Director, Operations Region Africa

Wärtsilä Energy leads the transition towards a 100% renewable energy future. We help our partners accelerate their decarbonisation journeys through market-leading technologies and power system modelling expertise covering decarbonisation services, future‑fuel enabled balancing power plants, hybrid solutions, energy storage and optimisation technology, including the GEMS Digital Energy Platform.

Did you know Wärtsilä has delivered 79 GW of power plant capacity and more than 130 energy storage installations in 180 countries around the world?

In this fast‑changing world of energy, we are constantly on the lookout for future‑oriented talent to join our team and to work towards enabling sustainable societies through innovation in technology and services – together.

In Energy, we are driving long‑term and increasingly profitable growth. This requires excellence and collaboration from everyone in the team. Changes will drive clearer responsibilities, accountability, governance & performance management.

We are looking for a Director Operations to join Region Africa, Energy AFEU Area. As a Director Operations you are accountable for Agreement Management operations and maximizing their values by upselling services to the agreement customers, developing our Field Services operations within our own premises. You play a vital role in creating customer understanding throughout the Region: customer painpoints are identified, shared and addressed. As a Director Operations you are responsible for operations strategy, competence management and retention of the key talents in your organization. You will report to Director, Energy Business Africa. The preferred location is in Africa, France or Finland.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic planning and execution for today's and future Agreement Management and Field Service operations within Africa.
• Developing services together with central Energy Services teams for future growth of Agreements under contract, and leading the planning for enabling more complex offerings and maintenance support based on new customer segments and needs.
• Utilize our state‑of‑the‑art tools and help central Energy Services teams to improve them further.
• Ownership of the business: follow‑up financial, operative and technical performance of the agreement contracts and Field Service activity, identifying corrective actions and following up on the execution.
• Customer painpoints are identified, shared and addressed.
• Proactive upselling to agreement customers (incl. identifying project opportunities) in close cooperation with Regional Lifecycle Sales.
• Customer care during the agreement lifetime leads to contract renewal.
• Competence development for Field Services and Agreement Management resources to true world‑class level (incl. ensuring that our crew is trained to be as efficient as possible and given the tools to operate as “Wärtsilä super‑users”).
• Developing local leadership in Africa.
• Maximizing the use of the Field Service & Agreement Management workforce while maintaining the highest safety and quality standards and allocating the right resource to the job.
• Driving continuous improvement within the organization, aiming at operational excellence and profitability improvement.
• Drives and supports assigned Energy strategy priorities.

To Succeed in This Position You Will Need

• A long‑term strategic vision for footprint and resources, questioning the status quo.
• Strong ability to cooperate with Energy Services organization, support functions and other internal stakeholders.
• Consistent implementation of new tools and ways of working.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills to drive change across the organization.
• Ability to manage key customer relationships and represent Energy Business in critical negotiations when required.

At Wärtsilä we value, respect and embrace all our differences, and are committed to diversity, inclusion and equal employment opportunities; everyone can be their true self and succeed based on their job‑relevant merits and abilities.

Please note that according to Wärtsilä policy, voluntary consent for a security check may be required from candidates being considered for this position, depending on the applicable country.