Job description
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 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’re looking for a Senior Program Manager who is creative, optimistic, organised, and loves working with data and people. This person will report to the Chief People Officer and drive projects across our CPO’s full scope (which includes both People Operations and Customer Support).
In this role, you’ll be responsible for managing cross-functional projects that improve the employee journey at Wave. You will work with the leadership team to identify problems and ensure that they get solved. Each day will look different, and the right fit for this role will enjoy ambiguity, challenge, and the experience of constantly learning new things (vs. being an expert).
Some specific projects and tasks include:
- You’ll have end-to-end ownership of people projects, from first draft to launch, and the space to do it your way.
- Work with senior leaders to identify pain points in employee experience and make a business case for how to address them.
- Build and manage teams as we scale People Operations and Customer Support at Wave. As we evolve our org structure to keep pace with the business, spin up new leaders and hand off teams. While this role will involve team management, the exact makeup of the teams will vary over time.
- Run and improve People team processes like our OKRs, People Team All Hands, and internal communications.
- Collaborate with our data analysts to build dashboards covering support and people topics, such as performance management. Use these well-designed dashboards to drive action and influence leadership.
Key Details:
- You’re willing to travel to one of our key markets once per year for ~6 days (Wave covers all costs). We also provide a yearly stipend of $1200 to meet with coworkers.
- We run performance reviews twice a year and award bonuses or promotions to exceptional performers who have been with the company for more than six months.
- Our salaries are competitive and are calculated using a transparent formula. For this role, we are offering a salary of up to $177,800 USD, plus a generous equity package.
- Major benefits:
- Subsidized health insurance for you and your dependents and retirement contributions (both vary from country to country).
- 6 months of fully paid parental leave and subsidized fertility assistance.
- Flexible vacation, with most folks taking between 21-30 days exclusive of statutory holidays.
- $10,000 annual charitable donation matching.
Requirements
- 8+ years of product, project or program management experience required
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Experience working in a fast-paced environment, like a startup or high-growth company
- Experience working in a multi-cultural environment
- Deep comfort and familiarity working with data, including Intermediate/Expert experience analysing metrics using Excel (or similar software)
- French is strongly preferred, but not required
- Comfort travelling to West Africa at least twice a year, preferably more
You might be a good fit if you:
- Thrive in ambiguity and build clarity. You think MVP-first, but can scale what works. You get satisfaction from unblocking teammates, not just hitting goals.
- Have worked as a Product or Project Manager at a mission-driven software company.
- Have experience managing programs or projects in Africa.
- Are excessively detail-oriented and seek to achieve excellence in everything you do.
- Are a self-starter and proactive about achieving ambitious targets.
- Are intellectually curious, creative in the way you go about tackling problems, and embrace failure as a means to spark innovation and growth.
- Are comfortable defaulting to over-communication and overreaching when it comes to coordination.
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.
- 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.
