Director, Product Marketing 

Andela is a network of technology leaders dedicated to advancing human potential. We help companies build high-performing distributed engineering teams by investing in Africa’s most talented software developers. Based in NYC, SF, Lagos, Nairobi, and Kampala, Andela is catalyzing the growth of tech ecosystems across the African continent while solving the global technical talent shortage.

The role:

Andela recently hired a VP of Marketing that is rebooting the function at the company. You can almost think of the marketing team as a startup within a startup. Everyone who joins the team today will have to be incredibly hands-on, vision-oriented, and comfortable with the notion that we’re building in flight. It’s a great opportunity for someone who loves to build process vs. follow it, lead and learn simultaneously, and can operate with a high degree of autonomy. This role is ideal for someone who could be a future VP of Marketing, VP of Product, CMO, or COO.

This isn’t your average product marketing role at a tech company because at Andela, people are our product. We’re marketing a technical hiring solution (a full-time, remote developer) and asking companies to think dramatically different about how they hire, manage, and evaluate talent. As we accelerate adoption of the Andela solution, the desired result is a tech industry that is infinitely more diverse and inclusive than it is today.

There are three buckets of challenges that a product marketing leader at Andela will face on the job:

• Product and Product Marketing have not existed as standalone functions at the company before. Instituting process and language around a product development cycle and the mechanics around achieving product market fit (e.g. market sizing, buyer personas, etc) are yours for the making.
• The company needs tremendous clarity with regards to product definition and product positioning. Although the market for companies hiring developers is massive, we can’t be everything to everyone. Today, we think of ourselves as having quality talent that many companies can’t hire (either due to cost or size of talent pool in their market). How much of the core product do we develop by adding additional tech stacks? What marginal products can we develop in the form of new services (e.g. Training on remote work, learning & development, diversity and inclusion)?
• There’s no team in place, but there’s a ton of product marketing work that needs to get done. Our demand gen / revenue teams are eager for guidance and sales enablement.

The ideal product marketing leader should have all the skills and finesse that a typical veteran product leader possesses. The added complexity is we’re also looking for someone who has vision and heart. We’d love to work with someone who is passionate about both human transformation and challenging industry norms. We know we need someone who understands the realities of a growth company and can be the type of leader who helps employees who haven’t been through the his before cope with change. We’re a learning organization at heart so please be the type of person who is generous with their knowledge and considers him or herself to be a lifelong learner.

Additional things in your background that will help you be successful in this role:

• An understanding of the tech industry and engineering culture
• Experience supporting a two-sided marketplace
• Management knowhow required to scale up teams in a growth company

In the first 30 days you will:

• Audit the organization and define the resources, communication channels, and support needed to help you and the business succeed
• Identify priorities and/or quick wins that will help our demand gen efforts for the next 90 days

In the first 90 days you will:

• Articulate a POV with regards to our product positioning and product development process
• Write a go-to-market playbook for the existing product
• Address quick wins with regards to sales enablement
• Some questions that you’ll be able to help answer:
• What segment of the market should we be prospecting / selling into?
• Do we have a solution that can meet the needs of an Enterprise buyer?
• How do we make decisions as an organization with regards to how our product evolves - the capabilities we can or should be developing?
• What is the perceived value of the product in the market and are we fulfilling product expectations with our existing buyers?

The challenge:

Despite the rising demand for technical talent, companies are still resorting to traditional tactics like job listings and recruiting agencies to find developers. We have to convince technical hiring managers that a full-time remote developer working in Africa can do the job just as well, if not better.

Andela is not a school. We’re not an outsourcing agency. We’re not a non-profit. We’re selling perspective - a different way to hire and evaluate technical talent - and the belief that when diverse teams come together to build software, the possibilities are endless.

If you’re excited about telling this story and all of the market challenges that come with it, we’d love to speak with you.