Wasoko (“people of the market” in Swahili) is transforming communities across Africa by revolutionizing access to essential goods and services. We are East Africa’s biggest digitized retail distribution platform powered by our own in-house logistics network. Tens of thousands of informal retailers across seven countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Zambia) use Wasoko to order everyday essential goods and receive working capital financing.
The informal retailers of Africa today are the primary if not the only channel used by consumers to purchase essential goods worth over $600 billion per year. The fragmented infrastructure across large land mass, distributed but diverse population and rather a smaller basket size spend does not yet lend themselves to big basket retail or mass consumer eCommerce. Instead, the informal retail ecosystem is THE channel for building the plumbing for digital and consumer
commerce across Africa.
This is Wasoko’s opportunity. Wasoko with its brand, scale and logistics network is best positioned to build the technology-leveraged rails to serve the 1+ billion African consumers through informal retailers. We are building a digital-first operating system for informal retailers, initially focusing on B2B distribution but quickly incorporating other tools and services to help communities across Africa get more for less.
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) combines software and systems engineering to build and run large-scale, distributed, fault-tolerant systems. SRE ensures that Wasoko’s services—both our internally critical and our externally-visible systems— are reliable, available (uptime) and secure. Additionally, SREs will keep an ever-watchful eye on our system's capacity and performance. They set up standards for monitoring and alerting that is followed by service owners across the company. They focus on tooling and automation to make it easy for service owners to adopt SRE best practices.
You are an early engineer in our new platform team - a high-impact opportunity. You have the opportunity to set standards, establish best practices, and mentor service engineers. You will also have the opportunity to grow and present Wasoko and its engineering excellence as one of the first movers in Africa. You will get to work with some of the strongest talents across the globe with a wealth of experience and talent.
• Architect and build infrastructure to support the platform using a variety of GCP tools and technologies
• Be responsible for network, security and systems monitoring, alert standards and drive adoption across engineering and data teams
• Fluent coding ability with application programming as well as scripting languages (any of ruby, python, json, yaml, rest, node js, java, goland, psql)
• Understanding of web application architecture and security best practices (e.g. OWASP Top 10)
• Experience with server provisioning/configuration management tools, CI/CD experience, and managing the deployment flow from code commit to production release
• Team players and potential leaders collaborate to drive efficient engagement with our external partners
JOB DETAILS:Wasoko (“people of the market” in Swahili) is transforming communities across Africa by revolutionizing access to essential goods and services. We are East Africa’s biggest digitized retail distribution platform powered by our own in-house logistics network. Tens of thousands of informal retailers across seven countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Zambia) use Wasoko to order everyday essential goods and receive working capital financing.
The informal retailers of Africa today are the primary if not the only channel used by consumers to purchase essential goods worth over $600 billion per year. The fragmented infrastructure across large land mass, distributed but diverse population and rather a smaller basket size spend does not yet lend themselves to big basket retail or mass consumer eCommerce. Instead, the informal retail ecosystem is THE channel for building the plumbing for digital and consumer
commerce across Africa.
This is Wasoko’s opportunity. Wasoko with its brand, scale and logistics network is best positioned to build the technology-leveraged rails to serve the 1+ billion African consumers through informal retailers. We are building a digital-first operating system for informal retailers, initially focusing on B2B distribution but quickly incorporating other tools and services to help communities across Africa get more for less.
Location: Mbeya, Tanzania
Reporting into: Branch Warehouse Manager
Role:Fulfilment at Wasoko is a fun, fast-paced, agile and people-focused business. We believe in the motto “We win through our people.”
You will support and manage the Logistics team members in a branch, ensuring they have everything they need to achieve and maintain their optimal level of performance. At the same time, you will ensure that operational activities are in line with profit and cost targets, SOP and company policies.
This is a challenging role where you will have the opportunity to grow your career and be part of a strong team.
You must enjoy being part of a dedicated team working together to make a difference in the lives of our customers and employees in relevant and memorable ways.
If you are looking for a change and ready to make a difference … we are looking for you.
Direct Reports: 3
If this sounds like a team you would like to join… Keep reading.
Expectation:• Ability to communicate at all levels
• Ability to manage change processes
• You are able to work in a fast-paced and challenging environment
• Demonstrates an exceptional level of resourcefulness, creativity, ingenuity, and empathy
• Subject matter expert in troubleshooting and solving complex or process-related inventory management issues
• Experience to build a fulfilment centre with world-class safety and health policies, procedures, standards and culture
• Knowledge of best practices in managing B2B or B2C inbound, outbound, sortation and QC teams and processes in a scale business environment..
Responsibilities:• You are a leader. Your top priority is to make sure all Logistics employees at the branch have what they need to do their tasks 110% of the time
o What tool(s) do they need to function?
o Do they have any blockages? Help them to remove these blockages
o Compliance? Policy, SOPs and work instructions are aligned to the operations
o Self-service data? Empower them to make decisions based on data while they do their jobs
o Simplify the way our employees work – the goal is to get more for less (efficiency, productivity, etc.)
