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

We're looking for a Head of BTL and Distribution for our operations in Burkina Faso who is experienced in managing teams, executing product sales strategy, resourceful, and excited to roll up their sleeves and work in the field. You'll be responsible for the daily operations of our field sales teams in Burkina Faso. The job entails planning and executing user acquisition campaigns and maintaining desirable user activity rates.

In this role, you'll;

Manage sales teams who are responsible for growing Wave's user base.
You will need to identify and resolve critical blockers that hinder customer growth and maintain active usage of our financial products.
Build the roadmap for the distribution team in Burkina Faso to achieve its quarterly key objectives:

Work closely with the ATL team and the rest of marketing
Work closely with the Wave agent team to align key objectives and operationalize strategies
Take ownership of operations in rapidly scaling Wave's field sales teams (in charge of customer acquisition ) across Burkina Faso, with the processes and people needed
Develop a field marketing program for customer acquisition that gives existing and new staff the right skills and expertise to serve our users

Coordinate and ensure diverse projects on the roadmap are on track by:

setting up clear responsibilities for the team and ensuring individuals have the resources needed
providing day-to-day management and mentorship of team members
working closely with HR, Agent Management, and Media teams to align activities

Help to develop Wave's global strategy by sharing insights and learning from the team's experience.
Lead by living Wave's values, and ensure they're deeply ingrained within your team.

Key details

Location: You'll work from our office in Burkina Faso and may travel to field locations.
Work authorization in Burkina Faso is required.
This is a permanent position.
Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula. We run performance reviews twice a year and award bonuses to strong performers who have been with the company for more than 6 months.
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 subsidized child care when they return to work
Airtime reimbursement
Free food and a beautiful office space

Requirements

Fluent in English - this role will interact regularly with non-French speakers.
Speak and write both French and English fluently.
Minimum of 5 years' experience leading field-based sales or user acquisition teams.
Proven track record in designing and executing user growth strategies within telecom, fintech, FMCG, or financial services sectors.
Demonstrated experience managing large-scale teams of 100+ people.

You might be a good fit if you

Have planned and successfully managed customer acquisition strategies for mobile/financial products before.
Communicate effectively and often, both in writing and in person, to the point of overcommunication.
Are detail-oriented and strive for excellence in everything you do.
Are a self-starter and proactive about achieving ambitious targets.
Enjoy owning projects - you're autonomous yet know when to escalate problems.
Have built and led strong teams in achieving key results.
Are intellectually curious, creative in the way you go about tackling problems, and embrace failure as a means to spark innovation and growth.
Willing to go the distance to get something done.
Adjust quickly to changing priorities and conditions.
Think about culture and process from the users' perspective.
Are tech-savvy: comfortable navigating Excel and onboarding new tools.

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.

Head of BTL and distribution

TLDR