About Tala

Tala is a global technology company building the world’s most accessible financial services. With more than $350 million raised from visionary investors, we are serving millions of customers around the world who have been overlooked by traditional financial institutions – and our plan is to serve millions more, and have been named by the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC’s Disruptor 50, and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for four years running. We are expanding across product offerings, countries and crypto and are looking for people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are passionate about the mission.

By creating a unique platform that enables lending and other financial services around the globe, people in emerging markets are able to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals with confidence. Currently, more than 6 million people across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India have used Tala products. Due to our global team, we have a remote-first approach, and also have offices in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India. 

Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission of enabling financial agency for underbanked people around the world. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we’d love to hear from you!

Tala is looking for a highly motivated Project Manager to drive high performance of teams by building strong lines of communication across and our global offices. Tala is a world leader in providing direct loans and financial services in emerging markets. We are a global team with diverse backgrounds who are singularly focused on using technology, data, and a customer-centric approach to meet the financial needs of the 3+ billion people of the emerging global middle class.

The Project Manager will report to the Program Management lead and will be responsible for supporting the delivery of products and initiatives using Agile practices. Successful candidates will have deep expertise in Agile methodologies and have a background managing technical programs. The ideal candidate for this role will be comfortable taking a leadership role. Sound decision making, understanding when and why escalation is needed, and a high level of emotional intelligence are essential capabilities the person that fills this role must possess. 

What you'll do

• Support the delivery of products and initiatives using Agile practices and by serving as ScrumMaster for assigned teams. 
• Participate in quarterly planning and bi-weekly reviews for the squad he/she/they supports as well as continuous reporting and unblocking. 
• Organize timelines and review meetings for broad consumption.
• Support a culture of continuous learning through the establishment of consistent retros, post-mortems, and team health metrics.
• Provide input into resource planning and allocation in coordination with the PMO lead. 
• Develop a strong understanding of context (across markets) of our internal tools to optimize for efficiency, productivity, and team morale.
• Be the team champion to ensure team alignment, advocate product and be the subject matter expert for internal Program tools.
• The direct manager for this role is located in Santa Monica

Outcomes

• Work to improve the performance and sprint predictability of squads based on sprint velocity and cycle time, and use those agile metrics to sanity check roadmap commitments, as needed. 
• Participate in quarterly roadmapping, bi-weekly check-ins, as well as continuous reporting and unblocking. 
• Ensure collisions and/or dependencies are identified and planned for across all assigned projects and work with program leads of cross-squad initiatives to ensure roadmap alignment.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of Project Management experience with proven expertise in Agile methodologies, concepts, practices, and standards
• 2+ years experience leveraging software development and team collaboration tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Smartsheet, etc
• Success at managing technical projects for distributed and remote teams across multiple locations and countries 
• Experienced in managing mobile app development, full stack software development projects in CICD environment, integration with third party APIs. Experience in managing other technical areas, such as BI, Data Engineering, IT are nice to have. 
• Practical experience working at start up pace with heavy virtual communications
• Flexibility to respond to changing requirements and juggle multiple responsibilities
• Must be comfortable working both as part of a team and independently - includes ability to set priorities which accurately reflect the relative importance of job responsibilities and follow through on assignments with minimal direction
• Proven ability to coach and mentor others who are learning project management and Agile practices in a replicable, scalable way
• Checked ego, humble, empathetic, collaborative, service-oriented attitude of “customer first”.
• Global travel may be required, once it is safe to do so
• PMP, CSM certification nice to have

Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.