Jobs at GSM Association (GSMA)

What The Hiring Manager Says

The Advocacy Manager will work closely with the Senior Advocacy Manager to manage key relationships and promote the impact of mobile money on the global stage on the one hand and to convey to the industry key policy trends, developments, and analyses on the other hand. This is an excellent opportunity to gain exposure to the work of international organisations working on inclusive development issues and to learn from a broad range of senior stakeholders internally and externally. The ideal candidate will have experience in the private sector, an appreciation of international development topics, and an understanding of the private sector's role in achieving development goals and how enabling regulatory landscape can help achieve that.”

About The Role

In this role you will:

• Produce and contribute to evidence-based research, including toolkits, papers, blogs, messaging, and advocacy campaigns for mobile money-relevant policy areas, including financial inclusion, data privacy and localisation, financial health, gender, and taxation, among other topics of priority. This output will consider the policy implications of these topics for stakeholders and assess their impact on attaining broader development goals.
• Be responsible for producing high-quality briefing notes, presentations and other materials for senior internal and external stakeholders.
• Represent the GSMA on occasions internally and externally in bilateral meetings and at conferences that will often include public speaking engagements.
• Maintain a broad network of partners, including international organisations, working closely with the mobile money teams.
• Support the Senior Advocacy Manager in the coordination and relationship management with crucial advocacy stakeholders at the global level, such as the World Bank Group, standard-setting organisations, policy institutes and think tanks, and various UN agencies, to ensure we secure close alignment on industry messaging with our partners where possible.
• Conduct policy research and analysis on payments systems with a focus on policy trends that threaten the industry's sustainability and make recommendations on actionable steps to mitigate and/or anticipate such threats.

About You

It is essential that you:

• Have relevant work experience in public policy or advocacy from the public sector, such as public policy think tanks, diplomacy, etc. or the private sector environment, preferably in telecommunications, financial services etc.
• Have a firm understanding of public policy in a regulated environment such as banking, payments, fintech, telecommunications, petroleum, tobacco, etc.
• Can interpret the policy implications presented by evidence-based research and, in turn, the economic and commercial implications of policy
• Understand the theory of development and development economics that underpins our work in mobile money
• Are fluent in English and able to express complex technical, commercial or regulatory issues in plain language
• Have solid analytical, writing and presentation skills
• Have public speaking experience
• Are proactive, energetic and possess first-rate project and people management skills and can work in a fast-paced environment
• Are a self-starter who can work independently and feels comfortable with complexity and dealing with all levels of personnel internally and externally
• Have respect for diversity in a multicultural working environment

It Is Desirable That You

• Have good knowledge of payments/mobile money services, including the mobile money regulatory environment
• Have experience designing and leading advocacy campaigns
• Are fluent in French
• Understand the processes, institutions and organisations that shape the changing international context in which the GSMA’s mobile money team operates, including the roles of multilateral organisations, regulators, and mobile operators.

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What The Hiring Manager Say

As Senior Market Engagement Manager – Mobile Money for Africa, you will have the unique opportunity to work across the mobile money industry on commercial, regulatory, and technology issues to encourage the growth of the mobile money ecosystem to reach the underserved across Africa, from your vantage point at the GSMA. You will build a broad network of public and private sector actors committed to this goal. You will use industry knowledge and relationships to identify key industry partners and opportunities, which you will transform into concrete projects that you champion and deliver in collaboration with industry. You will be relied on by your teammates for a current and nuanced understanding of key market developments and your capacity to influence stakeholders in mobile money and digital payments in the region. If you are driven by the potential for mobile technology to drive both commercial opportunity and social benefits and energised by the opportunity to contribute to Digital Finance for All in Africa and beyond – this is the role for you.

About The Role

• Support the Senior Director in defining and evolving the strategic direction of the global Market Engagement team. In addition, provide input to the strategic direction of the Mobile Money programme as a whole, based on your close relationships and clear understanding of industry stakeholders’ changing business needs.
• Develop recommendations for the strategic direction for the Mobile Money Market Engagement team in Africa and own the delivery of that strategy.
• Engage with industry to identify commercial, regulatory, and technological barriers to the development of mobile money services and recommend support.
• Build and manage strategic relationships with operators, fintechs, public sector actors, and other key stakeholders to identify strategic opportunities and develop initiatives that align and feedback into the programme’s core objectives.
• Track and monitor engagements, to easily identify historical and ongoing engagements and monitor long-term impact.
• Apply a deep understanding of digital financial services to analyse regional mobile money trends and extract industry lessons, and capture these in blogs, publications, case studies, toolkits as well as presentations, workshops, events, and meetings. This will include collaborating with the Data & Insights, Technology, and Policy & Regulatory teams to generate insights.
• Represent the mobile money industry at events, stakeholder meetings, and other forums.
• Lead in the creation and delivery of strategy workshops, industry convenings, and formal industry working groups for industry stakeholders.
• Collaborate and provide mobile money expertise to other GSMA Mobile for Development programmes and the broader GSMA in Africa.

About You

• Energetic team player, with creative mindset, and hands-on and can-do mentality. Ability to work independently, self-motivated, entrepreneurial and organised to deliver high impact outputs.
• Genuine interest in the social benefits that are presented by the use of mobile technology to address financial inclusion of the poor.
• Strong experience working in mobile money industry, in a commercial, operational, regulatory, and/or technological capacity.
• Strong experience in building and managing complex relationships and delivering multi-stakeholder projects relating to commercial, regulatory, and technological aspects of financial services in Africa, with minimal direction and supervision. Ability to achieve measurable results through your excellent relationship management skills, collaboration, and your ability to consider the interests of multiple stakeholders.
• Strong experience in defining, structuring, and managing stakeholder projects and initiatives.
• Excellent communicator with strong written, conversational, and public speaking skills and the ability to adapt your style to suit audiences of different backgrounds, including e.g. C-level executives, commercial decision makers, technology owners, and public sector representatives.
• Affinity with, and understanding of, commercial models and technologies relevant to mobile money and financial services, with a strategic view on how the fintech roadmap is evolving. Ability to translate complex technical matters into plain language, explain technology concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, and relate to commercial rationale, global best practice, and viable business models for stakeholders.
• Experience of working in multiple markets in Africa and good cultural awareness.
• Outstanding communication skills in English language. French strongly desired.
• Willingness to travel on international basis (up to 15% of the time pending travel restrictions).
• Right to work in Kenya.