Careers at Safaricom Kenya

Job Overview

• M-PESA Africa is looking for a Senior Solutions Architect to design, govern, and evolve the architecture of our digital platforms and digital payment channels across our markets. Operating at the intersection of the M-PESA Super App, mini-app ecosystem, QR/hosted payment pages/NFC channels, and partner integrations, you will set the architectural standards and strategic direction for how digital experiences and digital payment acceptance are built, scaled, and secured across M-PESA’s platforms.
• This is a senior individual contributor role with broad influence across engineering, product, compliance, and group-level stakeholders. You will be expected to lead with vision, mentor others, and translate complex digital platform challenges into scalable architectural solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Super App & Digital Platform Architecture

• Own the end-to-end architecture of the M-PESA Super App, including its mini-app platform, SDK, and marketplace ecosystem, across all six markets.
• Own the design, versioning, and lifecycle governance of M-PESA’s SDKs (mini-app SDK, payment SDKs, and partner/developer-facing SDKs), ensuring consistency, backward compatibility, and developer experience across platforms.
• Define and govern the technical standards for mini-app onboarding, integration, security review, and lifecycle management.
• Architect the Super App’s core and service layer to support scalable, secure, and performant digital experience delivery.
• Drive the transition to modern digital platform architectures: composable UI patterns, micro-frontends, headless/BFF (backend-for-frontend) design, and cloud-native deployment aligned to M-PESA’s infrastructure strategy.

Digital Platform Governance & Standards

• Establish and champion architecture governance frameworks, design review standards, and reference architectures for digital and mobile platforms across all six markets.
• Define UX-to-architecture standards, mini-app certification criteria, and release governance, ensuring traceability from partner/developer submission through to production release.
• Partner with Compliance, Legal, Risk, and Market teams to ensure digital platform architectures meet local regulatory obligations, data protection, and app store/marketplace requirements.

Digital Payment Channels

• Own the architecture of M-PESA’s digital payment channels, including QR payments, hosted payment pages, and NFC/Tap-to-Pay, ensuring consistent design standards across the Super App and other consumer touchpoints.
• Define channel-level security, tokenisation, and merchant integration standards for QR, hosted payment page, and NFC acceptance flows.
• Architect the technical roadmap for emerging and converging payment channels, ensuring interoperability with core wallet, switching, and settlement systems.

Integration & Ecosystem Architecture

• Architect integration patterns between the Super App, core M-PESA systems, third-party mini-app developers, and partner platforms.
• Collaborate with API gateway and platform engineering teams to define event-driven, API-first exchange patterns aligned with the integration layer strategy.
• Design and govern the mini-app SDK, developer portal, and sandbox/testing environments to support a scalable third-party developer ecosystem.
• Own the SDK release process: versioning strategy, deprecation policy, and documentation standards; for internal engineering teams and external partner/merchant developers.

Performance, Security & Resilience Enablement

• Design digital platform architectures that ensure app performance, offline resilience, and graceful degradation across varied network conditions and device profiles.
• Define security architecture for the Super App and mini-app ecosystem, including sandboxing, permission models, and secure inter-mini-app communication.
• Partner with the Risk and Security teams to embed fraud prevention and abuse detection into the mini-app onboarding and runtime experience.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the senior digital platforms architecture voice in Architecture Review Boards, design forums, and group-level governance bodies.
• Mentor and coach mid-level and junior architects across markets, building digital platform architecture capability within the team.
• Produce executive-ready architecture artefacts, including C4/Mermaid diagrams, ADRs, and digital platform strategy presentations for CTO/CIO audiences.
• Lead vendor evaluations for mini-app platforms, mobile development frameworks, and digital experience technologies.

Qualifications

Skills & Competencies

Key Technical Competencies

• Strong understanding of Super App and mini-app architecture patterns, including hybrid/WebView runtimes, mini-app SDKs, and marketplace/platform governance models.
• Extensive experience with mobile and web application architecture, including native, hybrid, and cross-platform frameworks, and cloud platforms on AWS and/or Azure.
• Working knowledge of native iOS and Android platform constraints (app lifecycle, distribution/app store requirements, platform-specific security models), sufficient to guide architectural decisions across both ecosystems.
• Proven experience designing, versioning, and maintaining SDKs for external developers or partners, including API contract design, backward compatibility, and developer documentation.
• Proficiency in integration patterns including REST/GraphQL APIs, event streaming (Apache Kafka), and backend-for-frontend (BFF) design for consumer-facing platforms.
• Strong knowledge of digital platform architecture patterns including micro-frontends, composable UI, headless architecture, and offline-first/resilient mobile design.
• Experience with digital platform security architecture including app sandboxing, permission models, secure SDK design, mTLS, and OAuth2/OpenID Connect.
• Working knowledge of digital payment channel architecture, including QR code standards (EMVCo/static/dynamic), hosted payment page design, and NFC/HCE-based Tap-to-Pay acceptance.
• Knowledge of platform documentation and governance practices including ADRs, C4 modelling, developer portal design, and architecture review board processes.

