Job Location: Kampala, Uganda
About the role:
The Senior Operations Associate – Procurement, Imports & Exports at Sun King will oversee the end-to-end procurement and cross-border logistics operations. This includes supplier sourcing, contract negotiation, purchase order management, import/export documentation, customs clearance, and ensuring compliance with local and international trade regulations.
What you would be expected to do
Procurement
- Lead the sourcing, evaluation, and selection of suppliers based on quality, price, service, and reliability.
- Raise and track purchase orders, ensuring alignment with approved budgets and demand forecasts.
- Negotiate terms and conditions with vendors to achieve best value for money.
- Monitor supplier performance and resolve issues relating to quality, delays, or discrepancies.
- Maintain accurate procurement records and reports for audit and compliance purposes.
Imports & Exports
- Coordinate international shipments from origin to destination, including freight booking and documentation.
- Ensure timely preparation and submission of import/export documentation (e.g., invoices, packing lists, CoO, CoC, etc.).
- Work closely with customs brokers, freight forwarders, and regulatory agencies to facilitate smooth clearance and delivery.
- Ensure compliance with customs regulations, licenses, and trade laws of all relevant jurisdictions.
- Track shipments and proactively resolve any logistics issues, delays, or exceptions.
Cross-Functional partnership
- Work closely with finance to ensure timely payments and reconciliation of procurement transactions.
- Team up with the inventory, warehouse, and planning teams to align on delivery schedules and inventory targets.
- Coordinate with legal and compliance teams on supplier contracts and import/export compliance requirements.
Reporting & Optimization
- Maintain up-to-date procurement and logistics KPIs, highlighting cost savings, lead times, and supplier performance.
- Identify and implement continuous improvements in procurement and logistics processes
- Support internal and external audits by providing accurate documentation and responding to queries.
You might be a strong candidate if you have;
- Organizational and problem-solving abilities, with a keen eye for detail and process improvement.
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- A minimum of 3 years’ experience in procurement, import/export logistics, or supply chain operations.
- Knowledge of international trade laws, INCOTERMS, customs clearance procedures, and shipping documentation.
- Experience with stock reconciliation, inventory tracking systems, and returns management processes.
- Good communication and people skills, with the ability to engage effectively with diverse stakeholders across departments and levels.
What Sun King offers
- Professional growth in a dynamic, rapidly expanding, high-social-impact industry
- An open-minded, collaborative culture with enthusiastic colleagues driven by the challenge of innovation and making a profound impact on people and the planet.
- A truly multicultural experience: you will have the chance to work with and learn from people from different geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds.
- Structured, tailored learning and development programs that help you become a better leader, manager, and professional through the Sun King Center for Leadership
About Sun King
Sun King is the world’s leading off-grid solar energy company, combining cutting-edge product design, fintech, and field operations to deliver energy access for the 1.8 billion people who live without an affordable and reliable electric-grid connection. Sun King has connected more than 20 million homes to solar power across Africa and Asia, adding over 200,000 homes each month.
Sun King makes solar products affordable to low-income households and businesses via ‘pay-as-you-go’ purchase financing. Sun King installs solar after customers pay a small deposit. Customers then make small, manageable payments of as little as US $0.11 a day via mobile money or cash.
Instead of paying for expensive, polluting, and health-damaging kerosene for lighting or diesel for power, customers unlock savings through accessing solar power and after one to two years of payments, customers own their solar equipment outright. To date, our Sun King solar products have saved customers more than $4 billion cumulatively.
Sun King collects payments digitally through mobile money systems and its 28,000 field agents — over 650,000 payments each day. Embedded electronics inside each Sun King device regulate usage based on payments, similar to the operation of a pre-paid mobile or electricity meter.
From cost-effective solar systems that provide home lighting and phone charging to robust solar inverters that can power high-energy appliances such as laptops, computers, refrigerators, and more, effectively acting as a full stand-in for grid power, Sun King’s products cater to a wide range of income segments and energy needs. Leveraging its proven distribution network and brand, Sun King is expanding its range of products and services to encompass clean cooking, electric mobility, entertainment, and more, aiming to address the needs of our underserved customers.
Sun King employs 2,800 full-time staff in 12 countries, with specialties spanning product design, data science, logistics, customer service, sales, software, operations, and more — all with a passion to serve off-grid families.
Sun King is committed to gender diversity in the workplace. Women represent 44% of Sun King’s workforce.
