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 a Legal Counsel at Wave, you will play a key role in supporting our Côte d'Ivoire Legal Team and contributing to the company's growth and compliance objectives.
You will work closely with both operational and functional teams to help them achieve their goals while proactively identifying, assessing, and managing legal risks to ensure full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
In this role, you will be responsible for providing straightforward, practical, and business-oriented legal advice, as well as implementing legal strategies that protect the company's interests and contribute to its overall success.
Contracting
Draft, review, and negotiate contracts across all business areas to align with company objectives and legal requirements.
Support contract work for core products/services, balancing legal protection with commercial value.
Lead high-value, complex contract negotiations, providing strategic legal guidance.
Improve and manage contracting processes, including policies, management systems, e-signature tools, and document archiving.
Legal Operations
Implement group legal policies and propose updates in response to legal developments, operational feedback, and industry best practices.
Litigation
Develop and execute procedures for managing claims and disputes, including pre-litigation strategies, mediation, arbitration, and litigation follow-up.
People Support
Provide legal guidance on employment matters, including contracts, disciplinary actions, and terminations.
Company Secretarial
Oversee company secretarial responsibilities in collaboration with the Head of Regulatory Affairs/Company Secretary.
Risk Management
Work with Risk and Controls teams to identify legal risks and implement mitigations and internal controls.
Data Privacy & Consumer Protection
Support rollout and enforcement of the company’s data privacy compliance framework.
Regulatory Support
Provide legal advice on licensing and regulatory requirements, collaborating with legal and compliance colleagues.
External Counsel Management
Maintain relationships with external law firms and manage their service delivery.
Special Projects
Contribute to cross-functional legal initiatives and support ad hoc legal priorities.
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.
Our mission Since 2014, our Sendwave app has allowed Africans in the US, the UK, and Canada to send money instantly to mobile money wallets in Kenya, Uganda, & Tanzania, saving our users over 70% relative to Western Union and MoneyGram. In 2016, we expanded our scope and began building Wave, a mobile money product for domestic markets in Africa. The problem: Nearly 60% of adults 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 most merchants only accept cash. 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.How we're solving it: We're building financial services to work as they should: no account fees, instantly available and accepted everywhere. In places where electricity, water and roads don't always function, we're creating financial infrastructure that "just works." At the end of 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments; in 2019, wwe launched in Cote d'Ivoire. Our goal is to make Africa the first cashless continent. That's where you come in... Who are we? We're a distributed HQ team of ~60 people who are deeply passionate about our mission of bringing great financial services to the people who need them most. We have a Country Office in Senegal with about 70 people and have recently opened another Country Office in Cote d’Ivoire. We’re backed by world-class investors including Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and the cofounders of PayPal. Our values We’re egolessly mission driven We focus ruthlessly on the most important thing We’re embarrassingly honest to stay aligned and move quickly We don’t wait – we live our fullest lives now We maximize our rate of learning We're growing quickly, see our job openings below. If you are interested in roles with our international remittance team (SendWave), see here.
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