Head of Partnership, West Africa - Sendwave

In 2019, immigrants worldwide sent over $550 billion home to family and friends, dwarfing foreign governmental aid. In the age of cheap, quick transfers through services like Paypal and Venmo, these people are trekking to stores to pay fees averaging over 7% for transfers that typically take 24 hours or more.

Sendwave’s mission is to change that by making sending money anywhere in the world easy and affordable. Since 2014, our app has allowed diaspora members from several African nations – and more recently Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, saving our users over 70% relative to Western Union and MoneyGram.

We are looking to rapidly expand around the world in the next year. That’s where you come in…

How you’ll help us achieve it

We’re confident that the remittance solution we’ve built for Africa and Asia can scale to any market where money can be received instantly, whether on a phone or in a mobile-accessible bank account. To continue to provide the service our users deserve in existing markets and expand into new ones, Sendwave needs first-class expansion team members on the ground in new & existing markets to cultivate relationships with regulators, banks and, where necessary, telecom partners necessary for our business to operate.

In this role, you will:

• Foster and maintain strong relationships with regulators in West Africa
• Lead our expansion into various markets in West Africa where we can offer a differentiated product
• Identify and secure revenue-making opportunities that will help us deliver on our value proposition in existing markets
• Manage relationships with key partner banks, aggregators, and/or telecoms to ensure service agreements are met
• Negotiate and secure commercial terms with potential parters and ensure continuous optimization as our business matures.
• Understand the regulatory landscapes in various West Africa markets and work closely with our compliance team to meet obligations and obtain approvals directly or through partnerships with financial institutions,

In your first few months, you will:

• Secure banking and regulatory relationships in countries like Senegal, where we’re on our way to being the number one player in the market.
• Liaise with top banks and the central bank of Nigeria to plot a course toward improved user experience in the dollarized remittance environment
• Identify and secure top partners in new markets like Cameroon and Mali to drive down cost and improve service levels.

Typical days involve:

• Scheduling and attending meetings with central banks, commercial banks, telcos and other regulators
• Following up relentlessly on tasks with partners and quickly responding to their requests
• Collaborating with relevant internal units to produce documents needed in the launch process – compliance, technical, finance, etc
• Drafting and updating various documents required by regulators or banks

Key details

• Location: Our company is 100% remote. You can be based anywhere in West Africa
• Compensation: $92,674
• This is a permanent position
• Major benefits:
  • Subsidized health insurance and retirement contribution matching (both vary from country-to-country)
  • 26 weeks fully paid parental leave and subsidized fertility assistance
  • Unlimited vacation with a 20-day minimum requirement
  • $10,000 annual charitable donation matching

You might be a good fit if you

• Are a self-starter, take initiative, self-manage and require little day-to-day direction to be successful
• Take responsibility for the outcomes of your core duties
• Are passionate about achieving Sendwave’s mission and are excited at the prospect of lowering remittance costs for diaspora communities.

• You are excited to spend ~50% of your time traveling
  • Please note that you will not be required to travel when it is unsafe to do so. We value the safety and well-being of our team and we have been actively monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. We understand the need for safety and social distancing in order to curb the spread.
• You can quickly learn regulatory requirements and prioritize paths to meet them
• Slow-moving processes or partners frustrate you, but you’re inclined to lean into the problem and push however you can rather than accept a lackadaisical pace
• You’re able to form relationships with senior business executives & regulators by spotting and seizing upon mutually beneficial opportunities
• You have a strong verbal and written communication skill. Fluency in French and English is strongly preferred.
• You’re enthusiastic about Sendwave’s mission and excited to do what needs to be done to achieve it

Bonus points if you

• You’ve had a successful business development track record in Africa
• You are fluent in French and English

Our team

• Our team of over 200 employees are fully distributed across the world— working from coffee shops, homes, and coworking spaces — making us one of the larger fully distributed growth-stage startups in the world.
• We play in bands, teach dance classes, run Vipassana retreats, played semi-pro basketball, and built tools to help Doctors Without Borders respond to the Ebola crisis.
• We collectively speak over twenty languages, including Akuapem, Amharic, Ewe, Fante, Ga, Igbo, Kalenjin, Luganda, Oromo, Somali, Swahili and Wolof.
• We recently got acquired by WorldRemit, an International Remittance provider. Sendwave is now a subsidiary of WorldRemit and will continue to operate its existing products with current management and employees.

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