Role Overview
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, while Operations owns compliance thresholds, operational guardrails, and risk frameworks. The Lead uses AI, automation, and data to build an intelligent operations engine—one that is predictive, ensuring fintech solutions operate with high reliability, strong fraud and risk controls, and consistent service standards across all customer touchpoints.
Key Responsibilities
Intelligent Operations Leadership
- Lead end-to-end fintech operational processes across payments, credit, merchant, wallet, lending, and ecosystem products.
- Build an intelligent operations engine leveraging AI, analytics, and automation (including AI-driven anomaly detection and automated SLA monitoring).
- Oversee customer experience operations and establish service excellence standards across all FS products.
Fintech Operational Enablement & Governance
- Oversee end-to-end fintech operational integrity and define operational readiness standards for new product launches.
- Define and maintain scalable process frameworks and simplified policies to embed control discipline.
- Define governance and performance standards for ecosystem partners to ensure compliant integrations.
Regulatory, Risk & Compliance Management
- Define compliance thresholds and operational guardrails to enable innovation within regulatory boundaries.
- Lead the design and oversight of risk management frameworks covering fraud, operational risk, and ecosystem risk.
- Ensure adherence to local regulatory requirements across all fintech offerings.
Service Level & Resilience Governance
- Own service performance standards and monitor SLAs across fintech customer journeys.
- Develop and maintain robust business continuity plans and disaster recovery protocols.
- Coordinate rapid remediation for service disruptions and monitor resilience KPIs.
Continuous Improvement & Lean Optimization
- Embed structured continuous improvement loops and lean process optimization principles.
- Champion automated reconciliation and intelligent workflow tools to reduce manual intervention.
Leadership & Agile Delivery
- Lead empowered cross-functional squads aligned to shared OKRs using agile ways of working.
- Champion iterative delivery and hypothesis-driven experimentation.
- Build and lead a high-performing team through coaching, mentoring, and capability development.
Qualifications and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Operations Management, Risk Management, Engineering, or a related field; a Master’s degree (MBA or equivalent) is an advantage.
- Minimum 10–12 years’ experience in financial services, fintech operations, payments, or regulated digital environments.
- At least 5 years in a senior leadership role.
- Proven experience leading end-to-end operational governance within complex, highly regulated environments.
- Strong understanding of regulatory frameworks applicable to digital financial services (compliance, fraud prevention, etc.).
- Experience establishing service level governance, resilience standards, and business continuity frameworks at scale.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capability with experience using performance data to drive decisions.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should apply online via the Safaricom recruitment portal at egjd.fa.us6.oraclecloud.com through the provided application link.
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