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

We are looking for someone to manage business development activities at Wave who is resourceful, organized and proactive about getting things done. While our field operations teams are focused on our user growth, our Business Development Lead will ensure other aspects of the business are addressed to ensure we can scale rapidly.

In this role, you'll;

Be the bridge between external companies/partners and the internal Wave teams.
Cultivate relationships, establish partnerships and execute contracts based on the needs of the product and operation teams as we rapidly scale our business in Sierra Leone.
Partnerships and Relationships: Build and strengthen partnerships between Wave and key entities like the Central Bank, banks, microfinance institutions, telecom companies, and businesses that Wave needs to succeed. This will involve extensive research and leveraging your networks to determine the best partner for Wave, then owning the acquisition. You also will manage the relationships with all external stakeholders and ensure that Wave’s service level agreements are met.
Operations Management: Manage business operations in key areas of the business such as business development, compliance and reporting.
Compliance: Ensure that Wave Sierra Leone complies with all the relevant regulations and specifications externally and internally. Externally, this will mean making sure that we comply with the government of Sierra Leone’s business regulations. You will facilitate the acquisition of different licences as needed and point out any other compliance bottlenecks we must fix. Internally, this will require you to a) know what Wave requires from all its countries of operation and b) constantly hold different departments and business unit heads accountable to make sure they are complying with the Wave standards.
Strategic Reporting: Produce key business performance reports periodically for Wave partners. This can be weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, annually or as needed.
Facilitate communication between external partners and internal Wave teams (Product, Finance, Distribution, Compliance, Legal) and work collaboratively internally to ensure that leads have the information needed to make decisions.
Do whatever it takes to get Wave up and running in Sierra Leone! This will involve helping with a wide array of tasks across multiple disciplines.
Propagate Wave culture and ensure that Wave is a fun and rewarding place to work.

Key details

Location: You'll work from our office in Sierra Leone and may travel to field locations.
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 pay 100% of your health care insurance premium cost for yourself and your dependents
We support working parents - we offer generous parental leave policies (26 weeks for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers) and subsidized childcare when you return to work
Fitness Benefit

You might be a good fit if you

Have 6+ years of relevant experience building and managing partnerships.
Have a work authorization in Sierra Leone.
Strong local network across the public and private sector
The equivalent of a Master's Degree in Business Management or a comparable field.
4+ years leading a team at a rapidly scaling organizationorganisation
Demonstrable competency in strategic planning and business development
Demonstrate very strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
Experience working with the Bank of Sierra Leone is an added advantage.
A background in leading operations launches in a Fintech, startup or mobile money operations is an added advantage.

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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