Business Development Manager - Sierra Leone at Wavemm1

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 9 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 Wave is now the largest financial institution in Senegal, with over 9 million users. And, we’re still in the early days of our product roadmap and potential impact on people’s everyday lives. We are looking for someone resourceful, organised, and proactive about getting things done to join our business development team in Burkina Faso. Reporting to the Head of Business Development, you are the bridge between external companies and the internal Wave teams. The business development team cultivates the relationships, establishes partnerships and executes contracts based on the needs of the product and operation teams as we rapidly scale our business in Burkina Faso. In this role, you'll: Partnerships and Relationships: • Build and strengthen partnerships between Wave and key entities like the Central Bank, banks, microfinances, telecom companies, international remittances and businesses that Wave needs to scale. This will involve extensive research and leveraging your networks to determine the best partner for Wave, then owning the acquisition. You will also manage the relationships with all external stakeholders and ensure that Wave’s service level agreements are met. As Wave grows in the market, the types of partnerships and services required will change. • Do whatever it takes to help Wave scale in Sierra Leone! This will involve helping with a wide array of tasks across multiple disciplines. • Strategic Reporting: • Produce key business performance reports periodically for Wave partners. This can be weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, annually or as needed. • Develop and update presentations for partner meetings as well as internal playbooks. • Communication and Culture: • Facilitate communication between external partners and internal Wave teams (Product, Finance, Distribution, Compliance, Legal) and work collaboratively internally to ensure that leads have the information needed to make decisions. • Propagate Wave culture and ensure that Wave is a fun and rewarding place to work • Compliance and Regulatory: • Ensure that Wave Sierra Leone complies with all the relevant regulations and specifications externally and internally alongside the Compliance team. Externally, this will mean making sure that we comply with the government of Sierra Leone’s business regulations and working closely with Wave’s bank partners to address compliance topics. Internally, this will require you to a) know what Wave requires from all its operations and b) constantly hold different departments and business unit heads accountable to make sure they are complying with the Wave standards. Key details • Location: Sierra Leone, or other regions. Willingness to relocate to other regions for 2-3 month periods is required. • Work authorisation in the Sierra Leone is required. • Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula. • We offer generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents. • We support working parents - we offer 26 weeks of parental leave for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers, in addition to subsidised child care when they return to work. • Airtime reimbursement. • Free food and a beautiful office space. Requirements • University degree in Communications, Telecommunications, Finance, International Relations, Business Management, or a related field. • At least 5 years experience in a similar position at banks, telcos, international remittance companies or Fintechs. • Fluent in French and English. You might be a good fit if you • Have a strong network of friends and former colleagues from your work in B2B sales or work at a telecom operator that you are excited for an excuse to call, meet and work with • Have identified and professionally engaged with strategic partners by seizing upon mutually beneficial opportunities, and being relentless in your pursuit. • Have exceptional strategic thinking skills, proactive execution abilities, and a creative approach to generating leads. • Are at ease in a boardroom giving presentations or preparing partner onboarding documents in French or English. • Are enthusiastic about Wave's mission and excited to do what needs to be done to achieve it. • Like teamwork, but you also know how to work well autonomously. • Have demonstrated tenacity and a willingness to go the distance to get something done. • Are very detail-oriented and seek to achieve excellence in everything you do. • Have experience working at an international company. • Are intellectually curious, creative in the way you go about tackling problems, and embrace failure as a means to spark innovation and growth Our team • We have a rapidly growing in-country team in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon 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.