Career

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Start Date: 2nd January 2024

Deadline: 11th December 2024

Reports to: ACCOUNTS PAYABLES – SUPERVISOR

Job Summary

The Accounts Payable Accountant is responsible for managing Uzima’s accounts payables, including recording, posting, processing payments and reconciliation of bank accounts. The role requires a high level of attention to detail, coordination with other departments, and responsiveness; it offers broad visibility into the business operations of a rapidly growing startup, growth opportunities to better understand budgeting and key cost controls, and exposure to different departments.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Function

Accounts payables

Bank reconciliation

Monthly Reports

Policy implementation

Other tasks

Key Qualifications, Skills, and Experience

Uzima Chicken is seeking a candidate who has the following Abilities:

● Passionate about positively impacting smallholder farmers and customers in rural areas

● Degree in Business administration (BBA) in Finance and accounting, Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) in accounting and Finance or Accounting and taxation, Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) in accountancy or related field; relevant certification

● Highly detail oriented, with a passion for accuracy and thoroughness (prefers to do a task

once and right)

● Analytical in approaching and solving problems

● Strong communication and ability to work independently with minimal supervision

● High level of integrity and accountability

● Experience and proficiency in accounting software tools (XERO)

● Experience and proficiency in excel

How to apply: Submit application to careers.ug@uzimachicken.com

Title: Customer Insights Intern (2 positions)

Work location: Kampala, Naguru

Period: 3 months

Reports to: Customer Insights Supervisor

Summary of Position

The Customer Insights team strives to provide Management and the Sales Team with actionable insights best to serve Uzima’s customers and smallholder farmers across Uganda. The team acts as the Voice of the Customer, providing feedback that informs business decisions and direction while leveraging marketing tactics to support the Sales team in geographic launches.

Responsibilities include:

Customer insights

• Conducting phone surveys (post delivery, dropped customers, satisfaction, etc.) and collecting data to measure customer satisfaction, operational excellence, and Uzima’s competitive advantage in the region.
• Present and share actionable research findings to the Uzima team to inform strategic decisions and improve operational processes that will enhance customer experience
• Serve as the voice of the customer by identifying pain points, trends and improvement areas across the customer journey; provide input to various Uzima teams (sales, operations, marketing)
• Ensure customer grievances that arise throughout the survey process are directed to the appropriate parties for redress (Sales Manager, Operations Manager, etc)
• Identify and report customers with major disease outbreaks and breed complaints; Liaise with the sales teams for on-farm assistance and training.
• Support the preparation of weekly customer mortality reports and share them with the sales team leadership.
• Other duties and responsibilities assigned by your manager.

Key Characteristics

Uzima Chicken Uganda is seeking a candidate who has the following characteristics:

• Demonstrated strong and effective communication skills.
• Adequate computer skills with some knowledge of Google Suite (sheets, DOC)
• Strong team and time management skills: You know and understand your role, welcome collaboration and are willing to be coached to success. You bring a positive attitude to the department to help your team hit deadlines.
• Self-driven: You’re an independent worker who can complete tasks assigned to you  with limited follow-up
• Passionate and excited about positively impacting smallholder farmers and customers in rural areas: You are excited by the possibility of directly impacting millions of Ugandans, helping them build sustainable livelihoods and improving nutritional outcomes.
• Entrepreneurial and Growth mindset: You are energized to generate ideas, learn and grow, proactively seeking feedback from your managers or proposing new ideas and seeking out learning opportunities.

Required skills

• Degree or diploma in Marketing, Business Admin, Office administration, Record management or any related field.
• Computer skills with good knowledge of Google Suite (Sheets, Docs)
• Fluent in two of the following local languages; Langi, Acholi, Luganda, Lutooro
• Very good interpersonal skills.

Job Title: Hatchery Officer

Department: Production – Kawempe

Reports to: Hatchery Manager

Location: Kawempe, Uganda

SUMMARY OF POSITION

The Hatchery officer is responsible for achieving industry standards for hatchability of high quality DOCs to increase the profitability of the Company. In addition, the Hatchery officer is responsible for communicating and reporting critical information to other departments.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Egg Receiving

1. Ensure timely and safe receiving of eggs at the hatchery
2. Ensure proper receiving, inspection, grading and sorting of hatching eggs to Make standards for settable eggs and follow-up

Egg Storage

1. Ensure appropriate room temperature and humidity for eggs based on storage duration
2. Ensure all egg refrigerators and air conditioners are well-maintained

Setting, Transfer, and Hatching

1. Ensure the second point of Quality control on setting eggs
2. Ensure the oldest eggs are set first (first in first out)
3. Ensure proper pre-warming of eggs from the cold store
4. Ensure efficient, fast, smooth and timely egg transfer and candling
5. Ensure proper selection and grading of DOCs
6. Ensure proper disposal of hatchery waste
7. Ensure all layers males are dead before they leave the farm for disposal o Ensure proper an timely cleaning of equipment after hatch and transfer.

