Ready to change the world?
We are reinventing how products are delivered around the world by unlocking the path not yet traveled. Our company was founded in 2015 and is backed by Silicon Valley’s most prominent VCs, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Icon Ventures and YCombinator. Volansi provides fast, on-demand, aerial delivery services for time-critical shipments over long ranges. We design, build and operate long-range, high-payload drones for commercial, defense, and humanitarian applications. Leveraging drone technology as a transportation method, we help our customers gain control of their supply chain and save millions of dollars on downtime and inventory costs. Our work came from the immediate need for critical delivery of parts to drastically reduce downtime for an automotive company. From this idea, our founders have scaled the company into a team of highly skilled and motivated individuals to serve critical delivery markets.
Interested?
Volansi is seeking an exceptionally dynamic and effective leader to shape the future of drone logistics in Africa. The Africa Program Manager (Africa PM) will be the principal customer liaison and will work closely with strategic and operational partners. In this position you will be responsible for program execution, including deployment planning, running the local operation, management of contractor personnel, and quality of service for our customers through active monitoring of program resources. You will report to the Sr. Director of Account Management and must be able to work cross-functionally with Flight Operations, Technical Program Managers (TPMs), Contracting, Finance, and Sales to ensure all customer requirements are scoped and delivered on-time and on-budget. You will be a key member of a vibrant and fast-paced team working with customers globally.
What you will do:
Program Management
Partner with Business Development and Sales reps on proposal writing for new projects
Develop and plan milestones for standing up new projects in new environments quickly
Deploy with the flight operations team to ensure project launch goes smoothly
Run the local operation including paying bills for leases (living and transportation), making
sure the flight ops team has all required resources to launch as well as re-supply as
needed - can potentially be managed remotely after initial setup (with on-site visit
potential)
Work with flight stateside operations and maintenance teams to ensure resourcing and
operational awareness and synergy
Coordinate with local business partners and regulatory authorities
Work with Marketing to coordinate in-country press events
Customer Champion and Advocate
Ensure customer needs and challenges are communicated and understood by executive and functional teams
Advocate for and coordinate the appropriate resourcing of portfolio programs and accounts
Anticipate future customer needs and proactively advocate internally to address them
Impact the evolution of our product by sharing customers' needs, wants, and desires
Collaborate with the business development team to define and develop new opportunities to address emerging customer needs, serving as the primary customer advocate internally
Document and communicate all project issues, potential solutions and recommended actions
Customer Retention and Expansion
Build long-term, trusted relationships with key executives and influencers across your portfolio of customers, navigating large, complex organizations
Create and manage customer success plans that tracks program and revenue goals and ensure that all contract deliverables meet or exceed customer expectations
Lead project status meetings with customers and Volansi management as part of program execution
Partner with Business Development and Sales to ensure overall account growth
Author program documentation such as program plans, monthly status reports, program review presentations, and final reports
Required:
Excellent interpersonal skills — you build trusted relationships with both customers and colleagues
A passion for solving business problems with creativity, empathy, and pragmatism
You are resourceful, scrappy, and creative — if a playbook doesn't exist yet, you go figure it out and build it for the whole team to use
Demonstrated leadership and driving issues to resolution with great customer satisfaction
Exceptional ability to create order, develop and implement processes, and federate teams around complex technical objectives for customer success
Can successfully operate in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment without requiring a lot of outside support
Ability to remain “calm” in situations of adversity
Must possess excellent written, verbal, and public speaking skills
Experience managing long-term, complex programs as well as new, short-term trials
Ability to work outside in various conditions and support the customer during operational missions
Prior Project Management experience and/or training (PMP)
Accustomed to working internationally across cultures, countries and time zones
Ability to travel as much as 50% of the time, principally in Africa to start but potentially to other parts of the world as well
Desired:
Experience with an early stage, fast-paced robotics or other relevant technology company
Experience with UAVs or commercial aviation and aviation regulatory norms and entities
Experience within the logistics and supply chain industries, with a focus on Oil & Gas, Mining or Medical Industries
Possess a valid driver’s license and a passport
Bachelor of Science and 10+ years of relevant experience
Location:
Anywhere. 50% or more travel or deployment.
