Global Head of Marketing

Our mission is to make Africa the first cashless continent. In 2017, over half the population in Sub‑Saharan Africa had no bank account. The fees are too high, the closest branch can be miles away, and nobody takes cards. Without access to financial institutions, people are forced to keep their savings under the mattress. Small business owners rely on lenders who charge extortionate rates. Parents spend hours waiting in line to pay school fees in cash. We are solving this by building financial services that just work: no account fees, instantly available, and accepted everywhere.

In 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer‑to‑peer and business payments. Now, we have millions of users across 9 countries and are growing fast. Our goal is to make Africa the first cashless continent and that’s where you come in…

How You’ll Help Us Achieve It

We are hiring a Global Head of Marketing to drive growth across Wave’s Payments, Growth, and other core teams. In this strategic role, you’ll shape our cost‑effective brand strategy, lead go‑to‑market initiatives for new products, and manage both our internal marketing team and external partners. You will report directly to Wave’s General Manager of Growth.

• Lead the marketing team: Build and mentor a high‑performing marketing team focused on achieving ambitious growth targets. Foster collaboration with other departments to ensure effective prioritization and execution of marketing activities. Manage relationships and strategies with external marketing agencies or internal PR teams. Work closely with PR to align on Wave’s response to policy and operational issues.
• Drive growth by developing and prioritizing marketing strategies effectively: Develop and execute multi‑channel product marketing strategies, with a primary focus on high‑impact offline channels such as billboards, radio, and BTL activations, supported by social media content strategy and execution across all channels, including influencer initiatives. Monitor metrics to measure marketing campaign effectiveness and optimize overall marketing performance over time. Continuously build and improve messaging across all channels and target audiences across various segments. Identify and close deals with marketing‑specific partners.
• Optimize the cost of customer acquisition and own marketing budgeting: Collaborate across marketing to establish and manage marketing budgets for each country. Monitor spending to ensure resources are utilized effectively. Identify cost‑saving opportunities and allocate budgets strategically to maximize return on investment. Optimize customer acquisition costs by working with our growth team to evaluate campaign performance and channel effectiveness.
• Manage Wave’s brand: Oversee brand efforts, ensuring consistent and impactful brand communications across all marketing materials and touchpoints.

Key details

This is a fully remote role. Candidates must be based in one of our talent hub countries (UK, Spain, USA, Canada, Kenya, and Ghana) or in one of our operating markets in Africa, including Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, or Burkina Faso. Wave provides a yearly $1,200 stipend to support coworking meetups with teammates. Remote team members are expected to travel to our operational markets (e.g., Senegal or Côte d'Ivoire) at least once per quarter. Exceptions apply, but we’ve found this key to understanding our users and product.

Major benefits:

• Subsidised health insurance for you and your dependents, and retirement contributions (both vary from country to country).
• 6 months of fully paid parental leave and subsidised fertility assistance.
• Flexible vacation, with most folks taking between 21-30 days per year.
• $10,000 annual charitable donation matching.

Requirements

• Fluency in English and French.
• At least 10 years of experience in marketing at an FMCG, tech start‑up, telco company, or similar.
• Experience developing or executing B2C marketing strategies in Africa.
• Willingness to travel frequently to operating markets.
• Compelling storyteller, in writing and verbally.

You might be a good fit if

• Have run a successful functional marketing team that executed well, partnering with other teams.
• Prioritize culture and mission.
• Have led impactful brand strategy for a globally recognized company or a fast‑growing startup.
• Are a strong communicator and are comfortable defaulting to overreaching when it comes to coordination.
• Are deeply analytical in your approach to marketing and in optimizing the cost of customer acquisition.
• Excel at managing large cross‑cultural teams with rapidly changing priorities.
• Have an extensive network of contacts across media, advertising networks, and vendors.
• Are super detail‑oriented and organized.
• Are intellectually curious, creative in the way you go about tackling problems, and embrace failure as a means to spark innovation and growth.
• Demonstrate tenacity and a willingness to go the distance to get something done.
• Adjust quickly to changing priorities and handle complexity and change effectively.

Our team

We have a rapidly growing in‑country team in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon plus remote team members spread across the world. We’re deeply passionate about our mission of bringing radically affordable financial services to the people who need them most. We foster autonomy for our employees. You’ll own your projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production. We raised the largest Series A in Africa in 2021. Our world‑class investors include Founders Fund, Sequoia Heritage, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, and Partech Africa. We are on Y Combinator's top companies by revenue.

How to apply

Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English and a cover letter describing your interest in Wave and the role. We review applications frequently and recommend that you apply to the role that most closely aligns with your skills, experience and career goals. Wave is an equal‑opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.