Import-Export & Procurement Specialist, Cotonou (Benin Republic)

What you would be expected to do:

• Manage import and export flows across multiple countries (Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Ghana, etc.).
• Ensure full compliance with customs regulations and tariff classifications to mitigate risks.
• Handle customs and shipping documentation (certificates of origin, invoices, landing factors, transit and clearance documents).
• Collaborate with freight forwarders and customs authorities to streamline operations and negotiate duty exemptions when applicable.
• Monitor and optimize costs related to customs duties, incoterms, and insurance logistics.

• Manage the procurement of goods and services across all business operations (office equipment, operational supplies, external services, cleaning, shop insurance, IT equipment, branding, etc.).
• Manage the end-to-end procurement cycle, from supplier selection and contract negotiation to performance tracking.
• Identify cost-saving opportunities and optimize expenditure.
• Develop and maintain strong supplier relationships, ensuring quality, reliability, and competitive pricing.
• Ensure all purchases comply with internal policies and regulatory requirements.

• Develop dashboards and provide accurate reporting on procurement, logistics costs, and stock management.
• Implement process automation tools to improve purchasing and import-export operations.
• Work closely with finance, logistics, and marketing teams to enhance data integration and traceability.
• Manage new product introductions, ensuring compliance with customs regulations and potential exemptions.
• Oversee all import and export activities in alignment with customs requirements.

You might be a strong candidate if you;

• Bachelor's degree in Logistics & Supply Chain Management, International Trade, Procurement, Business Administration, or a closely related discipline.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in procurement, supply chain, import-export, or international logistics.
• Good knowledge of West African customs and tax procedures.
• Proven track record in strategic procurement and supplier negotiations.
• Proficiency in SAP (procurement, inventory, and logistics management).
• Good Excel skills (pivot tables, advanced data knowledge).
• In-depth knowledge of Incoterms, tariff classifications, and customs regulations.
• Experience in cost optimization and contract management.
• Fluency in French & English (written and spoken) is essential for managing supplier and partner relationships.
• Strategic mindset to identify process optimization opportunities.
• Attention to detail & compliance focus to prevent disputes and ensure regulatory adherence.
• Proactive & innovative approach to explore cost-saving strategies and duty exemptions.

What Sun King Offers

• Professional growth in a dynamic, rapidly expanding, high-social-impact industry
•  An open-minded, collaborative culture made up of enthusiastic colleagues who are driven by the challenge of innovation towards profound impact on people and the planet.
• A truly multicultural experience: you will have the chance to work with and learn from people from different geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds.
• Structured, tailored learning and development programs that help you become a better leader, manager, and professional through the Sun Center for Leadership.

About
Sun King is the world’s leading off-grid solar energy company, combining cutting-edge product design, fintech, and field operations to deliver energy access for the 1.8 billion people who live without an affordable and reliable electric-grid connection.Sun King has built a new kind of energy utility: distributed, green, customer-centric, and affordable. We bring clean, reliable, decentralized energy directly into people’s lives — from solar kits that provide first-time energy access to multi-kilowatt systems that serve both off-grid users and grid-connected customers powering larger homes, schools, hospitals, farms, offices, and light manufacturing.Already, 25 million homes and businesses rely on Sun King for electricity supply and the appliances and services it enables: lighting, televisions, fans, refrigeration, and smartphones. Sun King combines energy generation, energy-efficient appliances, installation, and financing into one seamless offering. Think of it as a distributed utility, designed for wherever energy is needed and designed to scale with its users as incomes and energy needs grow.Sun King makes solar products affordable to low-income households and businesses via ‘pay-as-you-go’ (PAYG) purchase financing. Sun King installs solar after customers pay a small deposit. Customers then make small, manageable payments of as little as US $0.14 a day via mobile money or cash.Instead of paying for expensive, polluting, and health-damaging kerosene for lighting or diesel for power, customers unlock savings through accessing solar power and after one to two years of payments, customers own their solar equipment outright.Sun King collects payments digitally through mobile money systems and its 35,000 field agents — over 1 million payments each day. To date, Sun King has extended more than $1.4 billion in PAYG loans to customers.Sun King began by powering homes and businesses with solar systems delivered through PAYG financing. Now, we’re using the same model to make smartphones and clean cooking equipment affordable: helping households connect to the digital economy and transition from wood-based fuels to modern, sustainable alternatives.Sun King employs 3,500 full-time staff in 14 countries, with specialties spanning product design, data science, logistics, customer service, sales, software, operations, and more — all with a passion to serve off-grid families. Sun King is committed to gender diversity in the workplace. Women represent 42% of Sun King’s workforce.