Lead People Partner

Job description

[https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/1d985516-2a99-43c0-b591-957f5adaceb9/5ac97b31-49cd-4012-8bb0-5caf15e33c69/B25.png] Join our expanding People team! We're hiring a Lead People Partner to own the people agenda for Kenya - M-KOPA's oldest and largest market, as we scale toward serving even more Every Day Earners across the continent. [https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/1d985516-2a99-43c0-b591-957f5adaceb9/98cde4bc-fa0a-4874-a12e-0db70c8c4abf/image.png] The Impact Your work will directly shape how Kenya's leadership team builds, retains, and develops the people powering our largest market. We've recently celebrated reaching 10 million customers and are onboarding 10,000 new customers every day across all our markets. Behind every one of those numbers is a team of people, and you'll be the strategic partner ensuring that team is set up to keep scaling. It's your chance to be part of something that's literally transforming lives across an entire continent 🌍 [https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/1d985516-2a99-43c0-b591-957f5adaceb9/453f2403-3288-4bc2-9d75-d9a1897d968d/image.png] THE OPPORTUNITY 🎯 Mission-driven People work: Your org design and workforce decisions directly support the infrastructure that gets financial inclusion to Every Day Earners at scale 🏆 Global recognition: Join a company named a TIME 100 company and recognised by the Financial Times as one of Africa's fastest-growing companies for five consecutive years (2022–2026) 🚀 Scale challenges: Kenya is our oldest and largest market - you'll be solving people problems at a scale most People Partners never get access to 🌱 Purpose-built culture: M-KOPA's 2,300+ employees and 35,000+ agents are the backbone of a business built to serve 10 million customers - you'll help keep that engine running as it grows WHAT YOU'LL DO At M-KOPA, you'll be the strategic advisor to Kenya's leadership team on org design, workforce planning, and business-aligned people strategy. You'll own talent review, performance calibration, and succession planning for the Kenya client group - not just running frameworks, but building them. You'll lead employee relations resolution and act as the escalation point for the market, ensuring consistent compliance with Kenyan labor law. And you'll drive organizational change initiatives - restructuring, transformations, and cross-functional project delivery as Kenya's people function matures alongside the business. WHAT YOU NEED Essential Requirements: - 8+ years of progressive HR/People Partner experience, including 3–6+ years advising director-level or above executives inside fast-growth, matrixed organizations - Working knowledge of Kenyan labor law and the regulatory environment, with direct experience handling employee relations escalations end to end - Demonstrated experience designing and executing org design, workforce planning, or succession strategy, with evidence of having built a framework THE OPPORTUNITY This is the seat to take if you want scope beyond a standard People Partner brief. You'd own the people agenda for M-KOPA's largest, oldest, and most established market, with direct access to Kenya's leadership team - real influence over org design and workforce strategy. The team is growing in scope and complexity, and this role has real room to expand as that happens. For someone who's spent years advising senior leaders and wants a shot at broader ownership, this is a well-resourced, high-visibility seat inside a fintech operating at real scale across Africa. [https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/1d985516-2a99-43c0-b591-957f5adaceb9/86f7fe83-cdac-44e5-95f4-5cfc1d36c035/image.png] LOCATION & BENEFITS - Full-time, hybrid role in Kenya - Direct access to and partnership with Kenya's leadership team - Collaboration with a global People team across Africa and Europe - Professional development and coaching partnerships - Family-friendly policies and flexible working arrangements - Well-being support and career growth opportunities OUR MISSION 🌍 We create financial inclusion for the traditionally excluded through a fair, flexible, customer-centric financing model. We strive to drive greater inclusion of women, youth, and low-income communities. Our Impact 💚 - Included 💳: $2+ billion in credit unlocked, 10 million customers reached, 10,000 new customers onboarded daily - Connected 📱: 2.5 million first-time smartphone users - Prosperous 💰: 70% of customers use their M-KOPA product for income generation, with 35,000+ livelihoods created for agents - Sustainable 🌱: 2.155 million tonnes of CO₂ avoided since 2010, with 127,700+ circular economy products sold Ready to shape the people strategy behind one of Africa's fastest-growing fintechs? Apply Now! WHY M-KOPA? 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 http://m-kopa.com. [https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/1d985516-2a99-43c0-b591-957f5adaceb9/369018b8-cf9c-49c7-95f1-1d414482ba57/B13.png] 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. [https://app.ashbyhq.com/api/images/user-content/1d985516-2a99-43c0-b591-957f5adaceb9/481f6724-8375-4f39-b514-fbe00b8fc3b5/B13.png] 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.