Logistics & Distribution Manager

About Apollo Agriculture:

Apollo Agriculture is the commercial farming platform for small-scale farmers that helps farmers maximize their profits. Apollo uses agronomic machine learning, remote sensing, and mobile phones to deliver financing, high-quality farm products, and optimized advice that can more than double farm profitability, starting in Kenya. Our team brings together technology and operations experience from The Climate Corporation (acquired for USD ~$1 Billion), Acre, ING, Google, Booking.com, MessageBird, and One Acre Fund. We value evangelical pursuit of mission with a pragmatic approach, humility in the face of challenge, active discussion of disagreements, and considerate listening.

About the Role:

Apollo is seeking an experienced Logistics and Distribution Manager to manage Apollo’s growing logistics and distribution operations in Zambia. You will be responsible for the on-time, cost effective delivery of goods to our customers, via our network of distribution partners. You will work with and develop your own local team of L&D staff and collaborate with our Logistics experts from Kenya to adapt best-practices to the Zambian market. Your work includes the development of strategy for the L&D function as the operation expands. 

Reporting Lines: This role reports to the Head of Zambia

Location: Lusaka, Zambia

• Maintain and execute partnerships with key suppliers and distributors: Develop strong relationships with Apollo’s Distribution and Logistics partners, develop the strategy for future years and ensure effective execution of partnerships today.
• Ensure movement of goods from suppliers to their final destination: You will plan the movements of goods from our suppliers to their final destination (Apollo warehouse, agro-dealer or farmer). You will be responsible for building processes and tools to manage all movements and plan the delivery in advance using sales projections and lead times. You will ensure efficient execution of the plans, together with your team, to ensure that we are always stocked at these locations with quality products. You will continuously monitor the performance while ensuring minimum Inventory loss
• Agro Dealer Recruitment and Management: Oversee the recruitment, training and management of agro-dealers. Build processes and tools to manage risks and develop strategies to retain strong partners. You are charged with building monitoring tools, agreeing on SLAs with our partners and ensuring adherence to them.
• Build and grow your team and establish scaleable ways-of-working: You are responsible for building, managing and motivating your team. This includes identification of the needs of the L&D function in a growing organization, hiring required staff, and training and mentoring them effectively. This includes setting KPIs, providing feedback on a regular basis and managing the overall performance of your team. 
• Propose innovations to the L&D function: Use your experience Logistics and Distribution to propose new ideas, formulate process improvements or bring other innovations to the function. 

• Have 3+ years of experience in distribution/channel management
• Experience in supply chain management is an added advantage
• Have previous experience in a fast paced environment, preferably in a startup context
• Have world-class interpersonal, networking and influencing skills. Success in this role will require you to nurture relationships internally within your team and with leaders of other teams, and to also deeply understand the perspectives and needs of Apollo’s customers, external stakeholders, and channel partners
• Are able to build and maintain effective supplier relationships to ensure that supplier performance consistently meets and exceeds business expectations. This will include measuring supplier performance in terms of time / delivery of quality products
• Are skilled at interpreting and leveraging insights from data to constantly enhance the customer experience. The ability to extract useful, actionable information from data, along with strong problem-solving skills, will be essential for success in this role
• Have the ability to understand business objectives and align team goals in service of these objectives
• Are able to build and manage a growing team efficiently and that represents Apollo’s values. 
• Are proactive and self driven to ensure the smooth running of daily operations and consistency of customer experience across the network
• Are up to date with market changes and able to review and update supply chain practices in accordance with all relevant legislation
• Have an aptitude for technology, and can continuously review and improve  the tools and technologies that help the business deliver, manage, measure and improve the customer experience across the distribution channels/partners
• Are able to minimize inventory loss by incorporating best supply chain practices
• Demonstrated ability to deliver a seamless customer experience across all stages and touchpoints in the partner & customer input pick up journey  and helping the company continually achieve greater efficiency, while driving higher customer satisfaction, NPS and customer retention

• Are a collaborative team of smart and ambitious people who are dedicated to serving our customers. 
• Make magic happen to solve hard problems and always come with solutions when challenges arise. 
• Are comfortable taking risks that can result in radical scale, and understand that failures are opportunities to learn and improve. 
• Are considerate listeners and take the time to deeply understand and seek out ideas from the people around us, even when we disagree. 
• Offer a dynamic environment that fosters talent, collaboration and growth. 
• Take pride in our work and share the responsibility to see it through from conception to deployment. 
• Back up our talk with a competitive compensation and benefits package and challenging projects. 
• Value autonomy, honesty, transparency, and respect. 
• Are excited to hear from you!

Apollo Agriculture does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Apollo Agriculture is an equal opportunity/equal access employer fully committed to achieving a diverse workforce. 

Apollo Agriculture is committed to providing a safe and productive learning and living community. To achieve that goal, we may conduct background investigations for all final candidates being considered for employment. Background checks may include, but are not limited to, criminal history, national sex offender search and motor vehicle history.

Apollo Agriculture does not charge money or any kind of fee at any stage of the recruitment process.

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