross-team collaboration working with learning experts, computer scientists, corporate partnership development teams, as well as social scientists. As such, the Project Management Associate needs to absolutely love taking on new challenges, bring a problem-solving focus, and be willing to have fun under pressure while being uncompromising on quality delivery. Lastly, they should be driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, be able to write and communicate to different audiences, and love learning from the variety of skill-sets and experiences at Arifu and Arifu’s partners.
    Most importantly, if you feel you have many of these attributes, but not all, no worries! We do not expect you to be superhuman. The most invaluable trait you can bring to Arifu is your ability to identify areas for growth, bring a deep willingness to learn, and let us invest in you.
    This is a full-time position based at Arifu’s headquarters in Nairobi reporting to the Senior Project Manager.
    Job Description:
    Working closely with the entire team, the Project Management Associate will be responsible for:

    Actively collaborating with the data, content, and tech teams in managing all aspects of the project lifecycle  with a view of ensuring that Arifu’s digital learning experience is  able to meet partners’  objectives and learners needs; 
    Developing, tracking, and updating workflows, work plans, budgets, and project timelines with the team and managing  the team’s performance of project tasks and activities;
    Managing all project data and deadline tracking including meeting notes, task lists, all critical deadlines and dates on project calendars, in addition to auditing and ensuring all project documentation has been uploaded to the project folders on the GDrive.
    Providing day-to-day support to project teams and partners, ensuring compliance with partnership contracts as well as applicable regulations;
    Ensuring and maintaining effective communication both internally and with partners, including but not limited to project status updates, progress reports, risk mitigation, and adequate escalation of issues as needed, making sure the project is delivered in budget, on schedule, and within scope;
    Contributing to establishing company-wide information systems and database management, as well as all business function documentation and training;
    Maintaining project budgets, budget to actual (BTA) reports, the deliverable tracker, and mapping them to project timelines to anticipate cash flow need;
    Scoping new projects and performing stakeholder analysis and mapping, identifying potential project impacts/risks;
    Drafting, disseminating, and maintaining Project Specs documentation
    Effectively applying interpersonal, negotiation and leadership skills to guide, support, and inspire the project team and direct forward movement on the project timeline;
    Determining and contributing to the body of knowledge in digital learning and policy development; 
    Securing buy-in, feedback and approvals on all project deliverables from all stakeholders;
    Establishing and maintaining metrics to monitor performance against set objectives;

     
    Basic Qualifications:
    A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long-term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone who meets the following criteria: 

    A first degree in a relevant subject, for example Project Management, Business Administration, etc;
    3-4 years of professional experience in a busy projects office;
    Ability to perform under pressure and to tactfully navigate power dynamics in high stakes situations;
    Detail-oriented with strong analytical skills to exercise independent judgment and decision making; 
    Excellent habits and discipline in creating and maintaining documentation to improve operational efficiency;
    Persuasive verbal and written communication skills. Fluency in English required. Fluency in Swahili preferred;
    Grit and resourcefulness in the pursuit of solutions to the problems that stand in your way;
    Ability to handle the chaos of a fast-paced startup work culture and a willingness to take on additional tasks and support the work of other team members as necessary to achieve collective goals.

    Compensation and Benefits:
    First and foremost, we care about your success. Investment in our team members is the only driver of Arifu’s success. We offer competitive compensation packages including participation in the Arifu Rewards 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 for breakfast and snacks, monthly phone credit, and plenty of ping-pong and foosball among other extra-curricular activities.

  • Learning Designer 

Senior Legal Associate 

Learning Design Manager

    Learning Designer Senior Legal Associate Learning Design Manager

    The Opportunity:
    In 2019, Arifu reached over 1 million learners with informational content designed to develop skills, inform decisions and improve lives. The years 2020-2021 will focus on expanding our educational content offering to increase our value to new and existing learners. Arifu is hiring a highly motivated Learning Designer to help us realize a bold vision of placing a smart personal learning assistant in everyone’s hands across Africa and globally.
    The Learning Team at Arifu designs content in partnership with industry experts and local and multilateral institutions and works closely with Arifu research and data teams to generate insights from field research, rapid A/B testing and learner data to drive the relevance and impact of Arifu’s content on end learners. The Learning Designer will be responsible for research, writing and improving Arifu’s expanding educational content offering.
    This is a full-time position based at Arifu’s headquarters in Nairobi reporting to the Learning Design Manager.
    Job Description:
    The Learning Designer will be responsible for: 

