Rwanda Village Enterprises, Ltd Country Director Job Vacancy in Rwanda

Description
JOB TITLE: Country Director

COMPANY
DESCRIPTION:

Rwanda Village
Enterprises, Ltd. (RVE) is a for-profit startup company that was created to
build mixed-income, earth-friendly housing. Our goal is to demonstrate that
building quality housing for low- and moderate-income workers in East Africa
can be profitable. RVE’s approach involves community engagement, partnership
with employers and government agencies, capacity building and the use of
appropriate technologies. Our model utilizes an internal cross-subsidy to
ensure that a portion of our houses are affordable to the community’s lowest
wage-earners. RVE’s staff members have backgrounds in real estate development, finance,
urban planning, law and a variety of social entrepreneurial start-ups.

Our first project —
Rwinkwavu Homes — involves the development of +/- 100 new homes in a small town
in Rwanda’s Eastern Province in partnership with Sharon Davis Design (SDD), an
innovative, award-winning architecture firm (www.sharondavisdesign.com).
Together RVE and SDD are researching earth friendly building materials and
methods to produce affordable housing and support Rwinkwavu community
development efforts. Rwinkwavu is home to a regional hospital as well as the
national headquarters of Partners in Health (PIH), an international health NGO.
The first stage of this project is to construct five model homes, two of which
are currently under construction. Beyond addressing a housing shortage in
Rwinkwavu, we seek to develop a sustainable model for community development
that can be replicated by RVE and others elsewhere in Rwanda and the region.

In addition to
undertaking the Rwinkwavu Homes project, RVE is pursuing a variety of urban
planning related consulting assignments with municipal agencies in Rwanda.

JOB
DESCRIPTION:

The Country Director
will manage RVE’s day-to-day operations in Rwanda under the direction of the
company’s owners, who are based in the U.S. Our work is multidisciplinary, and
therefore the Country Director’s duties will be wide ranging. The following is
a partial list of this position’s areas of responsibility:

Rwinkwavu Homes
Project

Community
relations – Work with government officials and local stakeholders to build
support and good will while ensuring the project is responsive to
community needs;
Site
control, entitlements and permits – Work with local government to obtain
the land and approvals needed to develop future phases of the project;
Design
– Oversee the design of model/master site, new house types and estimate
construction cost in partnership with Sharon Davis Design staff;
Construction
management – Coordinate the work of the architect, technical consultants,
contractors, etc. and monitor the schedule, cost, and quality of work;
End
buyer financing – Work with banks to help prospective homebuyers obtain
home loans;
Seek
out new investors and sources for development and construction financing.

Other

Manage
business operations (i.e. accounting, taxes, marketing, sales);
Property
management – Collect rent, coordinate maintenance, and approve and manage
capital improvements;
Participate
in policy discussions in Rwanda surrounding housing, green building, urban
planning and related fields;
Hire
and manage interns, property manager, construction manager;
Provide
accurate and timely reporting to owners and investors.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Able to
successfully coordinate a multi-faceted project;
Strong
organizational skills, self-starting and self-directed work habits,
detail-oriented;
Outstanding
written and oral communication skills;
Work
experience/university degree in one or more of the following fields: real
estate development, finance, project management, community development,
urban planning, law, construction management, engineering or architecture;
Experience
living and/or working in a developing country (preferably in East Africa);
Language
skills in French and/or Kinyarwanda preferred;
Interest
in or familiarity with green building, poverty reduction and low-cost
design solutions.