Position Reports to:
CEO

Location:
Johannesburg.

Purpose of the Position:

For the Development Manager (Farm Solar), this role is for identifying prospective rural farming clients who need better power solutions – solar and battery – for their irrigation and general farming needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop solar projects & Identify opportunities: Find land; find rural and farming customers; get land and customer signed; and, where required, ensure the solution can be secured by liaising with colleagues in the engineering team.
• Getting projects financial close: Motivated by seeing a project created from start (with a land search, leading to a cold call to a CEO, a farmer, etc) to finish (a project being built). Must be interested and hungry to develop circa 20+ projects simultaneously.
• Management: Managing local agents and Mpuma Power’s in-house land manager.
• Oversight: Of teams’ work on their projects, once the land and the target customer have been confirmed.
• Networking & Event Management: Networking within the local farming community and hosting events for them.
• Contract Management: Managing contracts with the clients / farmers, including getting contract to them and getting signed copies back from them (and to relevant person in our business, who looks after these).

Qualifications & Experience

• Work Experience: 3+ years of experience in a similar role in construction of infrastructure, with a background in farming or farming communities.
• Industry Experience: A farming background is essential, whether you grew up on/around a farm or worked in/around farming.
• Origination: Enjoys finding a potential site and getting the key elements of grid route, landowner, power purchase sale assembled.
• Sales & Deal Making: Expertise in sales, business development and negotiation.
• Business Development & Negotiation: Proven track record in identifying suitable prospective clients and partners and then closing deals with them.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Effective at communicating with internal teams, external suppliers, and key project stakeholders.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with fluency in English and Afrikaans essential.
• Self-Motivated & Effective: Proven track record of being motivated by getting development projects started from scratch.
• Minimum Education: Matric (Grade 12) required.
• Preferred Education: A tertiary qualification in a related field is advantageous but not essential. Relevant experience will be considered in place of formal qualifications.

Required Characteristics & Competencies

• Self-Direction & Planning: Systematically self-organising; including: activities, setting timeframes, and prioritising tasks to ensure efficient project execution. Able to follow and execute on a brief.
• Negotiating & Stakeholder Management: Reaching agreements with various stakeholders, whether one-on-one or multiple parties, while maintaining personable interactions and still delivering on KPIs.
• Result-Oriented: Maintaining disciplined focus on delivering KPIs (including milestones, budget, and quality standards).
• Flexibility: Adaptable to change in project conditions, challenges, and adjusting priorities.
• Confidence & EQ: Always being personable and engaging when interacting with stakeholders.
• Articulacy & Writing: Must be articulate in speech and writing. Writing well and engagingly, including writing good letters and emails, is a key competency. For example, comfortable writing farmers and vendors; as well as instructing lawyers on the basis of a commercial agreement with a client.
• Professionally Driven: Wants to get projects built and motivated by sense of accomplishment when a project is delivered (to standard, time, and budget). Also, a personal commitment to continual professional personal growth and self-betterment in such a way as to enhance professional expertise, credibility, KPI delivery, and transition to the next career-level.