Job Description
Job Title: Vice President Messaging
Reports to: Chief Financial Officer
Tasks and Responsibilities:
This role will own all aspects (commercial and operational) of mBlox Messaging Product line and will be responsible for leading a team to both directly and indirectly in order to deliver on the mBlox business plan.
This role will include co-ordination and orchestration of all Pricing, Procurement, Product Management and for the mBlox Messaging line. The key activities can be divided into the following:
Develop, maintain and execute on a business strategy for the messaging product line to ensure it meets the company objectives
The strategy should include strategies of product differentiation, geographical expansion, margin maximization & long term growth through control of product, cost, pricing, routing and reach.
Develop pricing strategies and regular reviews to ensure gross profits & gross margins meet objectives
Develop procurement strategies in conjunction with Carrier Management and the trading team to ensure that priorities and core focus areas are understood and executed on
Set Carrier Business Development Activities supporting the above strategies
Manage the Product Operations and Routing team to ensure Route Optimization Activities supporting the above strategies
Work closely with the routing team to ensure rapid Route Implementation & Quality Control
Drive Competitor Intelligence Gathering to inform strategy on an ongoing basis
Skills and experience:
Management
Lead a team of commercial managers who understand the global messaging market and are able to create pricing strategies that maximize mBlox competitiveness whilst meeting or exceeding margin targets. Lead a team can:
Ensure through pricing, cost and routing, a balance between supply and demand is maintained to ensure that margin targets are met.
With the assistance from Sales and Finance define and agree pricing for product(s) in individual countries.
Make all relevant Pricing information easily available to other parts of company.
Work closely with Sales to understand Market price for each country within your region and quality of product required to be competitive
Work closely with Finance to ensure that minimum margin thresholds are met per client / country / product
Provide Sales Managers, with approval limits, and serve as 1st line approval for special pricing requests. Refer to Finance for 2nd line approval if certain profitability thresholds are not met.
Together with Sales establish and maintain clear pricing strategies, discount structures, and guidelines for all sales channels and target markets.
Standardize pricing where ever possible
Create standard Rate Cards within Evolution
Product Management
Lead a team that understand mBlox message platform capabilities and understand how mBlox products have been implemented. Ensure the team is engaged in end to end product optimization to reduce overhead costs and automate product operations wherever possible. Lead a team that can –
Be experts on messaging features, capabilities and market requirements
Own the messaging business product roadmap
Analyse and understand market trends and be pro-active on evolving the product to meet the future needs of the market
Maintain and document an awareness of the competition and other market forces affecting pricing, through effective networking and research.
Work closely with competitive intelligence resources within Route Management to ensure that mBlox is pro-actively adjusting its strategy based on competitive intelligence.
Sales Support
Lead a commercial management team that will ensure Sales teams in each country are up to date and aware of all rate card and pricing trends.
Advise Sales on developing and implementing sales channel strategies.
Support Sales for example through joint sales calls to key accounts.
Assist Sales & Marketing in development of proposals and major bids.
Work with Sales to agree a stretch Revenue & Gross Profit for your regional MT product(s).
Provide support to Finance in managing pricing ICB process for the entire product line.
Provide support to Finance in forecasting Cost & Margin outlooks and trends
Assist in predicting seasonality trends
Ensure that Cost Trends and Pricing Trends are factored and included in annual budget forecasts.
Finance, Budget, and Forecast Support
Carrier Business Development & new connection integration management
Drive the prioritization of new country and or route expansion plan based on Revenue and Margin potential
Develop business plan and forecasts for existing countries and for new countries after launch.
Lead a team that carriers out Integration Management to ensure that new lucrative routes are setup fast, and have sufficient quality to be introduced into the mBlox product line.
Financial Management
Assist Finance in tracking revenue and margin and in preparing weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual product line update reports including revenue and margin reports, key events and issues, progress on regional product line development.
Inform Finance of any material impact to cost or margin
Assist Finance in ensuring all supplier invoices are reconciled and checked against mBlox numbers
Ensure that all pricing and Cost data is consistently accurate and correct so as to ensure that routing is done appropriately.
Carrier Management / Procurement
Establish and maintain clear procurement strategies and guidelines for all Carrier Managers to execute within their relationships
Assist the Carrier Managers with all aspects of route negotiations and performance for carriers.
Ensure Carrier Managers globally understand priorities and are working in line with margin maximization strategies
Route Optimization and Integration
Meet regularly with other Regional Commercial Managers and work together on prioritizing the pipeline of new supplier integration.
Provide comments and support to Product Operations and Routing Management will provide weekly updates to progress on pipeline activities and integration issues.
Work closely with the Routing Manager to ensure that routing strategies are in-line with margin maximization strategies
Leadership and Management
Provide strong leadership on advising the business on management and strategies of the messaging business within your region
Ability to stand your ground and communicate views openly
Company and Staff
Ensure close cross functional collaboration
Assist in special projects and/or perform additional duties that are assigned.
Demonstrate and encourage a cooperative and congenial working relationship, within and outside the company.
Experience Required:
B.Sc. or B.A. Degree.
Solid Commercial Product Management Experience
Deep understanding of the mobile industry and value chain
Deep understanding of SMS messaging
Excellent understanding of supply/ demand economics and commodity markets
Experience Desired:
MBA
Skills Required:
Strong financial, analytical skills for market, product, investment assessments and pricing.
Strong negotiation skills
Strong marketing skills in “go to market” planning, sales support development, and product marketing.
Strong interpersonal skills for working with cross functional teams.
Leadership skills for management of a team in different countries, and internal customers (sales) in different countries
Excellent communication skills, written and oral
Entrepreneurial capabilities for identifying opportunities
Competencies
Customer focused
Understand our customers’ needs and prioritize to ensure their success
Deliver financially successful and valued services
Support our customers
Delivery focused
Take pride in high quality and timely delivery of our commitments
Strive for continuous improvement and increased efficiency
Team-working
Embrace cross-functional collaboration for the benefit of the entire company
Promote knowledge sharing
Honesty, integrity
Diligence, motivated
Good interpersonal skills and is a team player
Has “spirit” – shows commitment and passion in their work
Entrepreneurial, but at the same time applies a structured approach
Willingness to learn/ being open to new ideas
Adaptability/ flexibility and resilience
Takes ownership/ accountability
Strong attention to detail and ability to work within a structured process-driven environment
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
If you would like to apply for this role please send your CV to careers@mblox.com