    Participating in project scoping sessions with partners and technical experts;
    Performing field research to gather insights on learner biases, mental models and cultural norms to inform content design;
    Contributing to the design and structure of new programs including setting learning outcomes, brainstorming treatment design, writing content and informing program evaluation;
    Communicating with partners to resolve content-related issues;
    Maintaining strong project management capabilities with planning, communicating, documenting, and tracking milestones and results;
    Contributing to team strategy for prioritizing new partnerships and content to add to the Arifu platform;
    Participating in community events, trade meetups, and industry workshops in Nairobi and globally.

    Qualifications:
    A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem-solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

    5+  years of work experience in learning content design, preferably in East Africa;
    Undergraduate degree in education or a related field;
    Strong written communication and excellent attention;
    Previous experience conducting qualitative research to inform learning content is a plus;
    Fluency in English required and fluency in Swahili preferred;
    Motivation to develop skills conducting field research and willingness to spend long days in the sun, talking to people about their lives and observing them interacting with our products;
    Resourceful and proactive when generating solutions to the problems that stand in your way;
    Ability to enjoy (and survive) the chaos of a high-growth startup.

    Compensation and Benefits:
    First and foremost, we care about your success and will support you along your journey to achieving remarkable success. We offer competitive compensation packages with the opportunity to participate in the Arifu Rewards Program that rewards strong performance. 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.

    go to method of application »

  • Senior Business Development Manager – Financial Services

    Senior Business Development Manager – Financial Services

    About Arifu:
    Our product is a smart chatbot making it possible for anyone to access the information and opportunities they need from the organizations they trust over any mobile phone. With Arifu, people seeking to learn can freely chat with Arifu using interactive SMS or smartphone chat apps to master new skills, discover a world of free educational content, and earn rewards from our partners whether or not they have internet or airtime. The Arifu chatbot delivers personalized content designed in-house in close collaboration with our partners such as financial service providers, mobile operators, agribusinesses and NGOs. Our partners use Arifu to engage, train, and capture data on mass market and hard-to-reach people across their value chains, especially low-income customers and informal retailers and suppliers. Currently serving over 1,000,000 learners in Africa together with clients such as MasterCard, Safaricom, KCB, and the UN, Arifu has demonstrated results increasing people’s income and access to impactful products and services while creating shared value for partners.
    Job Description:
    As the Senior Business Development Manager – Financial Services, you will be responsible for the following:

    Support the Director, Financial Services to achieve revenue targets and financial inclusion objectives;
    Lead on securing new partnerships and sales contracts with clients in financial services and other verticals through proposals and grant applications;
    Conducting research to inform sector strategies, market entry, and sales activities;
    Generating new leads through networking, attending conferences and industry events;
    Identifying, securing, and nurturing partnerships with leading banks, MFIs, donors, fintechs and government to drive Financial Services regionally and globally;
    Creating powerpoint presentations, client proposals and delivering pitches at conferences and client meetings;
    Tracking team KPIs, customer pipeline movement, and company metrics;
    Generating new product feature ideas and collaborating with product teams to integrate them into the platform by listening to client needs and staying up to speed on industry trends in edtech, fintech, agritech, and other emerging areas of innovation;
    Improving internal tools and processes for the business development team.

     
    Qualifications:
    A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long-term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem-solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

    Business Administration or Social Sciences degree or related field required; MBA preferred;
    5+ years of professional work experience in sales, business development, or grant writing;
    A strong B2B experience in working with banks, mobile network operators, fintech will be an added advantage;
    Ability to build and nurture new relationships and close deals with institutional executives;
    Comfortable presenting in front of audiences and clients;
    Strong technical writing skills;
    Strong Word, Powerpoint, and Excel skills and the ability to use the Google for Business productivity suite;
    Comfortable creating and analyzing budgets;
    Detail-oriented with strong analytical skills to exercise independent judgment and decision making; 
    Experience working outside the East African region will be an added advantage;
    Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, resource-constrained, early-stage work environment;
    Fluency in English required; fluency in Swahili and/or French is an asset;
    Experience creating marketing materials is an asset, particularly with blog writing, website development, and/or presentations;
    Ability to be live and work in Nairobi, Kenya.

