Our mission
We're making Africa the first cashless continent.
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 9 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’re looking for a Merchant Opening Lead for our payments operations in The Gambia who is experienced in managing teams, executing on-field strategy for a large team, resourceful, and excited about rolling up their sleeves to work in the field. You'll be responsible for the daily operations of our field opening teams in The Gambia as we rapidly scale our business. The job entails planning and executing acquiring merchants at scale and maintaining desirable transacting rates at merchants.
In this role, you'll:
- Manage the Merchant Opening team which is responsible for growing Wave’s merchant base in The Gambia by opening, training, and branding merchants, along with monitoring merchants’ continued use of the payment product.
- Identify and find solutions to critical blockers for merchant growth and high usage of our payments products.
- Build the roadmap for the opening team in The Gambia to achieve its cycle objectives:
- Work closely with internal teams (distribution, admin, marketing, agent, people, etc.) to align key objectives and operationalize strategies.
- Build and own operations of Wave's field opening teams (in charge of merchant acquisition and quality of network) with the processes and people needed as we rapidly scale across The Gambia
- Design and build the processes to open quality merchants at scale with the relevant stakeholders (compliance, admin, distribution, support)
- Develop any training to give existing and new staff the right skills and expertise to serve our merchants and payers
- Coordinate the development, roll-out and management of Wave’s merchant network in The Gambia through the acquisition and growth of quality merchants in compliance with an approved process.
- Set your team up for success by working collaboratively with them to identify, and execute the most leveraged projects; creating a learning environment; and tracking and evaluating performance. Provide guidance and feedback to help team members strengthen the knowledge and skills needed to meet their OKRs.
- Lead the analysis of merchant performance; identify what is working and what is not; and take actions to ensure a high standard of service and sustainable growth.
- Work closely with our Risk & Fraud department to minimize fraud cases and threats to the security of Wave merchants and payers.
- Help build the playbook to make payment operations launches even faster and more successful in future markets.
- Help to develop Wave’s global strategy by sharing insights and learning from the team’s experience in The Gambia
- Lead by living Wave's values, and ensure they're deeply ingrained within your team.
Key details
- Location: You'll work from our office in Kotu and may travel to field locations.
- Work authorization in The Gambia 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
- Fluent in English - this role will interact regularly with non-French speakers.
- Speak both Mandinka and Wolof fluently
- At least 5 years of relevant work experience specifically managing a network, including a minimum of 2 years of experience managing field-based teams (+50 persons).
- Have strong geographical knowledge of The Gambia
You might be a good fit if you
- Communicate effectively and often, both in writing and in person, to the point of over-communication.
- Are detail-oriented and seek to achieve excellence in everything you do.
- Are a self-starter and proactive about achieving ambitious targets.
- Enjoy owning projects - you're autonomous yet know when to escalate problems.
- Have built and led strong teams in achieving key results.
- Are intellectually curious, creative in the way you go about tackling problems, and embrace failure as a means to spark innovation and growth.
- Willing to go the distance to get something done.
- Adjust quickly to changing priorities and conditions.
- Think about culture and process from the user's perspective.
- Are tech-savvy: comfortable navigating Excel and onboarding new tools.
Our team
- We have a rapidly growing in-country team in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon 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.
- We are on Y Combinator's top 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.
