Customer Insights Associate

The Customer Insights Associate supports the delivery of high-quality UX and customer research across M-KOPA's markets. Working under the guidance of senior researchers, you will run research sessions, code and synthesise data, and help turn what customers tell us into clear, usable insight for product teams. This is a craft-building role for an early-career researcher who is curious, organised, and ready to grow.

M-KOPA has just hit a major milestone: 10 million customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. We've extended over $2 billion in credit to Africa's "Every Day Earners," with 55% of our customers accessing formal financial services for the first time. Behind that scale sits a workforce of 2,300+ employees and 35,000+ field agents, all supported by teams like Workplaces, whose job is to make sure the infrastructure people rely on every day simply works.

This is an on-site role, you would be working from our offices in South Africa, partnering with a diverse group of employees from our different markets and locations across the UK, Europe and Africa. You will be reporting to the Research Lead.

Most early-career research roles stop at note-taking. Here, your sessions go directly to the product teams, and you learn the craft of UX research alongside senior researchers. You also work with first-time digital financial users across several markets and languages.

Be clear about the day-to-day: around 70% of this role is telephone interviews and phone-based surveys. You’ll run, record and code structured customer conversations at volume. The rest is in-person fieldwork across South Africa, synthesis and reporting.

• Run interviews, usability tests and surveys under senior guidance. That means taking sharp notes, handling fieldwork logistics, and flagging poorly worded survey questions before they reach customers.

• Code qualitative data against a defined framework, and turn patterns into affinity maps and insight lists that product teams can use.

• Present findings in clear, structured reports, and use Claude and Notion AI to speed up synthesis, while checking every output with your own judgement.

• Hands-on experience in telephone survey methodology or a closely related research field. Internships and academic projects count.

• A degree in a relevant discipline, such as social sciences, psychology, HCI, design, statistics or marketing, plus exposure to qualitative and quantitative methods.

• Strong organisation, clear written and spoken communication, and willingness to travel for fieldwork within South Africa.

Nice to have: experience researching first-time digital or financial services users in emerging markets, and fluency in languages spoken across our markets.

The reality check

Phone-based research at volume takes discipline and stamina. If you’re curious about how people use products and ready to build your craft, you’re probably ready for this.

Curious what your first research sessions could look like? Let’s talk.

At M-KOPA, we empower our people to own their careers through diverse development programs, coaching partnerships, and on-the-job training. We support individual journeys with family-friendly policies, prioritize well-being, and embrace flexibility.

Join us in shaping the future of M-KOPA as we grow together. Explore more at m-kopa.com.

Recognized four times by the Financial Times as one Africa's fastest growing companies (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026), named on CNBC's World’s Top Fintech Companies 2025 & 2026 and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 10 million customers, unlocking $2 billion in cumulative credit for the everyday earners across Africa, in addition to over 10,000 e-bikes financed in Kenya.

Important Notice
M-KOPA is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to assembling a diverse, broadly trained staff. Women, minorities, and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

M-KOPA explicitly prohibits the use of Forced or Child Labour and respects the rights of its employees to agree to terms and conditions of employment voluntarily, without coercion, and freely terminate their employment on appropriate notice. M-KOPA shall ensure that its Employees are of legal working age and shall comply with local laws for youth employment or student work, such as internships or apprenticeships. 

M-KOPA does not collect/charge any money as a pre-employment or post-employment requirement. This means that we never ask for ‘recruitment fees’, ‘processing fees’, ‘interview fees’, or any other kind of money in exchange for offer letters or interviews at any time during the hiring process.

Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisting and interviews will take place at any stage during the recruitment process. We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a suitable candidate is selected before the advertised closing date.

If your application is successful M-KOPA undertakes pre-employment background checks as part of its recruitment process, these include; criminal records, identification verification, academic qualifications, employment dates and employer references.