Project Manager, Partnerships & Consulting

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 19 million smallholder farmers, 41% of which were women across 13 markets in Africa and Asia who pay an average of $6.8 per season to insure their crops. So far we've unlocked over $2.5 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. 

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.

We are a for profit organisation, 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.

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. 

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. 

Pula is seeking an experienced Project Manager. She/he must have a love for building partnerships across commercial and public sector, profits and non-profits, probing into data, solving challenging problems, and structuring complex processes, while also being comfortable building a cutting-edge ag-tech start-up. 

She / he will have full accountability for a set of projects and works with the Pula business units and external stakeholders to ensure the timely, successful and high quality delivery of grant-funded projects and initiatives at Pula. Such initiatives are supported and supervised by non-commercial partners, such as NGOs, IGOs, UN agencies, government bodies, research organizations and other third sector stakeholders, to expand Pula’s market reach and impact, create growth and revenue opportunities and meet business and social impact goals. The Project Manager will report to the Senior Partnership Manager, and work in close collaboration with the partnerships, product, commercial, actuarial and operations teams. 

A detailed job description and roles & responsibilities for the position is as follows:

Project planning and execution (35%) 

• Lead the planning, scheduling and implementation of Pula’s grant-funded projects. 
• Define project scope, goals, deliverables, tasks and resource requirements. 
• Develop full-scale project plans, including task sequences and interdependencies. 
• Track project deliverables and performance of teams using appropriate tools e.g. Gantt charts, task lists, workflow management software. 
• Keep relevant staff informed about upcoming deadlines, milestones and deliverables.
• Proactively discuss project prioritization, business drivers, and potential or actual risks with the Partnerships team and senior management. 
• Host project meetings and drive task completion to meet delivery timelines with project teams (Tech, Sales, Actuarial, Operations), including progress tracking, risk management, initiating changes to the original scope of work and reviewing checkpoints or milestones.

Reporting and budget management (35%) 

• Oversee invoicing, accounting, financial reporting, paperwork, grant records and other administrative functions to ensure successful execution of the grant process. 
• Monitor and report on progress to external stakeholders (donors, partners).
• Author or contribute to project reports (evaluations, assessments, mapping exercises).
• Assure quality and compliance in deliverables by editing/proofreading.
• Provide information/training to staff on grant deliverables and reporting requirements.

Stakeholder management (30%)

• Coordinate with other departments to gather data and support them in producing analysis that may need to be part of the progress, interim or end line reports.
• Work with Pula department heads and team leads to ensure that projects align with and contribute to the company’s strategy and goals
• Manage stakeholder relations, including donors and private/public sector partners 
• Plan and lead regular meetings with donors and other stakeholders to discuss progress
• Identify and manage project risks, issues and remediation and ensure these are communicated and coordinated with the donors.
• Hire and manage external consultants as needed to execute to specific project deliverables.

The right applicant would have the following skillset: 

• At least 5 years experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects in social enterprise, NGO, UN or similar organization.
• Skills and experience in working with diverse set of stakeholders and building strong relationships with philanthropic partners.
• Strong collaborative skills, ability to work with multi cultural and multi disciplinary teams to deliver to our clients. 
• Strong quantitative and data analytics skills, as well as report writing and presentation skills.
• You have the ability to translate complex and challenging concepts into detailed action plans.
• Exceptional work ethic and integrity: the ability to self-manage assigned tasks/deliverables. 
• Ability to prioritize work, meet inflexible deadlines and produce timely, high quality results. 
• Bachelor’s degree with an outstanding academic record.
• You are comfortable with GSuite applications (Google Sheets, Google Docs, G-Slides, etc.).
• You are comfortable and willing to travel (20% of the time) to customer sites across Africa.

What Pula will bring to the table

• Growth potential: At Pula, you’ll shape systems that give millions of smallholder farmers access to insurance for the first time. You’ll join a team that has already reached over 19 million farmers across Africa and Asia, and you’ll directly contribute to scaling this impact even further.
• Career development: You’ll be working in a high-performance environment with strong mentorship and leadership that values transparency, execution, and personal growth. As we enter our next phase of accelerated expansion, you’ll naturally gain opportunities to take on new responsibilities and grow your career.
• Stability & recognition:  Backed by top global investors and foundations;  Pula is a solid, well-funded organization. Our work is recognized globally (from winning the Singapore FinTech Festival Award to being featured in The Economist and TED Talks) and you’ll be part of a brand that is respected in the industry.
• Purpose with Rewards:  Few opportunities combine career advancement with genuine purpose. At Pula, your work directly contributes to financial security for farmers in emerging markets, while also offering competitive pay, performance incentives, and an employee share option plan with 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.