About Ignite Energy Access

Ignite Energy Access is an Abu Dhabi-based leader in distributed renewable energy solutions, dedicated to providing affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity to underserved communities across Africa. Now operating across 13 countries and serving over 15million people. Through innovative technology, scalable business models, and impact-driven financing, Ignite Power is transforming lives, fostering economic growth, and driving the continent’s clean energy transition

Job Purpose/Mission

Ignite Energy Access is looking for a bold, execution-focused Managing Director to lead and scale our Tanzania operations. This role is about turning ambition into results—building on Ignite’s strong solar home systems business while accelerating the growth of Productive Use of Energy (PUE) and Commercial & Industrial (C&I) energy solutions to reach millions more customers.

As Managing Director, you will have full responsibility & accountability for country performance, leading a high-performing team and a strong local leadership bench. You will scale operations nationwide, deepen government and partner relationships, strengthen commercial and operational discipline, and continuously evolve the business model to deliver sustainable, profitable growth. You will drive operational excellence, achieve ambitious growth targets, and ensure best-in-class execution across all business functions. This is a hands-on leadership role for a builder who thrives in fast-growing markets and is driven to deliver both impact and scale.

Responsibilities

Strategy, Growth & Performance

• Provide strategic and hands-on operational leadership across country operations, ensuring full alignment with Ignite Energy Access’s growth objectives, operating standards, and execution discipline across Solar Home Systems (SHS), Productive Use of Energy (PUE), and Commercial & Industrial (C&I) solutions.
• Continuously evolve the country business model to drive scale, improve customer engagement, strengthen portfolio quality, and deliver sustained, profitable growth.
• Identify and pursue new business opportunities, partnerships, and market expansion initiatives to support long-term growth.

Commercial & Portfolio Leadership

• Lead overall portfolio performance in line with group-approved KPIs, including cash collections, repayment rates, portfolio health, customer performance, delays, and defaults.
• Drive pricing, credit, product, distribution, and customer engagement strategies to maximize repayment performance and minimize portfolio risk.
• Lead and empower national teams to consistently exceed sales, deployment, and collections targets across multiple product lines.
• Translate customer and market insights into scalable, commercially viable growth strategies capable of acquiring hundreds of thousands of customers annually.

Financial Ownership & Operational Excellence

• Hold full country-level P&L accountability, ensuring sustained profitability, cost efficiency, and disciplined capital allocation.
• Lead country financial planning, forecasting, and performance management, including ownership of dashboards and financial models.
• Maintain operational cost ratios within approved thresholds while supporting rapid scale.
• Oversee end-to-end country operations, including sales and distribution networks, inventory and supply chain, project execution, and service delivery.
• Establish and maintain a robust risk management framework to identify, assess, and mitigate operational, financial, and compliance risks.

Results-Based Financing (RBF) & Donor Performance

• Own and drive Results-Based Financing (RBF) program performance, ensuring rapid deployment, accurate verification, and full compliance with all program requirements.
• Ensure successful delivery against donor milestones and maintain strong relationships with funders and verification agents.
• Guarantee high standards of reporting, audit readiness, and compliance across all donor-funded programs.

Leadership, Culture & Organization Building

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing, values-driven organization with a strong national leadership bench.
• Foster a performance culture rooted in accountability, ownership, and data-driven decision-making.
• Design and evolve a scalable organizational structure to support growth across multiple business lines.
• Oversee talent acquisition, development, retention, and succession planning in close partnership with HR.
• Coach and mentor senior leaders to strengthen leadership capability and execution excellence.

Stakeholder, Government & Partner Engagement

• Maintain strong, trusted relationships with government stakeholders, regulators, financiers, implementation partners, and industry bodies.
• Grow and manage institutional partnerships—both financial and strategic—to support scale and sustainability.
• Champion a zero-tolerance culture for safety breaches, harassment, misconduct, and unethical behavior.
• Ensure full compliance with local regulations, donor requirements, and Ignite Energy Access’s Code of Conduct.
• Uphold the highest standards of integrity, governance, and workplace conduct across all teams.

Experience

• 12+ years of senior leadership experience in a growing B2C and/or B2B business, with proven General Manager and full P&L responsibility.
• Strong commercial leadership background with deep experience in sales, marketing, and customer-centric operations.
• Proven track record leading multi-channel distribution models (direct sales, retail, partnerships, telesales).
• Experience representing a large, complex organization with credibility to governments, regulators, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex budgets, contracts, and multi-stakeholder environments with strong governance discipline.
• Experience operating in African markets—particularly rural, last-mile, FCMG or financial services contexts—strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical and strategic capability, with a solid understanding of unit economics, asset-based and non-asset-based business models.

Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in business, engineering, economics, public policy, or a related field.
• An MBA or other postgraduate qualification is valued as an added advantage; selection will be based primarily on leadership capability, commercial judgment, and a proven track record of scaling complex operations.

Language(s):

• English
• Swahili is a plus

Technology:

• Familiar with computers, Microsoft applications and smartphone literate.
• User skills of , ERP system like Dynamics Microsoft Navision (NAV), MRP I and II, SAP, Odoo, EDI, VMI, O365 (Excel, Access, Word, PPT, Mail) are important.

• Provide strategic and hands-on operational leadership across country operations, ensuring full alignment with Ignite Energy Access’s growth objectives, operating standards, and execution discipline across Solar Home Systems (SHS), Productive Use of Energy (PUE), and Commercial & Industrial (C&I) solutions.
• Continuously evolve the country business model to drive scale, improve customer engagement, strengthen portfolio quality, and deliver sustained, profitable growth.
• Identify and pursue new business opportunities, partnerships, and market expansion initiatives to support long-term growth.
• Lead overall portfolio performance in line with group-approved KPIs, including cash collections, repayment rates, portfolio health, customer performance, delays, and defaults.
• Drive pricing, credit, product, distribution, and customer engagement strategies to maximize repayment performance and minimize portfolio risk.
• Lead and empower national teams to consistently exceed sales, deployment, and collections targets across multiple product lines.
• Translate customer and market insights into scalable, commercially viable growth strategies capable of acquiring hundreds of thousands of customers annually.
• Hold full country-level P&L accountability, ensuring sustained profitability, cost efficiency, and disciplined capital allocation.
• Lead country financial planning, forecasting, and performance management, including ownership of dashboards and financial models.
• Maintain operational cost ratios within approved thresholds while supporting rapid scale.
• Oversee end-to-end country operations, including sales and distribution networks, inventory and supply chain, project execution, and service delivery.
• Establish and maintain a robust risk management framework to identify, assess, and mitigate operational, financial, and compliance risks.
• Own and drive Results-Based Financing (RBF) program performance, ensuring rapid deployment, accurate verification, and full compliance with all program requirements.
• Ensure successful delivery against donor milestones and maintain strong relationships with funders and verification agents.
• Guarantee high standards of reporting, audit readiness, and compliance across all donor-funded programs.
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing, values-driven organization with a strong national leadership bench.
• Foster a performance culture rooted in accountability, ownership, and data-driven decision-making.
• Design and evolve a scalable organizational structure to support growth across multiple business lines.
• Oversee talent acquisition, development, retention, and succession planning in close partnership with HR.
• Coach and mentor senior leaders to strengthen leadership capability and execution excellence.
• Maintain strong, trusted relationships with government stakeholders, regulators, financiers, implementation partners, and industry bodies.
• Grow and manage institutional partnerships—both financial and strategic—to support scale and sustainability.
• Champion a zero-tolerance culture for safety breaches, harassment, misconduct, and unethical behavior.
• Ensure full compliance with local regulations, donor requirements, and Ignite Energy Access’s Code of Conduct.
• Uphold the highest standards of integrity, governance, and workplace conduct across all teams.

• Strong commercial leadership background with deep experience in sales, marketing, and customer-centric operations.
• Proven track record leading multi-channel distribution models (direct sales, retail, partnerships, telesales).
• Experience representing a large, complex organization with credibility to governments, regulators, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex budgets, contracts, and multi-stakeholder environments with strong governance discipline.
• Strong analytical and strategic capability, with a solid understanding of unit economics, asset-based and non-asset-based business models.
• Familiar with computers, Microsoft applications and smartphone literate.
• User skills of , ERP system like Dynamics Microsoft Navision (NAV), MRP I and II, SAP, Odoo, EDI, VMI, O365 (Excel, Access, Word, PPT, Mail) are important.

• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in business, engineering, economics, public policy, or a related field.
• An MBA or other postgraduate qualification is valued as an added advantage; selection will be based primarily on leadership capability, commercial judgment, and a proven track record of scaling complex operations.
• English
• Swahili is a plus