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…
As Chief of Staff to our CEO, you will:
- Own and execute on cross-functional high-impact projects that don’t have a natural owner – these may span business development, public policy, people, or operations.
- Support key people and culture projects as a champion of Wave’s culture and values – this could be designing hiring processes, participating in interviews, identifying gaps across the company and developing playbooks that ensure as Wave scales, all employees deeply understand and live the Wave values.
- Excel at working with various stakeholders and be a trusted partner to the CEO and the leadership team – you will coordinate closely with local operating teams on specific projects by making sure different departments are aligned, identifying opportunities to accelerate the pace of delivery and escalating decision-making where needed. The majority of our operating markets are francophone, so French is a requirement for this role.
- Be adaptable and happy to cover a range of projects. While you’ll naturally build a ‘specialist area’ within the CoS role – this could be in data analysis, business development or financial modelling where you’ll independently own work, you’ll also dive into owning other projects based on the priorities of the company – like supporting a department lead on a reorg, project managing a complex operations project or helping to get administrative documents needed for a licensing submission.
Key details
- Remote position and can work remotely from anywhere (between GMT – 3 and +3) with reliable Internet access.
- We expect about 15% travel in this role (~1 week every 2 months). Spending time in Wave operating markets to deeply understand challenges and opportunities within Wave or with our users will be especially important early on in this role.
- Our salaries are competitive and are calculated using a transparent formula.
- Subsidised health insurance for you and your dependents and retirement contributions (both vary from country to country)
- 6 months fully paid parental leave and subsidised fertility assistance
- Unlimited vacation with a 20-day minimum requirement
- $10,000 annual charitable donation matching
Requirements
- At least 7 years of experience at an international company in a high intensity/performing environment (eg. consulting, growth stage startups)
- Strong track record in managing projects and/or teams
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and French.
- Excel at collaborating cross functionally with different departments – you are known for your interpersonal skills and people
- Openness and curiosity. We maximise 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.
- Bonus points if you:
- Have experience in business development across Africa
- Financial modelling or comfort with financial statements
- SQL or data analysis tools – you like using data to inform decisions
You might be a good fit if you
- Are a natural project manager
- Have strong intrapersonal skills – you build strong relationships and bring out the best in people
- 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
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.
