AI Operations Lead

📋 Description

• • Lead and grow a pioneering AI Operations team at M-KOPA, a company recognized for its transformative impact on financial inclusion across Africa and its rapid growth by the Financial Times and TIME magazine.
• • As the first AI Operations Lead, you will be instrumental in defining the strategy, structure, and success of a brand-new function dedicated to scaling automations and AI agents across the organization.
• • This role offers a unique opportunity to leverage cutting-edge AI technologies to enhance the productivity of over 2,300 employees and directly contribute to M-KOPA's mission of providing financial services to underserved communities.
• • You will be responsible for the end-to-end delivery of AI-powered solutions, ensuring they are robust, scalable, and measurably improve operational efficiency and customer-facing capabilities.
• • Directly manage and mentor a team of two AI Ops Engineers, fostering their professional development, overseeing their daily work, and ensuring high-quality output.
• • Develop and implement a clear prioritization framework to effectively manage competing demands from various internal teams, ensuring resources are allocated to initiatives with the highest impact.
• • Design, build, and deploy automations and AI agents that streamline internal processes, empower customer-facing staff, and contribute to M-KOPA's ambitious growth targets.
• • Maintain the health and performance of the AI tooling stack as its usage expands across M-KOPA's global operations, ensuring reliability and efficiency.
• • Stay abreast of the latest advancements in AI tools and agentic frameworks, critically evaluating their practical applicability and potential to drive business value.
• • Collaborate with Data Science teams to refine AI training programs for the wider organization, including engineering teams, promoting AI literacy and adoption.
• • Act as an internal consultant, guiding Engineering teams on the integration of AI into customer-facing products, thereby enhancing M-KOPA's service offerings.
• • Embrace a hands-on, product-focused approach, treating internal stakeholders as customers and delivering solutions that are both innovative and practical.
• • Contribute to M-KOPA's environmental commitment by developing solutions that support sustainable operations and the delivery of green energy products.
• • Work within a dynamic technical environment that includes AI & Agentic Frameworks like Claude, Claude Code, Anthropic tooling, LangChain, MCP, and Google ADK, alongside automation and prototyping tools such as scripting, workflow tools, AI-assisted development, and platforms like Vercel/Railway.
• • Integrate with enterprise tooling, including identity automation (Entra), internal platforms, and systems like Notion and HiBob.
• • Build upon an existing foundation of AI automations that have been successfully running in production for twelve months, leveraging established successes while driving future innovation.
• • Drive the scaling of intelligent tooling to support M-KOPA's extensive operations across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, the UK, and Europe, addressing the challenge of scaling operations without proportional headcount increases.
• • Play a pivotal role in a company that has already empowered over 7 million customers with access to over $2 billion in credit, directly contributing to transforming lives through financial inclusion.
• • This role is ideal for a leader who is passionate about applying AI to solve real-world problems and wants to shape the future of AI implementation in a rapidly growing fintech company.
• • You will be empowered to define how AI is utilized at scale, making significant contributions to both internal efficiency and the company's core mission.
• • The position reports to the Director of Security, providing a strategic vantage point within the organization.
• • Your leadership will be key in demonstrating the value of AI Operations, paving the way for future team expansion and increased impact.
• • This is a chance to be at the forefront of AI adoption in a mission-driven organization, making a tangible difference in the lives of millions across Africa.