Summary
Date Posted: Friday, October 18 2024, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
About SolarAid
Established in 2006, SolarAid is a UK-based, international charity dedicated to bringing solar power to rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Currently, nearly 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live without electricity. When the sun goes down at night, families rely on dangerous and expensive lighting, such as candles and kerosene lamps.
Together with our social enterprise, SunnyMoney, we are pioneering innovative business-based solutions to tackle poverty and climate change by providing homes, clinics, and schools with access to clean, safe solar products.
To date, we have distributed over 2.3 million lights, directly impacting over 11 million people.
Families across the continent can now rely on safe, renewable solar lights as the sun sets, but there is still a long way to go to achieve universal access to energy. We have stepped up our strategy to ensure the innovations we test in Malawi, Zambia, and with partners across Africa can be replicated and adopted at scale to ensure no one is left behind.
SolarAid is now looking for a Global Repair Lead.
This role is part of the Programmes & Partnerships team, driving SolarAid’s strategy to test critical innovation and deliver adoption with partners across the continent.
Central to our strategy is Repair. We have established ourselves as leaders in Repair across the off-grid solar sector and are testing much-needed innovation while leading an ambitious two-year programme with partners.
You will be the lead of this programme.
Equal opportunity
SolarAid is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or age.
Role purpose
Lead the strategic delivery of SolarAid’s Repair Programme and its transition into a sector-based collective.
About the role
SolarAid has played a central role in testing different strategies designed to extend the lifespan of small solar products, building repair capacity to benefit customers and reduce e-waste.
For example, we were a Solar E-Waste Challenge winner of the 2019 Global LEAP Awards, which provided pilot funding to conduct solar repair experiments across Zambia and develop a repair mobile app to facilitate the diagnosis and repair of solar lights by technicians in rural areas.
Most recently, with funding from GIZ, SolarAid implemented a project to extend the life of small solar lights through better maintenance and repair for low-income Zambians through local, decentralised repair. The project had two key facets: training and equipping third-party technicians, including sales agents within the supply chain, and conducting community repair days where customers brought their non-working lights (brand agnostic) for diagnosis, resulting in repair.
The results from this project were extremely promising: more than 90% of broken solar products were found to be repairable; most households (more than 90%) were found to hold on to broken solar products (rather than throwing them out), meaning there is a sizeable solar repair market, and, finally, baseline and end-line surveys indicate a substantial positive shift in customer attitudes towards repair as an option to revive their broken products.
In addition, SolarAid has gathered an in-depth understanding of the challenges of operating a repair service through its direct delivery. Integrating repair, localised or otherwise, is more complex than solely training and equipping technicians. All who seek to adopt such models, particularly last-mile distributors, face logistical, financial, policy, and product challenges.
As an organisation with a remit to share learnings, knowledge and models with the wider off-grid energy sector, SolarAid packaged its results and recommendations into the white paper ‘Off-grid solar repair in Africa: from burden to opportunity’ published in October 2023.
Since then, we have consulted with off-grid sector organisations, investors, institutions, manufacturers and distributors to shape the project’s next phase and acquire key partners.
This two-year project is expanding from its previous scope to holistically address the growing e-waste problem and harness the opportunity to repair solar products. This is moving beyond the direct piloting of local repair models to deliver on four key objectives:
1. Developing tools and business model guidance for distributors and technicians.
2. Actionable research to inform our decision-making
3. Global and national enabling environment and policy action
4. Work with Funders and Institutions on repair-friendly financing models and necessary incentives for adoption.
Within SolarAid, you will be responsible for leading the strategic delivery of the programme. This will involve coordinating partners across the sector to deliver on the nine deliverables we have identified over the next two years and any others that emerge.
You will work closely with the Director of Programmes & Partnerships on the programme’s strategic implementation.
This will include SolarAid Malawi’s Repair work and developing their implementation of our innovation testing, as well as our partners in Madagascar, Solar United – working on standardised frameworks to ensure comparable data, insights and deliverables.
You will not be responsible for the ‘on-the-ground’ implementation but ensure each ‘project’ has a measurable impact on the overall programme. This will include spending time with, particularly, the Zambia and Malawi teams to help steer their progress and to build their skills in Programme Management, where suitable.
We are also discussing establishing our programme as a ‘Repair Lab’ embedded in the sector with partners. This will allow us to combine our work under one clear strategy.
If conversations with partners are successful, you will be responsible for delivering this shift to a sector-based ‘Repair Lab’. While SolarAid’s direct delivery in the programme would remain similar, there would be an increased need for stakeholder coordination. We would ensure any further capacity needs are met.

Specific tasks
You will be supported by and work closely with the Director of Programmes and Partnerships on your tasks.
Programme leadership and partner engagement
• Lead the strategic delivery of the Repair programme/Repair Lab.
• Build on our existing programme design to timeline activity, deliverables and sector-based action with the SolarAid team and partners.
• Coordinate partners to develop and deliver one core strategy.
• Identify the capacity needs of the Repair Lab if it goes ahead.
• Represent SolarAid and the Repair Lab in meetings and events.
Delivery of SolarAid’s direct deliverables – for the first 12 months
• Integrate and support the development of the SolarAid Malawi repair service into a project which impacts the overall programme.
• Support the creation of standardised reporting tools for each team to ensure data consolidation. Share with other partners, such as Madagascar’s Solar United, to capture even more standardised data.
• Work with the SolarAid team to capture the business model potential of the two localised business models we are testing.
• Work with the SolarAid team on the development of ‘training of trainers’ materials.
• Secure a tech partner for further development of our SunnyMoney Repair app with partners.
• Support and grow the staff’s skills to ensure we deliver and report on our activity as planned.
• Work with research partners to deliver planned research.
• Work with partners on enabling environment actions at a national and international level.
Reporting and internal comms
• Deliver quarterly internal reports on the strategic progress of the programme and consolidate the results from each project.
• Work with Fundraising and Comms to ensure their agreed activities can take place.
• Write and/or contribute to the writing of reports with partners.
• Consolidate strategic activity with spending based on quarterly reports provided by Finance.
Fundraising
• Support the Programme Funding team in securing funding for the programme where necessary.
• Ensure all necessary info to report on grants is collated and contribute to writing where necessary.

Personal specification
Skills and competencies
• Strong leadership and project management skills, with experience in managing multi-stakeholder programmes.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships and work collaboratively with partners and cross-functional teams.
• Strong analytical skills and experience in financial modelling and research.
• Ability to convey complex technical and strategic information in a clear, non-technical manner.
• Creative thinker with the ability to solve complex problems and innovate within programme delivery.
• Proven ability to deliver on objectives in a fast-paced, changing environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for reporting and fundraising purposes.
• Proficient in using digital tools and software for project management, reporting, and communications.
• Willing to travel internationally as needed

Experience – essential
• Working within the African context.
• A deep knowledge of renewable energy, preferably in off-grid solar and repair/e-waste.
• Proven experience in leading and delivering large-scale programmes, ideally within the energy, environmental, or development sector.
• Experience in working with multiple stakeholders including NGOs, businesses, and government institutions.
• Experience in managing or working on technical projects, ideally in off-grid solar energy and/or e-waste sectors.
• Track record of engaging with partners and driving collaborative strategies.
• Strong experience in reporting, budgeting, and fundraising activities.

Experience – desirable
• Masters in Environmental Management/Development or related field.
• Familiarity with repair systems and circular economy practices.
• Knowledge of policy and enabling environment actions related to energy access or e-waste.


Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months:

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

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