    Compensation and Benefits:
    Arifu offers a competitive compensation package including participation in the Arifu sales commission incentive model. Benefits include a comprehensive health insurance package, work permit for foreign staff, monthly airtime allowance, extra leave, a stocked kitchen, and plenty of ping-pong and foosball.

  • Chief Commercial Officer

    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.

  • Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)

    Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)

    About Arifu:
    Our product is a smart chatbot making it possible for anyone to access the information and opportunities they need from the organizations they trust over any mobile phone. With Arifu, people seeking to learn can freely chat with Arifu using interactive SMS or smartphone chat apps to master new skills, discover a world of free educational content, and earn rewards from our partners whether or not they have internet or airtime. The Arifu chatbot delivers personalized content designed in-house in close collaboration with our partners such as financial service providers, mobile operators, agribusinesses and NGOs. Our partners use Arifu to engage, train, and capture data on mass market and hard-to-reach people across their value chains, especially low-income customers and informal retailers and suppliers. Currently serving over 1,000,000 learners in Africa together with clients such as Mastercard, Safaricom, KCB, and the UN, Arifu has demonstrated results increasing people’s income and access to impactful products and services while creating shared value for partners.
    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.

  • Director of Project Management

    Director of Project Management

    Job Description:

    The Director of Project Management will report directly to the Chief Learning Officer. Working closely with the entire team, the Director of Project Management will be responsible for, but not limited to:
    Leading the entire project management function for Arifu and ensuring all projects are well-executed and on-time to strong learning outcomes for our learners and high satisfaction for institutional clients;
    Managing, hiring, and training all project managers and overseeing their development, delivery, and professional growth;
    Directly managing Arifu’s larger and more complex projects with multinational clients as our partnerships expand to reach millions of people across multiple countries;
    Providing strategic advice, perspective, and decision support on all aspects of company growth as a member of the extended leadership team;
    Tracking project analytics and conducting analysis to generate recommendations for improving client services and project implementation in terms of profit margins, quality, and timeliness;
    Completing and improving on all project management systems, processes, and tools for effective project implementation and delivery of products and services for our clients;
    Developing company-wide project management training materials that increase the project management capacity of all business functions and teams in collaboration with the Talent team;
    Developing, tracking, and updating workflows, workplans, and individual scorecards for the PM team;
    Providing day-to-day support to project teams and partners, ensuring compliance with partnership contracts as well as applicable regulations;
    Ensuring and maintaining effective communication both internally and with partners, including project status updates, progress reports, and risk tracking;
    Contributing to establishing company-wide information systems and database management, as well as all business function documentation and training;
    Maintaining project budgets, budget to actual (BTA) reports, and mapping them to project timelines to anticipate cash flow need;
    Support the Finance and Accounting Team in conducting financial analysis on projects and products to manage and understand cost of delivery, margins on each project and product, financial projections, and where to optimize efforts and leverage resources; 
    Establish strong relationships with clients and partners and identify opportunities for new business growth that the Business Development team can pursue.

    Qualifications:

    A commitment to excellence and a desire to have real impact are essential qualities for everyone on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:
    Master-level degree in Business Administration or related category of study;
    Minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience in project management with at least 3 of those years actively managing teams;
    Recognised formal project management qualification, e.g. PRINCE2, PMP, etc.
    Work experience in Kenya is essential; work experience in other countries across Africa is
    preferred;
    Demonstrated project management results related to cost, quality, and timeliness of implementation;
    Ability to cope with uncertainty, change, and pressure in a low-resource, high-growth environment;
    Technical skills in software engineering and mobile application development will be an advantage;
    Fluency in English required; fluency in Swahili preferred.
    Ability to live and work full-time in Nairobi, Kenya.

    Compensation and Benefits:
    First and foremost, we care about your success and will support you along your journey to achieving remarkable success. We aspire to be competitive on compensation although, as an early-stage social enterprise, many on the team work just 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.

  • Partner Relations Manager

    Partner Relations Manager

    Job Description:
    As the Partner Relations Manager your responsibilities will include:

    Contributing to the strategy of, as well as producing, client proposals and grant applications, including using excel to generate project budgets;
    Conducting research to inform the Business Development team’s sector strategies and Arifu’s value-add;
    Generating new leads through networking, attending conferences and industry events;
    Creating powerpoint presentations and delivering pitches at conferences and client meetings;
    Tracking team KPIs, customer pipeline movement, and company metrics;
    Generating new product feature ideas by listening to client needs and staying up to speed on industry trends in edtech, fintech, agritech, and other emerging areas of innovation.
    Improving internal tools and processes for the sales team.

