Senior Commercial Manager - Sales

This role offers the opportunity to own Kenya’s entire regional sales engine—translating strategy into field execution, developing Regional Managers, driving DSR productivity, and ensuring every region delivers with discipline and consistency. You’ll lead four Regional Managers and their teams, own recruitment pipelines, manage budgets, and work closely with Product, Marketing, Operations, Finance, and HR to turn commercial priorities into results that matter. Operating with significant autonomy and clear accountability, this is a role for someone who thrives close to the market, the team, and the numbers not behind a desk.

We foster a culture where commercial leadership meets field accountability. Our team values data-driven decision-making, strong people development, and sales execution that doesn’t compromise customer outcomes. You’ll be empowered to make timely performance decisions, design territory strategies, and drive improvements that directly impact revenue, DSR productivity, and customer satisfaction across M-KOPA Kenya’s most critical growth function.

At M-KOPA, our Senior Commercial Manager isn’t just a sales director—they’re the commercial architect who builds regional leaders, protects sales quality, and creates the field execution engine that connects millions of Kenyan customers to life-changing products.

Most senior sales roles offer either strategy or execution. This one demands both—and rewards excellence in both. You’ll represent field priorities in senior leadership forums while also visiting clusters, reviewing scorecards, and coaching Regional Managers on the ground. You’ll own budgets while building people. You’ll protect repayment performance while driving conversion. The role requires the commercial instincts of a strategist, the people leadership of a coach, and the operational discipline of someone who understands that results in the field are earned one DSR, one cluster, one region at a time.

Commercial Strategic Direction and Oversight

• Translating commercial strategy into regional priorities and action plans that support sustainable growth and sales quality

• Using data and field insight to identify market opportunities and execution risks, and recommending timely adjustments to regional plans

• Overseeing the rollout of new products, pricing, and promotions across all regions

• Representing field priorities and insights in senior leadership forums

Regional Sales Leadership

• Leading and developing Regional Managers and their management teams, strengthening succession pipelines

• Making timely, fair decisions on performance, promotions, moves, and exits

• Agreeing measurable targets and using scorecards, coaching, field visits, and structured business reviews to reinforce accountability and consistent execution

• Building a strong sales leadership culture where Regional Managers own their results and develop their own teams

Sales Recruitment, Retention and F30 Pass Rates

• Owning regional hiring plans with the HR Business Partner, maintaining a strong pipeline of DSRs and Cluster Leaders to meet territory needs

• Holding Regional Managers accountable for recruitment quality and F30 pass rates

• Partnering with Sales Training to support onboarding and new-hire productivity

• Reducing DSR attrition through targeted action on regional root causes, strengthening retention and continuity of field coverage

Sales Efficiency, DSR Productivity and Targets

• Owning regional sales delivery, translating targets into clear expectations for clusters and individual DSRs

• Improving sales per DSR, active selling days, and conversion rates through regular performance reviews and timely recovery plans

• Optimising routes to market, territory coverage, and headcount deployment

• Partnering with Business Operations and Credit to protect sales quality and repayment performance

Budget and Commercial Financial Management

• Owning regional budgets for headcount, incentives, field operations, and activations within approved limits

• Ensuring incentives reinforce the right behaviours and commission payments are accurate and timely

• Monitoring cost per sale and return on sales expenditure, taking corrective action where needed

• Developing cost and resource plans with the Head of Sales

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Aligning regional plans with Product, Marketing, Customer Care, Retail, Business Operations, Finance, and HR

• Working with the Head of Business Management to resolve dependencies

• Sharing customer, competitor, and product feedback to improve commercial decisions and execution

Reporting, Forecasting and Insight

• Providing concise weekly and monthly reports on results, DSR productivity, recruitment, attrition, and budgets—highlighting risks, priorities, and required action

• Producing reliable forecasts and practical dashboards

• Presenting regional performance to senior leadership and the MD, explaining variances and proposed responses clearly

Governance, Compliance and Customer Outcomes

• Enforcing policies, sales processes, and the code of conduct across all regions

• Addressing fraud, mis-selling, and misconduct promptly and decisively

• Maintaining data privacy, safety, and field risk standards

• Supporting audits, investigations, and completing corrective actions on time

Additional Responsibilities

• Undertaking other responsibilities assigned by the Head of Sales

This is a senior leadership role (Job Band C1) based in Nairobi, Kenya, with regular field travel across regions. If successful, you would be reporting to the Head of Sales. Your direct reports include Regional Managers across four regions, with dotted-line collaboration with the Senior People Partner and HR Talent Acquisition.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Commerce, Marketing, Economics, or a related field (MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification is an advantage)

• 8+ years of progressive sales leadership experience in FMCG, telecommunications, financial services, consumer finance, fintech, distribution, or a comparable high-volume field sales environment

• 5+ years leading managers and multi-region or multi-area field sales teams with a clear track record of achieving targets

• Experience running DSR, agent, or distributor networks including route-to-market planning and territory design

• Proven success in sales recruitment and retention including hiring pipelines, new-hire pass rates, and reducing field attrition

• Experience with asset finance, pay-as-you-go, or mobile-money-linked products is an advantage

Skills & Competencies

• Strong performance management, coaching, and people-decision skills—you make fair, timely calls on talent

• Sound budget management and financial acumen—you treat commercial resources with discipline

• Confidence with sales dashboards, forecasting, and productivity metrics—you turn data into practical action

• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills including influencing cross-functional peers and presenting to senior leadership

• Resilience and high integrity—you uphold standards under pressure and in the field

• Customer-first approach embedded in every sales decision you make

• Willingness to travel regularly to the field—you lead from where the work happens

If the above is of interest to you, please apply.

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.