Incubation Management

1. Monitor targets for setting temperature, humidity, CO2/ventilation, and turning
2. Monitor EST and EWL of each machine and compare with the breed standards regularly
3. Monitor machine performance and staff achievement of targets
4. Monitor dry and wet bulb thermometers and compare them with the screen and calibrator
5. Ensure all wicks in the wet bulb thermometers are clean

Hatchery Maintenance

1. Develop routine preventative maintenance for incubators, chillers, egg refrigerators, ACs,  building, ventilation, and all other equipment.
2. Improve hatchery environment (cleanliness, design, ventilation)
3. Make decisions to conduct hatchery repairs in-house or outsource based on urgency and economic efficiency
4. Make priority of assignments by discussing them with the maintenance team

Biosecurity and Quality Control

1. Periodically review and improve adequate biosecurity program
2. Ensure cleanliness and orderliness of the hatchery and surroundings
3. Set clear standards and ensure all chicks from the hatchery are Grade A quality
4. Monitor vaccine storage, handling, thawing and vaccination procedures
5. Monitor the accuracy of vaccinators (dosing, cleaning and sterilizing equipment)
6. Conduct breakout analysis and discuss with the team points of improvements

General Management

1. Provide reports to Company management and other departments as requested
2. Ensure proper reporting of DOCs as finished goods and tracking of consumables/equipment from store
3. Keep records of all eggs coming to the hatchery, going to store and incubators and calculate if there is any difference in a regular way
4. Identify staff development gaps and conduct training to improve performance and management
5. Prepare checklists for attendants and supervisors
6. Carry out Coaching, evaluation and performance management plans for the team and Subordinates.
7. Ensure a report of weekly ( from Sunday to Saturday) egg stock that is received from breeding eggs in cold stores, the discarded eggs which are table, cracked & broken and report on time.
8. Keep a recording of daily DOC no DOC wastages
9. Prepare and send a report of disease prevalence/epidemiology report on the site to district veterinary expert on a weekly/monthly basis

And other tasks deemed necessary need to be solved by discussing with the hatchery Site manager or production director.

Location: Kigali, Rwanda

Start Date: December 2024 or earlier

Send Application: careers@uzimachicken.com

About the Company

Uzima Chicken Rwanda is a social enterprise focused on making smallholder farmers healthier and wealthier. Uzima Chicken distributes an improved breed of chicken that is 4x more productive than local breeds in terms of egg and meat production while requiring the same level of management and care as the local chicken. With Uzima’s bird, rural households in Rwanda can build income resilience, confidently pay for their children’s school fees, and introduce larger volumes of animal protein into their daily diets.

Uzima Chicken seeks to reach every rural household by 2025 and aims to be the leading smallholder-focused poultry enterprise in East Africa. In the past 3 years of operations, Uzima Chicken has attracted investments from the AgDevCo and Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund. Uzima Chicken Rwanda prioritizes hiring and developing Rwandan talent and offers significant professional growth opportunities and leadership development.

Further, Uzima is committed to female empowerment across the company and is proud that 40% of staff are women.

Job Description

The Customer Insights & Marketing team strives to provide Management and the Sales Team with actionable insights to best serve Uzima’s customers and smallholder farmers across Rwanda. The team acts as the Voice of the Customer, providing feedback that informs business decisions and direction while leveraging marketing tactics to support the Sales team in geographic launches.

Uzima is seeking a highly motivated, reliable, and detail-oriented Customer Insights and Marketing Manager with a passion for improving the lives of smallholder farmers to help provide insight and drive growth across the growing business. The Manager is responsible for overseeing a team that provides a variety of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, including pulling out actionable and business-oriented key insights, developing new surveys, and piloting new marketing strategies to reach smallholder farmers. 

