Current Job at Venture Garden Nigeria (VGN), 12th November, 2018

Venture Garden Nigeria (VGN) is a fast growing Software company with a vision to build an enduring organization with an ecosystem of value creators- while delivering high impact technology solutions for emerging markets through a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. At VGN we wage war against the average, go beyond the ordinary to explore limitless opportunities; breaking the norms and aggressively pursuing success through- Relentless Hard-work, Pursuit of excellence, calculated risk taking and a hunger for knowledge and we have a lot of fun at it!

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Group Product and Platform Manager – Commercial & Operations

Location: Ikeja, Lagos

Job Description

• We are looking for a hands-on Product & Platform Manager – commercial and operations with deep enterprise platform expertise to achieve and deliver Venture Garden Group’s Platform Hold Co status.
• This is an exciting period of rapid growth for the company as we are transitioning from a product focused company to a platform-oriented company where our strategic business units can plug into data analytics and a payment platform, subsequently rolling out to companies within the VGG ecosystem and outside.
• This person should have a wealth of experience in product operations, product and technology strategy, and has a command of scalable architectures. This person thrives in ambiguity and is adept at shepherding value through the organization and into the market.

Principal Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• Develop a team of product managers.
• Product thought leader on the platform including requirements, prioritization, and the roadmap
• Synthesizing market needs into product requirements and driving alignment with leadership on prioritization for the roadmap
• Leading design sprints and other cross-functional exercises to explore product opportunities
• Owning the product roadmap within a product line, and executing with cross-functional teams to deliver on it
• Collaborating with Marketing, Technology, and Engineering groups to develop and drive product strategy for a product line while ensuring alignment with greater business goals and objectives
• Articulating a compelling product vision and inspiring cross-functional teams to rally around it
• Systematizing and scaling product processes within the Product team and across the organization
• Mentoring and fostering the development of best practices within the Product Management team
• Working across the organization to partner with and support various stakeholders key to delivering product
• Enabling customer-facing teams with product knowledge and direction
• Engaging with customers and lending product thought leadership in support of further product development, customer success, and BD activities
• Owning and managing the product backlog including writing stories, mitigating risk, prioritizing effectively, and unblocking the team
• Enabling highest-leverage work for yourself and others
• Supporting customer audits as a Product SME

Qualifications
Essential Competencies:

• Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent.
• Led multi-disciplinary teams
• Product management of B2B SAAS enterprise platforms
• Excels at systems-level thinking
• Analytical and data-driven
• Comfort with a fast-paced environment and ambiguity
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Extreme focus on detail
• Collaborative work style
• Demonstrates initiative and results driven
• Customer and user-centric
• 5+ years’ experience in product management
• Experience in FinTech infrastructure is a plus.
• Experience in telephony/Telco Infrastructure is a plus.

Skills & Abilities:

• Excellent Communication
• Execution Focused
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Interpersonal Skills
• Leadership

Working conditions

• Flexibility is important.
• Equal opportunity
• The role is open to anyone who meets the above criteria regardless of race or nationality

Remuneration
Competitive based on experience.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Job Title: Group Product and Platform Manager – Engineering

Location: Ikeja, Lagos
Job type: Full-time

Job Descriptions

• The Product and Platform Manager – Engineering will act as the Enterprise Architect (EA) to balance technological opportunities with business requirements and maintains a holistic view of the VGG’s platform strategy, implementation, processes, information, and Information Systems/Information Technology (IS/IT) assets.
• The role will deliver the technology that will take VGG to achieve its platform Holdco status across its data analytics and payment platform.
• The EA is responsible for driving reuse and sharing of technology and best practices to maximize value delivered to the business. Extensive experience in cloud platforms such as AWS, Axure or other cloud providers is important for this role.

Principal Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• Leads identification and analysis of key industry and technology trends to assess potential effect on the enterprise and facilitate their testing with the Innovation team and the Product Managers.
• Promotes the use of a shared infrastructure and application roadmap to reduce costs and improve how information flows circulates and explains roadmaps to align partners and IS/IT priorities.
• Supports the design of the criteria for supplier evaluation, comparison, and selection, and collaborates with sourcing for assessing vendor viability and risk in relation to target Enterprise Architecture.
• Partners with business and technology subject-matter experts to ensure that the translation of business requirements into technological solutions taking into account the current and target Enterprise Architecture for optimal results for both business and IS/IT.
• Manages and facilitates an agile review mechanism to evaluate product group proposals for architectural fit
• Analyzes the technology industry and market trends to determine their potential impact on the Enterprise Architecture and leads the discussions relative to future technology (hardware, software, cloud) choices and architecture direction
• Monitors key business performance indicators to ensure IS/IT product groups are aligned to business and IS/IT objectives
• Supports the design and modeling of tactical architectures for the delivery, development, and support of special projects such as mergers, acquisitions or divestitures.
  

Qualifications
Essential Competencies:

• Frontend software development skills (React/Vue/Angular/Android/IOS/PWAs)
• Understands how to build for mobile.
• Backend Software Development skills (Java (Spring), ASP.NET, NodeJS, MongoDB/Postgres/MySQL, Oracle).
• Solid Software development fundamentals (TDD, BDD, Agile/Scrum/Kanban, Data structures & Algorithms).
• Infrastructure Knowledge
• AWS, Azure & other cloud providers
• Experience conducting proof of technology pilots and in-depth analysis of emerging technology.
• Standardized middleware options
• Communications protocols
• Platform infrastructure solutions, including both enterprise and open source technology
• Business models
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Budgeting and risk management

Added Advantage:

• Know your way around the financial projections
• Words like EBITDA, REVENUE, AMORTIZATION & BUSINESS MODELS don’t sound foreign to you
• Strong understanding of the trends and movements in the Nigerian tech eco-systems
• Project Management experience is a plus

Additional Information

• Working conditions
• Flexibility is important.
• Equal opportunity
• The role is open to anyone who meets the above criteria regardless of race or nationality

Remuneration

• Competitive based on experience

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Note: The role is open to anyone who meets the above criteria regardless of race or nationality