National Retail Lead

About Kusini Water

Kusini Water is a social enterprise that designs, builds, and deploys solar-powered water kiosks serving off-grid and rural communities across South Africa, with expansion planned into Malawi and Zambia. Our model is built on community ownership: we train local entrepreneurs — Water Champions — to operate kiosks as their own businesses, generating earned income and delivering clean water to the communities where they live.

We are a purpose-driven organisation in a growth phase, with a 2030 vision to reach one million people across 500 kiosks, support 2,000 Water Champions, and generate R10 million in community-earned income. We do not do aid. We build sustainable systems.

Role purpose

The National Retail Lead will own and drive Kusini Water’s retail and commercial water sales strategy across South Africa. This is a senior commercial role responsible for growing our Buy Water revenue stream — expanding the number of retail outlets stocking Kusini Water, deepening relationships with existing accounts, and building the systems and team needed to scale commercial distribution nationally.

This role is critical to Kusini Water’s path to financial sustainability. The right person combines commercial hunger with genuine alignment to our mission: they understand that growing retail revenue is not just a business target — it is what funds the water access work in communities.

Key responsibilities

Commercial growth

• Develop and execute the national retail sales strategy for the Buy Water revenue stream
• Identify, pursue, and close new retail accounts across target markets and geographies
• Manage and grow existing retail relationships, driving volume, consistency, and account retention
• Set and track monthly and quarterly sales targets, reporting performance to the CEO
• Identify new commercial channels and partnership opportunities aligned with the Kusini Water brand

Account management and operations

• Own the full retail account lifecycle from prospecting to onboarding to ongoing management
• Ensure retail outlets are correctly stocked, branded, and supported
• Work closely with the technical and logistics teams to ensure reliable supply and kiosk uptime at retail sites
• Build and maintain a national retail CRM — contacts, pipeline, performance, and visit logs

Team and systems

• Build and lead a small retail field team as the business scales
• Develop the sales playbook, onboarding process, and performance standards for retail operations
• Leverage WhatsApp and other digital tools as integral parts of the sales and account management system
• Provide regular market intelligence and competitive insights to the leadership team

What we are looking for

Essential

• 3+ years of sales or commercial experience, with at least 1 year in a national or multi-site retail role
• A proven track record of growing revenue, opening new accounts, and managing a sales pipeline
• Strong relationship-building skills — with retailers, distributors, and internal teams
• Experience operating across multiple provinces or geographies
• High self-motivation and the ability to manage a national portfolio independently
• Valid South African driver’s licence and willingness to travel regularly

Advantageous

• Experience in FMCG, beverages, or water-related retail distribution
• Existing retail network or relationships in informal or township market channels
• Exposure to impact-driven or social enterprise organisations
• Familiarity with digital sales tools, WhatsApp Business, or CRM systems

Who thrives at Kusini Water

This is not a large corporate. We are a lean, fast-moving organisation with big ambitions and real constraints. The people who do their best work here are those who take ownership without being told to, who care about the mission and not just the metrics, and who are energised rather than frustrated by complexity and change.

• We believe clean water access is a systemic problem that requires a commercial solution. If that framing excites you, we want to hear from you.