Key responsibilities include:

Customer Insights (40%)

• Oversee development and execution of periodic phone surveys of customers across Uzima’s customer journey and value chain that aim to understand customer and smallholder farmer satisfaction towards Uzima products and services, identify areas for improvement and inform operational and strategic decisions
• Diligently surface and resolve customer issues and propose initiatives or solutions to address persistent customer concerns
• Identify strategic areas that require additional understanding (e.g., customer attitudes regarding feed, effective sales strategies deployed, SASSO’s impact on farmers, etc). Once identified, design surveys to explore and make evidence-based recommendations for changes
• Oversee customer claims and compensation process to ensure positive customer experience
• Diligently surface and resolve customer issues and propose initiatives or solutions to address persistent customer concerns
• Present actionable insights that support Uzima’s goals in sales growth

Sales and Business Reporting (25%)

• Provide weekly and monthly reporting to leadership (e.g., maintaining Sales Dashboard, Consolidated reports, key KPIs and Looker Dashboards)
• Develop automated analysis on key sales KPIs (e.g., agent churn, VA sales per Agent, etc) to generate insights into the business.
• Own the development andtroubleshooting of all company reporting assets (e.g. order tools, google forms
• Lead the implementation and roll-out of new technology tools

Impact Measurement and Business Development (25%)

• Oversee, design, and deliver high-quality measurement and evaluation impact surveys that inform and engage investors and prove Uzima Chicken’s impact on smallholder farmers
• Manage and oversee customer and smallholder farmer database, including processes to collect data from field team, digitize field data, and ensure accuracy
• Provide information or data to partners and donors (as directed by the Managing Director), including conducting surveys or key analysis, to meet their requests and requirements
• Proactively develop new commercial partnerships, products, or programs that support Sales team growth, based on direction from the Managing Director
• Develop key KPIs and reporting to evaluate new pilot/program/product success; manage internal and external stakeholders to deliver new initiatives
• Lead project management of Technical Assistance and Grant programs
• Assess internal processes and design improvements to increase efficiency and reduce waste.

Marketing (10%)

• Coordinate key marketing initiatives including but not limited to developing flyers, graphics and visuals for social media that tell our uzima story.
• Support the development ofannual and quarterly marketing plans to enhance the Sales team’s ability to reach smallholder farmers, subject to approval
• Coordinate and manage marketing activities (e.g., radio, social media, website, events, print)
• Execute and evaluate promotions to accelerate additional sales.
• Oversee design and printing of physical agent and feed dealer marketing materials.

Leadership

• Develop department vision and plans, including developing budgets, KPIs, etc.
• Manage the day-to-day work of CI supervisor and Officers, as well as additional staff that may be hired as the company grows
• Support the recruiting process for additional CI team members as needed
• Build a collaborative, positive and inclusive team culture

Key Characteristics

Uzima Chicken Rwanda is seeking a candidate who has the following characteristics:

• Excited about using data to inform and drive business decisions and demonstrate impact: You are comfortable working with medium-sized data sets to conduct analysis and communicate actionable insights across the organization, from senior management to field team, to drive change and improvements. A curious individual, you are excited by the opportunity to come up with new ways to measure and communicate Uzima’s impact. You bring a keen eye for details to all deliverables and are continually asking yourself how findings tie back to the business and inform important decisions
• Strong team and time management skills: You know how to drive your team forward and coach them to success, including prioritising tasks, growing scope, and ensuring your team hits their deadlines. You’re an independent worker who can translate ideas into reality with limited follow-up but look forward to the opportunity to guide and lead a team.
• Passionate about positively impacting smallholder farmers and customers in rural areas: You are excited by the possibility of directly impacting millions of Rwandans, helping them build sustainable livelihoods and improving nutritional outcomes.
• Growth mindset: You are energized to learn and grow, proactively seeking feedback from managers or seeking out learning opportunities. Further, you are excited to coach and develop others on your team and recognize that success means building your team

Must haves:

• University degree in a relevant field (Marketing, Business Analytics, Economics, Information Systems, etc)
• 3-5 years of experience in relevant field (business analysis, customer insights)
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (English, Kinyarwanda)
• Highly detail-oriented and process-oriented, with a highly developed sense of reliability and responsibility
• Strong work ethic
• Proficiency in MS Office (Excel, Word, Powerpoint) or Google Suite (Google Docs, Google Slide, Google Sheets) and Power BI knowledge.

Nice to haves:

• Experience designing phone surveys for rural audiences
• Experience developing high-impact reporting or presentations for company leadership
• Experience managing teams
• Statistics or business analytics experience with large data sets or Business Intelligence software such as Tableau