Business Unit Lead – Electric Cooking Job BURN, Nairobi, Kenya
About the Role
BURN is seeking a commercially driven leader to build and own its Commercial Electric Business Unit — a pan-African business line delivering electric cooking solutions to restaurants and institutions. This is a full P&L ownership role: define the strategy, shape product-market fit, build the go-to-market engine, and scale revenue across multiple markets. The ideal candidate combines B2B sales leadership with entrepreneurial general management — someone who has built or scaled a business unit from the ground up and thrives in high-growth, multi-market environments.
Key Responsibilities
Business Unit Leadership & Strategy
- Own the Commercial Electric BU P&L — revenue targets, margins, budgets, and unit economics across all markets.
- Develop and execute the pan-African go-to-market strategy for restaurants, institutional kitchens, and catering segments, prioritising markets by grid reliability, tariffs, and demand.
- Define the commercial model — direct sales, financing/leasing (cook-to-own, PAYGo), carbon-financed subsidies, and channel partnerships — to unlock adoption at scale.
Sales & Business Development
- Build and manage a pipeline of institutional clients: restaurant chains, hotels, schools, hospitals, government feeding programmes, and large catering operators.
- Lead high-value negotiations and close flagship anchor accounts in priority markets.
- Establish partnerships with utilities, energy access programmes, DFIs, and financiers to de-risk customer acquisition and enable asset financing.
Product & Market Fit
- Act as the voice of the commercial customer: channel field insights on power ratings, durability, kitchen workflows, and after-sales needs into BURN’s product and engineering teams.
- Oversee pilots and demonstrations with key accounts, converting proof-of-concept deployments into commercial contracts.
Team & Operations
- Recruit, lead, and develop a high-performing pan-African commercial team (sales, key accounts, technical support).
- Work with country teams to build installation, maintenance, and after-sales capabilities appropriate for commercial-grade usage.
- Establish KPIs, reporting rhythms, and forecasting discipline for the BU, with regular reporting to the SMT.
Carbon & Impact
- Collaborate with BURN’s carbon team to structure carbon revenue streams from institutional electric cooking projects, ensuring MRV requirements are embedded in the commercial model.
Skills & Experience
- 8+ years of commercial leadership experience, including at least 3 years in B2B sales, key account management, or business unit leadership.
- Proven track record building or scaling a business line, product category, or market entry — ideally in energy, appliances, FMCG/HORECA, foodservice equipment, or e-mobility.
- Experience selling to institutions and/or the hospitality sector (restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, government) strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated P&L ownership with strong commercial and financial acumen (pricing, unit economics, financing models).
- Multi-country Africa experience with the cultural agility to operate across diverse markets.
- Understanding of electric cooking, energy access, carbon finance, or utility partnerships is a strong advantage.
- Exceptional negotiation, communication, and stakeholder management skills up to C-suite and government level.
- Willingness to travel extensively (up to 50%).
- Fluency in English required; French, Swahili, or Portuguese an advantage.
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