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...
Wave Mali is looking for a resourceful and results-oriented Head of Operations. In this key role, you will be responsible for overseeing field operations during a period of rapid business growth. We are looking for a proven leader capable of managing core operational teams, including agent operations, user growth, agent liquidity, cash security, agent quality, and operational training.
Additionally, you will be instrumental in innovating and implementing growth projects to develop a high-quality agent network that facilitates faster and more efficient user acquisition. You’ll report directly to the General Manager of Mali, with a dotted line to the Head of Scaling Operations, and work closely with the Growth Operations Country Lead to align on national and cross-market priorities.
In this role you’ll;
- Lead and oversee all day-to-day field operations, solving growth bottlenecks from first principles.
- Manage core operational teams: agent operations, liquidity, quality, cash security, and training.
- Drive key strategic projects to improve agent network quality and user growth.
- Hire, grow, and manage a high-performing local team.
- Translate company-wide objectives into operational strategies for Mali.
- Live and champion Wave’s values and embed them in team culture.
- Collaborate closely with cross-functional leaders across Growth, People, and Ops.
- Share insights from Mali to shape Wave’s broader operational strategy.
- Provide direct management of direct reports leading core operations functions.
- Location: You'll work from our office in Bamako and travel to field locations as needed
- Work authorization in Mali 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
- Speak English fluently, French, and Bambara. Other local languages are helpful but not essential.
- Excellent leadership skills with at least eight years of experience managing large field teams.
- Very strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Malian market knowledge.
- Have led large-scale teams or projects that directly supported company-wide goals.
- Have successfully managed complex field operations like agent networks and contributed to balancing liquidity, quality, and volume growth.
- Delivered high-quality, data-driven work that leads to visible impact in your OpCo or business unit.
- Are an effective coach who grows and empowers your direct reports.
- Can unblock your team and manage projects from scratch with a clear sense of ownership and urgency.
- Collaborate smoothly across teams from Operations to Product to Finance and help align multiple stakeholders.
- Think beyond your market, contributing to solutions and improvements at a global or cross-OpCo level.
- Run productive, outcomes-focused conversations with both team members and senior leaders.
- Plan ahead to anticipate challenges before they arise.
- Frequently propose and implement smart process improvements.
- Are comfortable reasoning with data, asking strong questions, and making decisions on behalf of your 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.
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.
What We Do
We're making Africa the first cashless continent.
In 2017, 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 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 November 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments. In 2019, we expanded to Cote D'Ivoire. Now, we have millions of users and are growing fast.
Our goal is to drive financial inclusion and make Africa the first cashless continent