• Ensure operational KPIs are met and exceeded and the business has visibility on the performance of the branch
o Drive teams to achieve consistent delivered in full on time (DIFOT)
o Ensure inventory accuracy and receivables is maintained above 99% of the time
o Live by the principle of “The Customer is King” to ensure world-class customer service
o Optimize fulfilment centre costs per order – invest in continuous improvements to increase warehouse picker efficiency and reduce cost per pick, and forward plan to sweat vehicles as much as possible on every trip
• All warehouse locations and their capacities are accurately updated in the WMS, with all necessary notifications to upstream and downstream customers made in a timely manner and feedback provided to stakeholders almost immediately when changes occur to avoid overstocks, stock-outs or dead inventory
• Assist all inventory movement staff and the inventory team in assessing inventory inaccuracies and recommend corrective actions needed to support continuous process improvement and operational excellence
• Conduct employee performance appraisals, individual development plans, and succession plan to ensure business continuity
• Invest time in training a new generation of strong people ready to take on new challenges and opportunities while maintaining the same level of excellence in execution
• Create and foster an environment that promotes integrity, accountability and a winning attitude while providing a safety net for our employees to thrive, have fun and grow.
Qualifications:• Ability to lead, coach and train employees
• Exceptional organisational and analytical skills
• Ability to work independently and handle multiple projects
• Goal-oriented, assertive and a practical problem solver
• Degree in Supply chain, Transport & Logistics, Business Operations, Business Administration, or similar. An Advanced diploma in the same with at least 3 years of experience in last mile logistics can be considered
• You have in-depth knowledge of last mile logistics (transport best practises and processes – prior experience working with Manhattan or equivalent highly desirable).
JOB DETAILS:
About Us:
Wasoko (“people of the market” in Swahili) is transforming communities across Africa by revolutionizing access to essential goods and services. We are East Africa’s biggest digitized retail distribution platform powered by our own in-house logistics network. Tens of thousands of informal retailers across six countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory Coast and Senegal) use Wasoko to order everyday essential goods and receive working capital financing.
The informal retailers of Africa today are the primary if not the only channel used by consumers to purchase essential goods worth over $600 billion per year. The fragmented infrastructure across large land mass, distributed but diverse population and rather a smaller basket size spend does not yet lend themselves to big basket retail or mass consumer ecommerce. Instead, the informal retail ecosystem is THE channel for building the plumbing for digital and consumer
commerce across Africa.
This is Wasoko’s opportunity. Wasoko with its brand, scale and logistics network is best positioned to build the technology-leveraged rails to serve the 1+ billion African consumers through informal retailers. We are building a digital-first operating system for informal retailers, focusing initially on B2B distribution but quickly incorporating a host of other tools and services to help communities across Africa get more for less.
Role: Procurement Associate
Seeking an exceptional supply chain professional with 3-5+ years of experience to manage suppliers relating to the operations; this includes but is not limited to stock suppliers, vehicle vendors and logistics companies. You are responsible for driving company supplier term negotiations, by ensuring we receive the best margins, payment terms and build strong
partnerships across the country operations.
Location: Zanzibar, Tanzania
Duties & Responsibilities:
• Study average daily sales in the leading system, discuss requirements with the Supplier Relations division and propose a purchasing plan
• Based on guidelines from the Supplier Relations team – evaluate and negotiate with good suppliers in terms of quality, price, delivery and payment terms.
• Schedule regular reports (e.g. open, partially delivered and overdue PO’s, goods in transit,
supplier performance matrix, inventory turn rate) and meetings
• Actively manage and monitor the procurement and delivery of goods to the warehouses, to ensure KPIs are being met and revised regularly
• Improve supplier lead-time compliance through optimization of delivery tracking
• Support strategic sourcing initiatives – Provide input on local spend situation and category practices, provide insights on local supplier market and support the development of the contract implementation plan
• Assist in Monitoring all distribution agreement contracts and ensure invoices from suppliers and POs to suppliers are as per the agreed terms
• Expedite and follow-up on purchase orders, resolve Procurement related client or supplier follow up questions and update Purchase Order
• Proactively identify opportunities which will align supplier needs with the organizational goals
• Manage and implement strategies for procuring, and distributing goods to maintain stock levels
• Advise supply chain team members
• Act as the single point of contact for the Procurement function – Ensure that procurement policies and procedures are complied with and act as a link between the local internal stakeholders, suppliers and the procurement organization
Requirements:
• Preferred 2 year of experience in a similar role
• Bachelor degree, preferably in Business Management, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, ,
or Related Field
• Understanding of Supply Chain Management Procedures, Logistics Skills, Strategic Planning
Abilities
• Ability to work efficiently and independently in a fast-paced sales environment
• Strong selling, negotiating and consulting skills
• Strong data analysis and superior organizational skills,
• Effective interpersonal and analytical abilities
• Strong oral, written communication & presentation skills
• Willingness to travel for work within the country
• Must love working with people and cross-cultural teams