Company Overview: M-KOPA Solar, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, is the global leader of “pay-as-you-go” energy for off-grid customers.
Since its commercial launch in October 2012, M-KOPA has connected more than 200,000 homes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to solar power, and is now adding over 500 new homes each day.
The success of M-KOPA (M= mobile, KOPA= to borrow) stems from making solar products affordable to low-income households on a pay-per-use installment plan.
Customers acquire solar systems for a small deposit and then purchase daily usage “credits” for US $0.45, or less than the price of traditional kerosene lighting. After one year of payments customers own their solar systems outright and can upgrade to more power.
All revenues are collected in real-time via mobile money systems (such as M-PESA in Kenya) and embedded GSM sensors in each solar system allow M-KOPA to monitor real time performance and regulate usage based upon payments.
This connected design means that M-KOPA is processing vast amounts of data (i.e. over 10,000 mobile payments per day) via the company’s proprietary cloud platform, M-KOPAnet.
As of May 2015 M-KOPA employs over 650 full time staff across East Africa and sells through a network of 1,000 direct sales agents. It has also commenced licensing its technology to partners in other markets.
M-KOPA has been recognised for its pioneering business model and scale, notably winning the 2015 Zayed Future Energy Prize, being selected as the top New Energy Pioneer at the 2014 Bloomberg New Energy Finance awards and earning the 2013 FT/IFC Excellence in Sustainable Finance Award.
Objective: Primarily responsible for designing, testing and executing one-off and regularly run SQL scripts and query packages to extract data from SQL server databases ready for production of data visualizations.
Part of this function involves ensuring that data quality, integrity and completeness is maintained or improved and that duplicate entities & errors are identified, removed and/or corrected.
Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities
Actively work on routine and ad hoc data and business projects involving querying from the data warehouse.
Liaise with the Head of Business Intelligence (BI) and BI Lead Architect on the construction of data extraction queries, reports and automations to ensure compliance with quality standards and established methods.
Take ownership of production and testing of data operations reports using provided data sources and tools (SQL Server, PowerQuery, PowerPivot.)
Work closely with the BI developer team to ensure that all ongoing development meets the business user requirements.
Work with data owners to verify and obtain approval that any transformed data retains its accuracy.
Execute one off data extraction and manipulation jobs as required.
Work closely with the database administrator to validate any scripts produced and understand the performance impact on the source databases.
Train data operations team members on SQL querying and the use of data extraction and visualization tools.
Ensure that any data integrity issues are reported immediately and summarized weekly to management and others authorized to receive this information.
Any other tasks as directed by Head of Data Operations.
Mandatory Technical Skills
Practical experience in Microsoft SQL Server (2008, 2012) and Transact SQL
Practical experience in Microsoft Excel 2013 for data visualization
Practical experience in Microsoft Excel 2013 for accessing external data sources
Ideal Technical Skills
Experience in database query performance analysis and optimization
Experience in Microsoft PowerQuery
Experience in Microsoft PowerPivot
Experience in writing DAX formulae
Qualifications
A technical qualification in a relevant field and/or relevant professional experience.
In depth expertise in Transact SQL, MS Office Pro Plus.
Work Experience & Skills
At least 3 years working with databases, two years of which should have involved T-SQL.
Expertise in T-SQL, SQL Server, ETL tools, Data conversion, Data De-duplication, Data Cleansing methodologies
Effective at understanding a problem and developing one or many approaches to solving the problem.
Ability to concentrate on tasks and finish tasks avoiding distractions
Retaining objectivity and proper understanding of a problem when placed under stress
Ability to follow, adopt, recommend and promote standards regarding the use of data querying and visualization tools and regularly run SQL jobs.
Must take the initiative to ensure that technical knowledge relevant to this role stays current and in line with industry developments.
Be aware of key business and team objectives and ensure that these are applied appropriately to all business activities
Able to develop effective relationships with BI team, Data Operations, Developers, IT and other business users
Able to anticipate and understand customer expectations, and ensure that customer requirements are met and expectations appropriately managed. Able to build solid relationships with team members and internal customers.
Effective written and verbal communication skills suited for technical audiences, peers, IT management, data users and consumers.
Effective at planning and managing own workload and ability to split time between reactive tasks and planned project work.
Effective at contributing towards the objectives of a team, and being able to share knowledge, experience, ideas and information. Aware of the needs, objectives and constraints of those in other disciplines and functions.
Effective at solving problems in a measured and creative way. Proactive in relation to identifying and undertaking activities that are of benefit to the business. Effective at balancing long and short term objectives. Responsible for own decisions and actions.
Act in a professional manner, and exhibit the required behavior that should provide an example to other employees.
Needs to be able to identify tasks outside of own remit and work with peers to ensure an end to end solution is effectively delivered.
Must be prepared to meet business goals and respond well to change.
Remuneration
We offer a competitive remuneration package, reflective of the candidate’s experience and skills.
How to Apply
To apply, send a current, detailed copy of your CV and a cover letter expressing why you feel you would be an excellent candidate for the role to careers@m-kopa.com.
The subject of the email should be EV-DATA-BIA.
The deadline for applications is August 2, 2015.