In 2017, over half the population in Sub-Saharan Africa had no bank account. That's for good reason—the fees are too high, the closest branch can be miles away, and nobody takes cards. Without access to financial institutions, people are forced to keep their savings under the mattress. Small business owners rely on lenders who charge extortionate rates. Parents spend hours waiting in line to pay school fees in cash.

We're solving this by building financial services that just work: no account fees, instantly available, and accepted everywhere. In places where electricity, water and roads don't always work, you can still send money with Wave. In 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments. Now, we have millions of users across six countries and are growing fast.

Our goal is to make Africa the first cashless continent and that's where you come in.....

How you'll help us achieve it

Our Risk team plays a pivotal role in safeguarding Wave against fraud and mitigating associated risks while minimizing impact on user experience and business operations. Through rigorous fraud analysis, field audits, and comprehensive risk management strategies, they proactively detect and combat user scams, phishing attempts, and general fraudulent activities.

Your efforts on this team will help to drive proactive fraud risk mitigation efforts, protect user trust, and ensure sustainable business growth by maintaining a secure and resilient operational environment.

In this role, you’ll;

Assess our agent network on an ongoing basis and identify weaknesses to provide Wave with relevant data to help improve our service quality and improve our agent network reliability.
Be responsible for the analytical functions involved with the daily monitoring of our customers' activities ensuring compliance with regulations, company policies and procedures.
Monitor and review data to assess whether customers’ behaviour and their transactions warrant further review.
Conduct suspicious activity and reputation risk investigations as warranted.
Travel and visit regularly assigned wave agents and interact with them in person to gauge customer service.
Discreetly inspect our premium cash office environment to detect possible concerns and areas for improvement.
Implement and follow up on prescribed corrective actions and preventive controls recommendations and provide status updates to the wider fraud and compliance team.
Use statistical data and other means of analysis for forensic audit investigations to support link analysis activities, providing meaningful information that will assist in preventing future incidents.
Investigate the field team’s adherence to processes and policies through random calls and field visits to disclose competing interests, including dislike of particular wave points.
Other internal audit admin tasks may be assigned from time to time.

Key details

Location: You'll work from our office in Kampala and regularly travel to field locations.
Work authorization in Uganda is required.
This is a permanent position.
Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula. We run performance reviews twice a year and award bonuses to strong performers who have been with the company for more than 6 months.
We offer generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents.
We support working parents - we offer 26 weeks of parental leave for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers, in addition to subsidized child care when they return to work.
Airtime reimbursement.
Free food and a beautiful office space.

Requirements

A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Accounting or a similar discipline.
4+ years experience working in Compliance and/or Fraud risk in an international banking or payments environment.
Strong data analysis skills and experience.
Experience in transactions monitoring, fraud investigations, customer due diligence and screening.
Experience in risk management will be an added advantage.
Certified Fraud Examiner ( CFE) certification.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

You might be a good fit if you

Are adept at proposing practical, effective solutions to mitigate identified risks and address emerging fraud risk issues.
Have a deep understanding of fraud risk management principles, methodologies, and best practices.
Have excellent analytical skills to interpret complex data and make actionable recommendations.
Have a strong track record of collaborating and partnering with cross-functional teams
Exhibit meticulous attention to detail in all analyses and processes, ensuring accuracy and thoroughness.
Love owning projects - you're autonomous yet know when to escalate problems.
Are comfortable defaulting to over-communication and overreaching when it comes to coordination.
Are comfortable with frequent travel.

Our team

We have a rapidly growing in-country team in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, and Uganda, plus remote team members spread across the world.
We're deeply passionate about our mission of bringing radically affordable financial services to the people who need them most.
We foster autonomy for our employees. You'll own your projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production.
We raised the largest Series A in Africa in 2021. Our world-class investors, include Founders Fund, Sequoia Heritage, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, and Partech Africa.
In 2023, we were on Y Combinator's top 50 companies by revenue.

How to apply

Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English and a cover letter describing your interest in Wave and the role.

We review applications frequently and recommend that you apply to the role that most closely aligns with your skills, experience and career goals.

Wave is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Apply now

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