M-Pesa Africa – Senior Manager, Business Payments Unit at Safaricom Kenya

DESCRIPTION

We are pleased to announce the subject career opportunity within Commercial (M-Pesa Africa) reporting to the Head of Commercial Strategy and Products.

Role Description

M-Pesa, is a pioneer and global market leader in mobile money. From starting in 2007 as a convenient means by which the unbanked and underbanked can send money digitally, M-Pesa has now grown to offer millions of customers financial services, enterprise, merchant, and retail solutions. We are proud of our work in enabling the digital economy in our markets, and in driving financial inclusion.

M-Pesa is now doubling down on becoming the leading digital payment method across its markets, for both in-store, remote and online payments. The aim is to build compelling value propositions for customers to choose to pay with M-Pesa, and for businesses to accept M-Pesa as a payment method and use it in their operations.

As the leader of the Business Payments Unit (BPU), you will be driving the business payments and acquiring strategy of M-Pesa Africa. You will be responsible for the overall BPU product development roadmap and the roll-out of solutions across all 7 of the M-Pesa Africa markets.

Your key targets will include:

• Driving growth in enterprise account penetration and usage across collections and disbursements use cases
• Expanding merchant acquisition, especially outside of Kenya, through the development of compelling value propositions such as mini-apps, financial services, and other VAS.
• Growing the penetration of the “Lipa” use case within the customer base, focusing on in-store payment and online payments
• Driving online acceptance of M-Pesa as a payment method, both with international global merchants as well with local online merchants
• Rolling out digital products such as the merchant app, portal, OpenAPIs, and others across all our markets
• Designing and implementing customer and business rewards schemes to achieve the above-mentioned targets

Why this role is tailored for you

You will be leading a team of 3 commercial managers, as well as the product development roadmap implemented through the BPU Agile Release Train (ART), which is made up of 6 product owners and 6 technology squads. You will need to work closely with senior management colleagues across technology, compliance, legal and other verticals.

You are expected to work together with the heads of M-Pesa and commercial counterparts in each of the local M-Pesa markets. You are expected to lead the sharing of best practices, contribute significantly to their local strategies, and ensure their full buy-in of the M-Pesa Africa BPU strategy and product roadmap.

As part of the M-Pesa Africa Commercial Department, you will work closely with colleagues that are heading the M-Pesa consumer digital strategy, financial services, and core offerings such as IMT.

You will play a pivotal role in enabling over 45M M-Pesa customers to pay for goods & services with M-Pesa and growing our base of over 200k businesses that accept M-Pesa.

Key Role Responsibilities

Lead BPU strategy and team development

• Develop & update the overall strategy in close collaboration with the markets and senior management
• Ensure buy-in from senior management and market heads
• Translate the strategy into key partnerships, products, and initiatives
• Build and lead the team to successfully achieve the set-out targets

Drive the product roadmap

• Lead the BPU Agile Release Train (ART), including 3 product managers, a total of 6 product owners, and 6 development squads
• Grow the teams & resources based on requirements
• Ensure customer-centricity in all product development
• Embrace agile ways of working and ensure the full commitment of teams
• Proactively engage with local markets and technology colleagues to ensure on-time and high quality delivered products.

Spearhead innovative partnerships

• Identify key commercial partnerships within the strategy framework
• Develop partnerships and sign-off contracts
• Ensure successful implementation of partnership
• Maintain excellent relationships with the current array of partners

Support M-Pesa market teams

• Work closely with market leads on local strategies for payments
• Ensure knowledge and best practice sharing between the markets, including chairing the monthly BPU steerco.

• Ensure the overall product roadmap is tailored / or takes in to account the needs of the markets

QUALIFICATIONS

Apply if you have:

• Bachelor’s degree, an MBA is preferred
• At least 10+ years of professional experience with at least 4 years in digital payments and acquiring
• Extensive experience leading commercial teams
• Expertise in developing partnerships with third parties
• Experience leading product roadmaps
• Strong business acumen
• Self-starter with exceptional people, presentation, and communication skills
• Demonstrated solid influencing and negotiation skills

We are happy if you have:

• Experience working in agile squads on product road maps
• Passion for, and commitment to driving mobile money growth and innovation

What you can expect from us:

• We believe in a fair and robust interview process
• We have a robust flexible total reward scheme
• Dedicated support and mentoring/coaching
• Opportunity to develop and progress – plus a solid dedication to work-life integration. It all means you’ll have everything you need to advance your career and achieve your full potential.