Role title: Senior Data Analyst
Location: Nairobi
Job Description
Bidhaa Sasa is a women-focused start-up that uniquely combines financing and last-mile distribution of modern household goods in a one-stop shop for the rural areas. We make technology goods, such as solar systems or efficient cookstoves, both accessible and affordable by offering consumer financing to the under-served and unbanked.
We deliver life improving products to our clients’ doorsteps while making all products payable in affordable instalments and with mobile money. We sell our products through groups that are recruited and managed by women leaders in the rural heartlands of Kenya. Since our humble beginnings in 2015, we have reached over 80,000 clients and are expanding our reach further with new locations in Kenya and soon in Uganda.We are looking for a
naturally curious person and problem solver to take ownership of all company
data and its analysis. In addition, coach and mentor a team of existing
analysts hungry to learn and grow their capabilities.
As a company we are
completing an IT systems migration, which will centralise commercial and
non-commercial data allowing for a deeper analysis. The Senior Data Analyst
will report directly to one of the co-founders and will work closely with the
rest of the senior management team to extract value from business data using
advanced analytical methods and tools.
The hire will derive
knowledge and insights from both structured and unstructured data using
statistical, algorithmic, mining and visualisation techniques, for example
together with the IT admin build business intelligence dashboards for various
levels of the organisation. Over time, the hire is expected to grow their
skills and move from descriptive and diagnostic to more predictive and
prescriptive analysis, using more advanced data mining and machine learning
techniques to make business predictions and optimisations, for example stock
forecast or route optimisation.
The hire will supervise
and further develop capacity of a team of existing business analysts who
interface between the different business units and the analysis and reporting
of different data sets, from sales to household impact to logistics data.
Responsibilities
1. Data analysis
and exploration
- Guide and inspire Bidhaa Sasa about the business’
data-driven potential and strategy of data science, identify business
opportunities and collaborate with the different business units.
- Apply statistical and visualisation techniques to
derive insights, solve business problems, generate new hypotheses about
the underlying mechanics of business processes and test these hypotheses
using quantitative methods. (For example, 90% of customers of a particular
product are women. Repayments are great. Are repayments great because
women buy them – they indeed have a better payment “morale” – or because
the product saves more money than others? If fact, given that 90% of
clients for that products are well-paying women, is the repayment for that
product in fact bad even though it looks good?).
2. Team management,
collaboration and training
- Bring best practices from other industries to
build the company’s data analytics capabilities and grow the team, quickly
adding new responsibilities,
- Supervise an existing team of junior analysts in
their own domain; this includes continually evaluating them and conducting
their performance reviews,
- Grow their talent and develop their analytical
skills to enhance how we are using data for measurement of business KPIs
and decisions,
- Work collaboratively with Business Support and
Logistics teams with the aim of optimising key business processes.
3. Database integration
and capability expansion
- Understand existing and new data sources.
- Improve the design of existing and future
databases and optimise the way data is collected, stored and displayed.
- Review and manage data management projects and
their KPIs for success. For example, further automation and intelligence
upgrades of our data systems environment, such as auto generated
restocking reminders based on demand forecasts. These projects would be
managed in conjunction with external IT experts.
Qualifications
- You hold an advanced university
degree/post-graduate qualification in maths, statistics, physics or
similar. Don’t apply if you’ve forgotten your 101 statistics lessons;
- You are a naturally curious person, problem
solver, quick learner and someone who enjoys “breaking the mould”;
- You have a minimum of five (5) years’ work
experience as a data analyst in a business environment or prestigious
academic environment;
- You are certainly a “numbers person” i.e. possess
in-depth analytical skills. You enjoy exploring data to draw insights and
you’re in for some data nerdy debates with an ex-CERN particle physicist.
But you also enjoy mentoring and growing staff (you will be coaching a
team of analysts hungry to grow and excel);
- You have experience in advanced data analysis
tools (you’ve definitely outgrown Excel, in which you are more than fully
proficient, and use SQL frequently); and a working knowledge of
programming with Python or R or an equivalent and relevant language
(although we believe that the tool itself is less important than knowing
how to use it);
- Experience with SalesForce or Tableau is an added
advantage.
How to apply
- This is a re-advertisement. If you have previously
applied, you don’t need to reapply.
- Given the current pandemic, we can
consider candidates who prefer to work fully remotely, although we
would have a preference for candidates in Nairobi or willing to relocate
to Nairobi in the medium term. We’re looking for a minimum commitment for
2 years.
- Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis
until the position is filled
- Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted
- Monthly remuneration dependent on experience
NB: Bidhaa Sasa does not
charge any fees for recruitment.
