General Manager, Payments
| Location | Kampala, Uganda |
| Date Posted | May 10, 2022 |
| Category |
Administration
Management Telecom |
| Job Type |
Full-time
|
| Currency | UGX |
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 November 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments. In 2019, we expanded to Cote d'Ivoire. Now, we have millions of users 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 an experienced manager to lead and grow our Payments team, the fastest growing product at Wave. Payments comprise a suite of products targeting Merchants, including our Merchant app, checkout API, & in-app payments. Growing our Merchant payments business is a top priority for Wave, and this role reports directly to our CEO. You will start by managing a Product Manager (who manages a team of 6 engineers exclusively working on Payments), a Sales Lead, a Payments Distribution lead, and a Data Scientist. You'll also work cross-functionally with other leads in Marketing & Finance.
As our General Manager, Payments you will:
- Lead Wave's fastest-growing business unit across all functions — product, sales & marketing, operations, finance & partnerships
- Experiment a lot -- we're looking for someone who is curious and passionate about solving problems and constantly iterating to find the right solution for payments adoption and growth.
- Scale strategies that work to tens of thousands of merchants and millions of payers.
- Spend time in Wave markets visiting merchants across various industries (food, retail, public transportation, education, e-commerce, etc.) to understand pain points firsthand.
- Initiate creative local marketing strategies and user growth campaigns targeted both at merchant partners and customers.
- Manage 4 direct reports (Product, Sales, Distribution & Data Science) and a large team of over 50 people across multiple markets and continue to build the team out in existing and new markets by attracting the best talent across all functions
- Responsible for establishing and managing both business and financial KPIs in close coordination with the CEO.
Key details
- Remote positions and can work remotely from anywhere (between UTC -8 and +4) with reliable Internet access.
- Our team meets in Senegal, Uganda, or Cote d'Ivoire every four months for retreats which are one week in length. Wave covers all costs associated with travel.
- Our salaries are competitive and are calculated using a transparent formula.
- Subsidized health insurance for you and your dependents and retirement contributions (both vary from country to country)
- 6 months fully paid parental leave and subsidized fertility assistance
- Unlimited vacation with a 20-day minimum requirement
- $10,000 annual charitable donation matching
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in a product or GM role at a high growth technology, financial service company, or large multinational company in Africa (global experience highly desirable) or a previous founder of a consumer-focused tech company.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
- Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with PMs, engineers, sales teams, and executives
- Openness and curiosity. We maximize our rate of learning at Wave, and we're looking for someone with a growth mindset who can be flexible in the face of ambiguity.
You might be a good fit if you
- Build strong relationships and bring out the best in people
- Excel at leadership and enjoy managing diverse teams
- Are metrics oriented and experienced in leading teams towards KPIs
- Communicate effectively and often, both in writing and in-person, to the point of over-communication
- Think from first principles about how things should work
- Are excessively detail-oriented and seek to achieve excellence in everything you do
- Are a self-starter and proactive about achieving ambitious targets
- Willing to go the distance to get something done
- Adjust quickly to changing priorities and conditions
- French language skills are a plus.
Our team
- We have a rapidly growing in-country team in Senegal, Côte D'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, 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 own projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production.
- We’re backed by world-class investors including Founders Fund, Sequoia Heritage, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator and Partech Africa.