Lead People Partner

📋 Description

• • 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.
• • 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.
• • 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
• • 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
• • 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