Merchant Opening Lead

How you'll help us achieve it

We’re looking for a Merchant Opening Lead for our payments operations in The Gambia who is experienced in managing teams, executing on-field strategy for a large team, resourceful, and excited about rolling up their sleeves to work in the field. You'll be responsible for the daily operations of our field opening teams in The Gambia as we rapidly scale our business. The job entails planning and executing acquiring merchants at scale and maintaining desirable transacting rates at merchants.

In this role, you'll:

Manage the Merchant Opening team which is responsible for growing Wave’s merchant base in The Gambia by opening, training, and branding merchants, along with monitoring merchants’ continued use of the payment product.

Identify and find solutions to critical blockers for merchant growth and high usage of our payments products.

Build the roadmap for the opening team in The Gambia to achieve its cycle objectives:

Work closely with internal teams (distribution, admin, marketing, agent, people, etc.) to align key objectives and operationalize strategies.

Build and own operations of Wave's field opening teams (in charge of merchant acquisition and quality of network) with the processes and people needed as we rapidly scale across The Gambia

Design and build the processes to open quality merchants at scale with the relevant stakeholders (compliance, admin, distribution, support)

Develop any training to give existing and new staff the right skills and expertise to serve our merchants and payers

Coordinate the development, roll-out and management of Wave’s merchant network in The Gambia through the acquisition and growth of quality merchants in compliance with an approved process.

Set your team up for success by working collaboratively with them to identify, and execute the most leveraged projects; creating a learning environment; and tracking and evaluating performance. Provide guidance and feedback to help team members strengthen the knowledge and skills needed to meet their OKRs.

Lead the analysis of merchant performance; identify what is working and what is not; and take actions to ensure a high standard of service and sustainable growth.

Work closely with our Risk & Fraud department to minimize fraud cases and threats to the security of Wave merchants and payers.

Help build the playbook to make payment operations launches even faster and more successful in future markets.

Help to develop Wave’s global strategy by sharing insights and learning from the team’s experience in The Gambia

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 Kotu and may travel to field locations.

Work authorization in The Gambia 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 both Mandinka and Wolof fluently

At least 5 years of relevant work experience specifically managing a network, including a minimum of 2 years of experience managing field-based teams (+50 persons).

Have strong geographical knowledge of The Gambia

You might be a good fit if you

Communicate effectively and often, both in writing and in person, to the point of over-communication.

Are detail-oriented and seek to achieve 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 user's perspective.

Are tech-savvy: comfortable navigating Excel and onboarding new tools.