Engineers Without Borders,Product Manager Jobs in Canada

Start Date: October 2016
Duration: 12 months

Engineers Without Borders Canada

(EWB) is a Canadian NGO that invests in people and ventures to create a
thriving and sustainable world. Bolstered by its network of 40 chapters and
1300 members, EWB provides seed funding, talent and mentorship to social
enterprises throughout Sub­Saharan Africa. For more information on EWB, visit http://ewb.ca.

The EWB Fellows Program

Now in its 15 th year, the EWB Fellows Program exists to develop a cadre of
Systems Change Leaders by equipping them with the opportunities, competencies
and skills needed to build a more thriving and sustainable world. Every year we
recruit 25­-30 outstanding people for the 12­month Fellowship, placing
successful candidates in one of our early­stage Ventures located throughout Sub
Saharan Africa. This Fellowship opportunity is with Numida Technologies and is
based in Kampala.

About Numida Technologies

Numida is a financial inclusion company that helps African small businesses
build their financial track­records in order to make good business decisions,
and prove their creditworthiness to financiers who need data to lend
appropriately. Our mission is to unlock financing to the 22 million African
small businesses that need it. Numida has developed TrackApp, an Android
application that helps entrepreneurs build reliable financial records to
improve their business decisions and demonstrate their creditworthiness to
formal lenders. TrackApp makes financial record­keeping easy and incentivizes
this often neglected practice by enabling its users to easily share their
financial data with lenders, decreasing their barriers to getting a loan. It
also helps financial institutions lower their risk and costs, enabling them to
lend with improved terms and be more competitive in the financial services
market. The new financial insights that TrackApp generates and the new lending
that it facilitates will spur the growth of MSMEs not only in Uganda, but
throughout Africa, fostering job creation, and generating increased local
economic activity.

About the role

The EWB Fellow who will assume the role of Product Manager will play a vital
role at Numida Technologies. The Product Manager position sits at the
intersection of Technology Development, User Experience, and Business Strategy.
The ideal candidate will be passionate about these three work streams, and be
experienced in at least one of these.

As a Product Manager for Numida Technologies, your responsibilities will
include: ­
• Defining and championing the vision for the development of TrackApp as a
product, primarily internally but also with key external stakeholders; ­
• Gaining a deep understanding of customer experience, identifying and filling
product gaps, and generating new ideas that improve customer experience and
drive the growth of the TrackApp user base; ­
• Managing the process for collecting user feedback from the User Adoption and
Engagement Team; ­
• Researching and analyzing huge quantities of information (qualitative user
feedback, feedback from our data analytics team and partner financial
institutions about data quality, quantitative data from our usage analytics
software, and market trends/research) to uncover insights that will influence
product development and Numida’s overall strategy; ­
• Identifying the right user and/or business metrics to inform the
prioritization of incremental improvements in the product; ­
• Building the product roadmap (the actionable plan to reach the product vision
for TrackApp) by scoping and prioritizing new product improvements and
features; ­
• Managing relevant teams to follow the product roadmap, including working
closely with user experience designers to make UX/UI decisions and with the
tech team to ensure that product improvements are delivered on time.

Overall, the Product Manager will get to continuously improve TrackApp, work
with everyone in the business, and play a very large part in the success of
Numida Technologies.

Sound exciting? Here’s who we are looking for.

Skills & Qualifications ­
• A proven ability to define a vision and inspire a multi­disciplinary team to
work towards this vision ­
• Experience managing projects across multiple teams with differing functions ­
• A special gift for maintaining positive and productive relationships with
colleagues while simultaneously being highly demanding of them and keeping them
accountable ­
• Experience in product management is a strong asset, but the successful
candidate will have at least a basic understanding of tech development, user
experience design, and business strategy ­
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills ­
• Strong work ethic and willingness to work long hours when required to get the
job done
• Passion for social enterprise and private sector solutions to systemic
economic development problems, in particular those related to financial
inclusion and technology­-based innovation ­
• A technical background with an understanding of and/or hands­on experience in
software development and web technologies is also an asset

Finally, as a start­up, we are generally looking for someone who will, like us,
enjoy the thrill and the scrappiness of building a business from the ground up.
We are looking for someone with an entrepreneurial character – someone who is
passionate, resourceful, takes initiative and thrives in ambiguity, and will
prioritize Numida’s change vision above all else.

Please note: You must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or landed
immigrant in order to apply. No exceptions.

Compensation

All costs relating to the placement are either paid for directly by EWB
(airfare, insurance, vaccinations, trainings) or indirectly through a living
stipend, which covers food, living expenses, local travel, etc. Fellows also
receive an honorarium that can be used to assist with repatriation costs or
additional costs during the duration of the placement. The stipend covers basic
living expenses for a modest lifestyle in your placement country. You should
not expect to save money during this year or use the stipend to cover previous
expenses (ex. student loans). Additionally, EWB offers a range of benefits
including insurance, a settlement allowance, professional development
opportunities, and more.

Application Instructions Submitting your application for the EWB Fellowship
involves two steps:

Step 1: Under the subject line “Product Manager – Numida Technologies ”, submit
your CV/Resume to:
recruitment@ewb.ca

Step 2: Complete the following online application form. Please select “EWB
Long Term Fellowship – Numida Technologies” as the “Opportunity type” and
‘Numida Technologies’ as the “Organization of Interest”. If you would like to
submit your candidacy to more than one role, please fill out separate forms.

Applications will be reviewed, and interviews scheduled on a rolling basis, so
please submit your application as soon as possible. If the posting is still on
our website, consider the role available. For further detail about EWB, please
read our Fellowship FAQ, our website and our manifesto.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT THERE ARE MORE FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE IF THIS POSITION IS
NOT FOR YOU.