Learning & Development Specialist

About Pula

We are an insuretech firm that provides agriculture insurance design and execution services, specialising in index based insurance and are backed by top tier VC investors who have invested more than $25 million in the business. Since 2015 we have provided climate insurance to 15.4 million smallholder farmers, 41% of which were women across 19 markets in Africa and Asia who pay an average of $6.8 per season to insure their crops. So far we've unlocked over $2.22 billion of capital from local and international insurance markets for climate risks since we started in 2015 and paid out $40.8 million to our client farmers.

Pula is a fast-paced space, constantly adapting to new opportunities and challenges and we are made up of a high-performance, multi-cultural team. We expect our team to value performance, results and professionalism.

At Pula, our values are: 

• Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!
• Connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.
• Have a Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.
• We have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better. 

According to the UN’s InterGovernmental Panel for Climate Change more than 3.3 billion people globally live in hotspots with high vulnerability to climate change and are now already feeling the impact of climate change through increased temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall. 
Insurance is a tool for vulnerable households in these affected regions to adapt to the effects that climate change is already having today on these households. It is a tool that enables for compensation payment for losses and damages that these households had no part in causing. Insurance compensation enables these households to make adjustments to their day to day livelihoods and practices and therefore allows for an equitable and just transition.

At Pula, we are building the systems that enable farmers worldwide to access insurance, using technology to insure this previously uninsured worldwide. We work in over 17 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2021, have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 6 million farmers, 30% of which are women, across Kenya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Zambia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. We are a for profit, and have raised over $10 million from leading venture and institutional investors as well as developed philanthropic relationships with private foundations and bilateral donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German Insure Resilience Solutions Fund that have accelerated investments in our target markets.

Pula is proudly fast paced, constantly learning from the challenges we face and overcome. We are proudly culturally diverse but united in our ambition of continuous high-performance. By challenging ourselves we believe that we can overcome the hard problems we love solving. 

At Pula, our culture is defined by our: 

1.Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!

2. Ability to connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.

3. Our Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.

4. Ability to have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better.

About the Role:

Your role as a Learning and Development Specialist will be far from one-dimensional. You’ll undertake a wide range of tasks to advance the skills and knowledge of our employees, such as designing and developing learning and practicing experiences. The goal is to facilitate learners in acquiring knowledge, skills, and competencies effectively and appealingly.

In this role, you should be passionate about helping people learn and grow. Excellent communication skills are essential. We'd like to meet you if you also have experience designing e-learning courses and managing budgets.

Ultimately, you will help our company succeed by training and developing its people.

What you will be doing: 

Learning, Development and Gender Inclusion

• Create and implement a comprehensive Learning and Development (L&D) framework across all departments, ensuring alignment with business goals and gender inclusivity objectives.
• Evaluate individual and organizational development needs to tailor effective, scalable, and cost-efficient training programs.
• Implement diverse learning methods (e.g., coaching, mentoring, job-shadowing, online and hybrid training) that integrate gender-sensitive approaches.
• Develop and implement a competency matrix for all roles, supporting structured career growth and skills enhancement.
• Act as a product manager for learning systems, overseeing their design, implementation, and evaluation while ensuring accessibility and inclusivity.
• Monitor and assess the impact of learning initiatives, tracking progress on professional development, leadership readiness, and gender equity outcomes.
• Design and implement a Leadership Development Program to cultivate a strong pipeline of future leaders.
• Establish clear leadership succession paths across all departments to support long-term organizational growth.
• Implement a 360-degree feedback process for leaders, driving continuous improvement and accountability.
• Develop and launch career pathways to support structured professional advancement.

Instructional Design and Gender Integration

• Partner with internal and external subject matter experts to create engaging, impactful, and inclusive learning content that promotes gender awareness and professional development.
• Design learning experiences tailored to different employee needs, ensuring they align with measurable learning objectives while addressing gender biases and workplace inclusivity.
• Monitor and report on learning program outcomes, including impact on gender equity and inclusion, providing data-driven insights on progress at least quarterly.
• Stay updated on best practices in vocational training, adult learning, and gender-responsive education, ensuring continuous organizational learning and development improvement.

What you need to have to be successful: 

• You have at least 5 years of experience in a similar full-time role in a busy start-up or innovative organization that cares deeply about people development.
• A Bachelor’s degree in HR, Psychology, Education, Business, or a related field. or a related field. 
• Track record in designing and executing successful training programs.
• Familiarity with traditional and modern training methods (mentoring, coaching, on-the-job or in-class training, adult learning, e-learning, workshops, simulations, etc) field (additional L&D training or experience is a plus).
• Current knowledge of effective learning and development methods
• Familiarity with e-learning platforms and practices
• You have excellent communication skills, interpersonal skills, and a strong work ethic.
• Experience in project management and budgeting
• Proficient in MS Office and Learning Management Systems (LMS)
• Visual design skills (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator) and ability to storyboard
• Ability to build rapport with employees
• Excellent knowledge of learning theories and instructional design models
• Professional certification (e.g. CPLP) is a plus.

What Pula will bring to the table

• Growth potential: At Pula, we are building the systems that enable farmers worldwide to access insurance, using technology to insure this previously uninsured worldwide. We work in over 19 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2023, have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 5 million farmers, 40% of which are women. We are a for profit, and have raised over $25 million from leading venture and institutional investors as well as developed philanthropic relationships with private foundations and bilateral donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German Insure Resilience Solutions Fund that have accelerated investments in our target markets.
• Market Leader: Not only is the opportunity massive, but Pula is by far the market leader in it’s category with 11m farmers insured as of 2023.
• Solid: Pula has been funded by leading venture capital investors (Omidyar Network, ACCION, MercyCorps) and global philanthropic institutions (MasterCard Foundation, CGAP/World Bank as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Pula closed an oversubscribed $20m series B funding despite the economic downturn.
  
   
• Respected: Winner of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019, Winner of The InsureTech of the Award, Africa. Featured on TED talks, The New York Times, The Economist.
• Impact and creation: This is a high-impact role, that offers a unique opportunity to bring the company to the next level, whilst developing new strategies, approaches and ideas.
• Leadership: The founders & CEO foster a culture of transparency, respect, high performance, pragmatism, execution and personal development.
• Purpose: It is rare to find a professional opportunity that offers accelerated professional development and a life purpose. Pula is going through a second phase of accelerated growth that will naturally provide professional development, whilst contributing to the financial stability of small farmers in the emerging markets.
• Remuneration: Competitive base salary accordingly with seniority and experience, commission on closed sales and an employee share option plan that offers an attractive equity upside.

To learn more about Pula you can visit

TED Talk: Crop Insurance, an Idea Worth Seeding
New York Times: He Grew up on a Farm. Now, He Helps Protect Them
The Economist: The Poor, Who Most Need Insurance, Are Least Likely to Have It

How to apply

Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English.

Pula’s mission is to provide farmer resilience. To achieve this, we put our small holder farmers that use our services and the employees that provide them at the heart of everything we do. For that purpose, Pula was created to be an equal opportunity employer that celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.