Business Unit Lead – Electric Cooking (Restaurants & Institutions)
BURN MANUFACTURING
·Today
- Location
- Nairobi, Nairobi
- Type
- Full-time
- Department
- Retail
- Seniority
- Lead
- Experience
- 3+ years
- Closing date
- Today
- Source
- ApplyToJob
Description
About the Role
BURN is seeking a commercially driven leader to build and own its Commercial Electric Business Unit — a pan-African business line delivering electric cooking solutions to restaurants and institutions. This is a full P&L ownership role: define the strategy, shape product-market fit, build the go-to-market engine, and scale revenue across multiple markets. The ideal candidate combines B2B sales leadership with entrepreneurial general management — someone who has built or scaled a business unit from the ground up and thrives in high-growth, multi-market environments.Key Responsibilities
Business Unit Leadership & Strategy
- Own the Commercial Electric BU P&L — revenue targets, margins, budgets, and unit economics across all markets.
- Develop and execute the pan-African go-to-market strategy for restaurants, institutional kitchens, and catering segments, prioritising markets by grid reliability, tariffs, and demand.
- Define the commercial model — direct sales, financing/leasing (cook-to-own, PAYGo), carbon-financed subsidies, and channel partnerships — to unlock adoption at scale.
Sales & Business Development
- Build and manage a pipeline of institutional clients: restaurant chains, hotels, schools, hospitals, government feeding programmes, and large catering operators.
- Lead high-value negotiations and close flagship anchor accounts in priority markets.
- Establish partnerships with utilities, energy access programmes, DFIs, and financiers to de-risk customer acquisition and enable asset financing.
Product & Market Fit
- Act as the voice of the commercial customer: channel field insights on power ratings, durability, kitchen workflows, and after-sales needs into BURN's product and engineering teams.
- Oversee pilots and demonstrations with key accounts, converting proof-of-concept deployments into commercial contracts.
Team & Operations
- Recruit, lead, and develop a high-performing pan-African commercial team (sales, key accounts, technical support).
- Work with country teams to build installation, maintenance, and after-sales capabilities appropriate for commercial-grade usage.
- Establish KPIs, reporting rhythms, and forecasting discipline for the BU, with regular reporting to the SMT.
Carbon & Impact
- Collaborate with BURN's carbon team to structure carbon revenue streams from institutional electric cooking projects, ensuring MRV requirements are embedded in the commercial model.
Skills & Experience
- 8+ years of commercial leadership experience, including at least 3 years in B2B sales, key account management, or business unit leadership.
- Proven track record building or scaling a business line, product category, or market entry — ideally in energy, appliances, FMCG/HORECA, foodservice equipment, or e-mobility.
- Experience selling to institutions and/or the hospitality sector (restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals, government) strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated P&L ownership with strong commercial and financial acumen (pricing, unit economics, financing models).
- Multi-country Africa experience with the cultural agility to operate across diverse markets.
- Understanding of electric cooking, energy access, carbon finance, or utility partnerships is a strong advantage.
- Exceptional negotiation, communication, and stakeholder management skills up to C-suite and government level.
- Willingness to travel extensively (up to 50%).
- Fluency in English required; French, Swahili, or Portuguese an advantage.
BURN is an equal opportunity employer.
Qualified female candidates and candidates from across our markets of operation are strongly encouraged to apply.
Qualified female candidates and candidates from across our markets of operation are strongly encouraged to apply.
Skills
Negotiation