    Qualifications:
    A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long-term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem-solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

    Business Administration or Social Sciences degree or related field required; MBA preferred;
    3-5 years of professional work experience in sales, business development, or grant writing;
    Ability to build and nurture new relationships and close deals with institutional executives;
    Comfortable presenting in front of audiences and clients;
    Strong technical writing skills;
    Strong Word, Powerpoint, and Excel skills and the ability to use the Google for Business productivity suite;
    Comfortable creating and analyzing budgets;
    Detail-oriented with strong analytical skills to exercise independent judgment and decision making;
    Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, resource-constrained, early-stage work environment;
    Fluency in English required; fluency in Swahili is an asset;
    Experience creating marketing materials is an asset, particularly with blog writing, website development, and/or presentations;
    Ability to be live and work in Nairobi, Kenya.

    Compensation and Benefits:
    Arifu offers a competitive compensation package including participation in the Arifu employee options program and the commission-based incentive and compensation model. Benefits include a comprehensive health insurance package, work permit for foreign staff, monthly airtime allowance, extra leave, a stocked kitchen, and plenty of ping-pong and foosball.

  • UX Design Researcher

    UX Design Researcher

    Arifu, a high-growth edtech company in Nairobi, is looking to recruit an insightful UX Design Researcher to lead a hands-on research and design agenda guiding product innovation and realize a bold vision of placing a smart personal learning assistant in everyone’s hands across Africa and globally. This is a full-time position with equity participation based at Arifu’s headquarters in Nairobi.
    The UX Design Researcher will work closely with learning designers, product managers, sales teams, and data scientists to discover insights and turn them into product innovations that improve the user experience for both our learners and partners.
    Job Description:
    The UX Design Researcher will report directly to the Director of Research and be responsible for:

    Developing and executing a user experience research program that delivers continuous insights to product and management teams to fuel product development and project design;
    Conduct user research and devise product testing strategies to use across segments of our actual and potential learner base to deepen our understanding of user needs, behavior, and the value they derive from the Arifu solution using ethnographic methods, participatory design, and prototype testing;
    Engaging partners—content providers, distributors, researchers—and industry experts including people at large banks, mobile operators, iNGOs, and others in structured interviews to identify opportunities for increasing the ROI of Arifu platform and content services;
    Collaborating with a growing team of exceptional researchers, data analysts, and product managers to translate the research-based insights into actionable recommendations;
    Participating in sprints with cross-functional teams to design user journeys and feature flows across our smartphone and basic phone presence based on your insights, recommendations, and other analysis;
    Building internal systems for compiling our growing knowledge base and making it accessible across teams;
    Maintaining strong project management capabilities with planning, communicating, documenting, and tracking milestones and results;
    Contributing to Arifu’s external thought leadership by sharing the interesting discoveries coming out of your research through blogs and speaking engagements;
    Actively participating in community events, trade meetups, and industry workshops in Nairobi and globally.

    Qualifications:
    A desire to impact lives, the ability to make a long term commitment to your team and the product, and exceptional problem solving abilities are all essential prerequisites on the Arifu team. For this role, we’re also looking for someone with the following:

    3-5+ years of professional experience in a product research and design capacity preferably with low-income populations in East Africa;
    Minimum Bachelor-level degree. Masters degree preferred;
    Experience conducting HCD and qualitative research with working knowledge of effective research methodologies suitable for low-income audiences.
    Experience developing and administering usability tests and prototyping to inform effective design recommendations;
    Quantitative research skills and ability to work with R or STATA will be advantageous but not essential;
    Fluency in English required and fluency in Swahili preferred;
    Innate curiosity, measured skepticism, and a desire to find answers to the difficult “Why’s”;
    Ability to enjoy (and survive) the chaos of an early stage company.

    Compensation and Benefits:
    First and foremost, we care about your success and will support you along your journey to achieving remarkable success. We offer competitive compensation packages with the opportunity to participate in the Arifu Rewards Program that rewards strong performance. 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.