Position title
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Hiring organization
Employment Type
Full-time
Industry
Agriculture
Job Location
Nairobi, Kenya
Description
Apollo Agriculture is the commercial farming platform that helps small-scale farmers maximize their profits. Apollo’s ML-powered credit models and automated operations technology unlock the massive, untapped small-scale farming market, starting in Kenya. With optimized financing, high-quality farm products, and digital advice, Apollo farmers are already more than doubling their farm profitability. Apollo’s team brings together technology, credit and operations experience from The Climate Corporation (acquired for USD $1 Billion), Google, Capital One 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 Chief of Staff to serve Apollo’s CEO as strategic partner, trusted operator, project manager, and executor of strategic initiatives across the company. The Chief of Staff’s mandate is to ensure that the CEO allocates his time to the most important and strategic areas by (i) setting and helping to execute the CEO’s priorities, (ii) developing a deep and broad view of goings on across the company, (iii) managing complex cross-company challenges and initiatives, and (iv) generally managing a broad spectrum of responsibilities in response to changing business needs. This is a fantastic opportunity to take a highly strategic role in a rapidly growing start up and serve as a force multiplier for Apollo’s senior leadership team. This position will also take on significant responsibility for new strategic investments and partnerships
Responsibilities
- Act as an extension of the CEO and funnel appropriate information across the leadership team by exercising both exceptional relationship building skills as well as excellent discretion and judgment.
- Own relationships with key partners and drive Apollo’s partnership strategy, for example with ag-input suppliers and insurance companies, to maximize our value proposition and drive further growth
- Assess new strategic business opportunities and manage initial experimentation and implementation
- Identify key gaps and move quickly to address them, either directly or by flagging necessary additions to the leadership team.
- Serve as thought partner, strategic advisor, and confidante to the CEO.
- Provide analysis, recommendations, and options to the CEO regarding high impact decisions.
- Move with urgency and without ego to solve whatever problem or need comes up.
- Travel as needed between Apollo’s offices in Nairobi, Zambia, and Amsterdam.
- Support the CEO with the development of board materials.
Qualifications
You:
- Are an exceptional writer and communicator. You can turn complex information into digestible and actionable insights and can communicate effectively to a broad range of audiences and stakeholders, and you exercise excellent judgment about what level of information is necessary to enable efficient decision making.
- Are a tireless problem solver who can roll up your sleeves to tackle whatever challenges need urgent attention, no matter when they arise. You have a “whatever it takes” attitude and are comfortable managing both strategic initiatives and nitty-gritty details to get the job done.
- Have an eye for design, and can develop compelling investor materials and presentations. You are a great storyteller and can translate that across mediums, both written and visual.
- Exercise excellent judgement and discretion and have deep emotional intelligence. You are a considerate listener and believe that effective leadership requires meaningful relationships across the company that are built on trust and transparency.
- Are excited to travel frequently between Apollo’s offices and service territories, and are as comfortable spending time with Apollo’s farmer customers as you are in the boardroom.
- Are comfortable providing effective feedback on ideas and proposals from team members across the company. You are comfortable pushing back when necessary and are excited to wade into the details to ensure you can partner with leaders effectively and help bring improvements to life.
- Are a strategic and analytical thinker who can analyze complex business challenges and independently investigate when things go wrong. You are comfortable in excel and either know or would be excited to learn SQL to enhance your understanding of business challenges.
- Have worked in management consulting, in a high-growth tech start up or similar, ideally in a cross-cutting role, or previously in a Chief of Staff role.
Job Benefits
Apollo Agriculture:
- 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.
- Value autonomy, honesty, transparency, and respect.
- Are excited to hear from you!
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