Key Behavioral Competencies

• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain complex digital platform concepts.
• Analytical, structured thinker with strong problem-solving ability.
• Collaborative and influential across multi-market teams.
• Self-driven, accountable, and delivery focused.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in solutions/platform architecture, mobile or digital engineering, or closely related technical disciplines, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead capacity.
• Proven track record designing enterprise-scale digital or Super App platforms in financial services, fintech, or telecommunications.
• Demonstrated ownership of a super app / mini-app platform architecture, including SDK design and third-party mini-app governance, at scale.
• Track record owning SDK strategy for external developers or partners, versioning, backward compatibility, and deprecation at enterprise scale.
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and mobile/web application architecture.
• Proficiency in integration patterns: event streaming, API gateway design, and BFF/composable architecture.
• Strong understanding of app platform security and governance frameworks (OWASP MASVS, app store/marketplace policies, or equivalent).
• Experience with high-availability architecture and performance optimisation for high-traffic consumer-facing platforms.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in mobile money, payment systems, or digital financial services platforms in emerging markets.
• Familiarity with mini-app engine technologies (e.g., WeChat Mini Programs, Alipay GMP, or equivalent hybrid mini-app runtimes).
• Exposure to AI/ML-driven personalisation, in-app recommendation engines, or conversational/agentic interfaces.
• Experience operating across multi-country regulatory environments in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Professional certifications: TOGAF, AWS/Azure Solutions Architect, or equivalent.
• Familiarity with developer ecosystem programmes, including partner onboarding, certification, and marketplace monetisation models.

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Job Summary

• M-PESA Africa is looking for a Senior Data Architect to design, govern, and evolve our enterprise data landscape across our markets. Operating at the intersection of mobile money, payments infrastructure, AI, and analytics, you will set the architectural standards and strategic direction for how data flows, is governed, and generates value across M-PESA’s platforms.
• This is a senior individual contributor role with broad influence across engineering, product, compliance, and group-level stakeholders. You will be expected to lead with vision, mentor others, and translate complex data challenges into scalable architectural solutions.

Responsibilities

Data Architecture & Strategy

• Own the enterprise data architecture across M-PESA Africa’s multi-market environment, spanning transactional, operational, analytical, and AI/ML data domains.
• Define and enforce data modelling standards, data flow patterns, and integration architecture for real-time and batch processing pipelines.
• Lead architecture design for data platforms supporting payment rails, API analytics, fraud and AML detection, and regulatory reporting.
• Drive the transition to modern data architectures: data mesh, data lakehouse, event-driven patterns aligning to M-PESA’s cloud and hybrid infrastructure strategy.

Data Governance & Standards

• Establish and champion enterprise-wide data governance frameworks, data quality standards, and master data management (MDM) policies across all six markets.
• Define data classification, lineage, and cataloguing standards, ensuring traceability from source systems (e.g., Fintech 2.0 Platform) through to consumption layers.
• Partner with Compliance, Legal, and Market teams to ensure data architectures meet local regulatory obligations and cross-border data sovereignty requirements.

Integration & Platform Architecture

• Architect data integration patterns between M-PESA core systems, third-party platforms and analytics/AI layers.
• Collaborate with API gateway teams to define event-driven, API-first data exchange patterns aligned with the integration layer strategy.
• Design and govern streaming and CDC pipelines using technologies such as Apache Kafka and Oracle GoldenGate across market-level deployments.

AI & Analytics Enablement

• Design data architectures that underpin AI/ML use cases including transaction monitoring, watchlist screening, customer intelligence, and predictive analytics.
•  Define feature store design, data pipeline standards, and model serving infrastructure patterns for production ML workflows.
• Partner with the AI/ML team to evaluate and onboard vector databases, embedding pipelines, and LLM-ready data infrastructure.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the senior data architecture voice in Architecture Review Boards, design forums, and group-level governance bodies.
• Mentor and coach mid-level data engineers and architects across markets, building data architecture capability within the team.
• Produce executive-ready architecture artefacts, including C4/Mermaid diagrams, ADRs, and data strategy presentations for CTO/CIO audiences.
• Lead vendor evaluations for data platform tools, cloud data services, and governance technologies.

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a related field.

Experience:

• Experience in data architecture, data engineering, or closely related technical disciplines, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead capacity.
• Proven track record designing enterprise-scale data platforms in financial services, fintech, or telecommunications.
• Deep expertise in data modelling (conceptual, logical, physical) for both OLTP and OLAP systems.
• Hands-on experience with cloud data platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and big data technologies (Spark, Databricks, BigQuery, Redshift, etc.).
• Proficiency in data integration patterns: ETL/ELT, Change Data Capture (CDC), event streaming, and API-driven data exchange.
• Strong understanding of data governance frameworks and tools (DAMA-DMBOK, Apache Atlas, Collibra, or equivalent).
• Experience with streaming platforms such as Apache Kafka in high-throughput transactional environments.