Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead at Safaricom

Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

17 Aug, 26

Salary

0.0

Posted On

19 May, 26

Experience

10 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Fintech Operations, Operational Governance, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, Fraud Prevention, AI and Automation, Lean Process Optimization, Service Level Governance, Business Continuity Planning, Agile Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Executive Communication, Data Analysis, Ecosystem Partner Governance, Operational Resilience, Control Frameworks

Industry

Telecommunications

Description

What we’re looking for; In keeping with our current business needs, we are looking for a person who meets the criteria indicated below Reporting to the Chief Financial Services Officer, the role purpose is as highlighted below; The Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead is accountable for enabling safe, resilient, and scalable end-to-end fintech operations across M-PESA's Financial Services portfolio. The role serves as the operational backbone of the cluster — ensuring policy clarity, process excellence, regulatory compliance, and risk discipline while actively enabling innovation and growth. A defining feature of this role is its governance boundary: Product owns commercial decisions; Operations owns compliance thresholds, operational guardrails, and risk frameworks that allow Product, Growth, Loyalty, and API teams to execute confidently within defined boundaries. The Lead uses AI, automation, and data to build an intelligent operations engine — one that is predictive, not merely reactive — ensuring fintech solutions operate with high reliability, strong fraud and risk controls, and consistent service standards across all customer touchpoints. The Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead oversees end-to-end fintech operational integrity, including policy and process management, partner and ecosystem governance, regulatory and operational compliance, risk and control frameworks, service level governance, business continuity planning, and customer experience enablement. The role ensures that fintech solutions operate with high reliability, strong fraud and risk controls, and consistent service standards across all customer touchpoints. Anchored in regulatory clarity and operational resilience, the role institutionalizes structured compliance governance while avoiding bureaucratic friction. It embeds lean process optimization and continuous improvement loops to reduce operational complexity, improve turnaround times, and enhance customer experience outcomes. The Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead also ensures that operational risk, fraud management, and control frameworks are forward-looking and proportionate to scale, supporting innovation without compromising trust. Through disciplined service level governance and ecosystem partner oversight, the role strengthens platform stability, operational performance, and regulatory confidence. Operating within agile ways of working, the role enables cross-functional squads by providing clear compliance thresholds, defined decision rights, and escalation protocols. It champions iterative improvement while balancing speed with regulatory and operational safeguards. Thus, the Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead is strategically accountable for: • Intelligent Ops Leadership: Oversees ensures end to end fintech operations run reliably, efficiently, and proactively by leveraging AI, automation, and data to drive seamless customer experiences, operational excellence, and predictive issue resolution. • End-to-End Fintech Operational Enablement: Oversee the integrity, scalability, and operational readiness of the full fintech portfolio, ensuring operations support growth ambitions without compromising stability or resilience. • Policy & Process Governance: Define and maintain clear, simplified policies and scalable process frameworks that embed control discipline while enabling efficient execution across the cluster. • Regulatory & Operational Compliance: Establish compliance thresholds and operational guardrails that enable innovation within defined regulatory boundaries, ensuring adherence without unnecessary bureaucracy. • Fintech Risk & Controls Management: Lead the design and oversight of risk, fraud, and operational control frameworks that protect customer trust and business integrity at scale. • Service Level Governance & Customer Experience Enablement: Own service performance standards across fintech touchpoints, ensuring consistent reliability, rapid issue resolution, and continuous service improvement. • Partner & Ecosystem Governance: Define governance and performance standards for ecosystem partners to ensure scalable, compliant, and resilient integrations across the fintech landscape. • Business Continuity & Operational Resilience: Ensure robust continuity and disaster recovery frameworks are in place to safeguard service stability and regulatory confidence during disruptions. • Continuous Improvement & Lean Optimization: Embed structured continuous improvement loops and lean process optimization principles to enhance operational efficiency and reduce friction. • Clear Domain Boundaries & Governance Clarity: Operate within defined decision rights where Product owns commercial decisions and Operations owns compliance thresholds, preventing overlap and friction. • Agile Leadership & Delivery Governance: Lead empowered cross-functional squads aligned to shared OKRs, champion iterative delivery, and balance execution speed with regulatory and operational guardrails. Anchored in Safaricom’s purpose of Transforming Lives, the Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead ensures that digital financial services remain secure, resilient, and trusted, enabling individuals, merchants, and enterprises to transact confidently within a stable and compliant financial ecosystem. Safaricom is the leading technology company in East Africa. Our purpose is to transform lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunities and people to information. We keep over 60 million customers connected across Kenya and Ethiopia, and play a critical role in the society, supporting over 1.13 million jobs both directly and indirectly while our total economic value was estimated at KES 1.1 trillion ($ 8.5 billion) for the 12 months through March 2025. Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of close to KES 388 billion as at March 2025, Safaricom provides connectivity through wide range of technology. Our 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G network in aggregate covers over 99% of Kenya’s population. We run the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech, M-PESA, the world’s first mobile money transfer system. By empowering millions of customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phone, M-PESA has driven financial inclusion in Kenya to 84.8% of the adult population in 2024, from a low of 26.7% in 2006, and generated over KES 161 billion in revenue as at FY25. Our subsidiary, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, has deployed world class network and services to contribute to Ethiopia’s digital transformation. Safaricom is an equal opportunity employer, actively recruiting staff from different backgrounds reflecting the communities that we serve. We are committed to equal gender representation at all levels. As part of our ongoing commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we continue to work towards improving energy and resource efficiency in our network and facilities to reduce carbon emissions and our fuel consumption. We remain committed to becoming a Net Zero carbon-emitting company by 2050.

Responsibilities

The role is accountable for enabling safe, resilient, and scalable end-to-end fintech operations for M-PESA's Financial Services portfolio. It focuses on establishing operational guardrails, risk frameworks, and leveraging AI and automation to ensure high reliability and regulatory compliance.