About Us:
Wasoko (“people of the market” in Swahili) is transforming communities across Africa by revolutionizing access to essential goods and services. We are East Africa’s biggest digitized retail distribution platform powered by our own in-house logistics network. Tens of thousands of informal retailers across six countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ivory Coast and Senegal) use Wasoko to order everyday essential goods and receive working capital financing.

The informal retailers of Africa today are the primary if not the only channel used by consumers to purchase essential goods worth over $600 billion per year. The fragmented infrastructure across large land mass, distributed but diverse population and rather a smaller basket size spend does not yet lend themselves to big basket retail or mass consumer ecommerce. Instead, the informal retail ecosystem is THE channel for building the plumbing for digital and consumer
commerce across Africa.

This is Wasoko’s opportunity. Wasoko with its brand, scale and logistics network is best positioned to build the technology-leveraged rails to serve the 1+ billion African consumers through informal retailers. We are building a digital-first operating system for informal retailers, focusing initially on B2B distribution but quickly incorporating a host of other tools and services to help communities across Africa get more for less.

About The Role
The role will focus on negotiating cost and procuring items for specific grouping of categories (Commodities). Follow market trends and provide key inputs to the replenishment manager to develop short and medium term procurement tactics, seize opportunities and manage risks.
You will be working closely with the operation team to align these tactics and maximize profitability.

About You
You have a solid understanding of the commodity value chain, and the ability to capture market signals and translate them into actions. You have spent at least 2 years in commodity trade. You have an excellent understanding of commodity market dynamics and have the ability to influence decision makers and drive results.

Responsibilities:
● Analyze and create recommendations regarding item trends, seasonal updates, and product supply issues
● Communicate item trends, seasonal updates, and product supply issues to appropriate business partners in a proactive, timely manner.
● Develop strong business relationships with vendors to deliver quality needs at best cost
● Partners with the Demand Planning to enable appropriate demand management
● Provide accurate projected costs and item movement to pricing to support margin projections.
● Support promotional planning by recommending items that meet banner promotion strategies.
● Maintain solid communication with business partners (Merchandising, Pricing, Item Lifecycle, and Replenishment) to achieve business and departmental goals .

Role Location: East Africa/West Africa Countries
Requirements:
● Bachelor's Degree or equivalent combination of education and related work experience.
● 2-5 years procurement experience in perishable food and commodities spent similar part of the
value chain (Distributor, wholesaler or manufacturer)
● Experience with software packages including Microsoft Office and ERP system
● Excellent organizational, planning, influence without authority, and communication skills