Deputy General Manager - Manufacturing

ABOUT US

BigCold Kenya Ltd is a subsidiary of BlackIvy LLC which provides end-to-end food preparation, packaging, temperature-controlled warehouse and distribution solutions across East Africa from its facilities situated in Nairobi and Naivasha Kenya. BlackIvy LLC is headquartered in Washington D.C. with anchoring businesses in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, and is a values-driven company that builds, operates and scales subsidiaries in essential sectors in Africa to meet demand in rapidly-expanding economies.

At BlackIvy and BigCold we are building a global, multicultural company and our commitment to diversity and internationalism is part of everything we do.

Decisions at BlackIvy and BigCold are grounded in our core values of imagination, relentlessness, courage, forthrightness, partnership and humility.

In addition to cash compensation commensurate with experience, we provide a leave and benefits program including healthcare, life insurance, and retirement savings program.

ABOUT YOU

BigCold seeks leaders who are entrepreneurial in spirit.

• Comfortable and excited about building an organization and naturally puts the success of the enterprise ahead of personal gain.
• Able to face ups and downs, are energized by that reality, and work hard to make it work.
• A leader who can earn respect and trust. Specifically:
  • Change Agent
  • Relentless Learner
  • Comprehensive Connector
  • Accountable Partner
  • Collaborative Problem-Solver
  • Owner Mentality

Qualifications:

• Undergraduate degree required + MBA.
• At least 7 years related work experience.
• Experience working as a Deputy General Manager, Project Manager, or similar in a commercial enterprise.
• Demonstrated experience in implementing and executing standardized business processes.
• Experience leading work consisting of structured problem-solving, quantitative analysis, and strategic-level synthesis.
• Demonstrated capacity for long-term strategic thinking, balanced with near-term execution; ability to distill complexity into clear, actionable steps and plans.
• A penchant for creative problem-solving, using internal and external resources to build innovative processes and tools with quantifiable impact.
• Ability to think strategically about new projects and simultaneously delve deep into execution details for building and improving new systems, processes, and execution.
• Experience organizing and leading the operations of small and medium-sized teams.
• Demonstrated interest in building businesses.
• Natural alignment with the values of BigCold family of companies: imagination, relentlessness, courage, forthrightness, partnership and humility.
• Interest and work authorization to work in Kenya.

ABOUT THE JOB

Overview:

A member of the leadership team and strategic lieutenant to the President, the Project Manager is responsible for leading key initiatives, strategic goal development and execution, process development and execution, and business line reporting for BigCold Kenya food production companies.

Responsibilities

• Support the work of the President and fully leverage his time and focus, in part by standing in for him as needed on individual projects and meetings.
• Take on leadership of strategic projects and initiatives, at the direction of the President.
• Identify key opportunities for operational improvements through new methodologies, tools, templates, dashboards, and processes.
• Support due diligence for planned integration, acquisitions or expansions.
• Build, track, and update the company’s annual strategic narrative, including establishing and tracking goals and KPIs, with business line leaders and codifying learnings for quarterly executive reviews.
• Keep all BigCold food production companies informed and empowered, including by establishing, maintaining, and improving regular internal communications vehicles.
• Optimize organizational meetings by establishing the optimal cadence, building agendas, curating content, and capturing and tracking KPIs.
• Support key product and stakeholder events and initiatives, including briefings on attendees and goals/objectives.
• Special projects as assigned.