Head of Legal

Our mission

We're making Africa the first cashless continent.

In 2017, nearly 60% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa had no bank account. That's for good reason—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're solving this problem by building financial services that just work: no account fees, instantly available, and accepted everywhere. In places where electricity, water and roads don't always work, you can still send money with Wave. In November 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments. In August 2019, we expanded to Cote d'Ivoire. Now, we're enabling millions of payments a month and expanding across the continent. And that's where you come in...

How you'll help us achieve it

The Head of Legal will be part of Wave Cote d’Ivoire Legal & Risk department.

The Wave Cote d’Ivoire Legal & Risk department supports the development strategy of our business and ensures the company is growing while being compliant with applicable laws and regulations. The Legal & Risk department also assists with mitigating any risk exposure triggered by our business.

The Legal & Risks department interacts on a regular basis with the Business Development team to help build strategic partnerships, with People team to ensure a smooth management of relationships between the company and employees and with Operations to address any issues derived from our operations.

In this role, you'll:

• Manage partnership contracts (Telecom operators, banks, law firms and business partners)
• Manage litigation for Wave
• Write and review user and agent contracts
• Write and review partnership contracts with Telecom operators, Banks, Law firms and Business partners (merchants, bulk-payment users, bill-payment companies, ...)
• Supervise our compliance team on Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Agent (KYA)

Tasks include:

• Write and review user and agent contracts
• Represent Wave's interests at police and in case of litigation with partners
• Manage day-to-day communication with the law firms representing Wave
• Provide legal counsel on all internal documents and processes
• Provide appropriate guidelines with respect to KYC and KYA

Key details

• Location is primarily in Abidjan with short-term relocation possible within the country
• Work authorization in Cote d’Ivoire required

Requirements

• Secondary degree education in law
• 3-5 years' experience with a mobile money company, bank, telecom operator or consulting firm
• You have represented a company in interactions with lawyers and police
• Well organized, detail-oriented with accurate, clear and enjoy taking initiative
• Fluent in French and English

Preferable aptitudes and qualities

• Are a clear and proactive communicator, you are able to independently follow through on tasks and can manage priorities effectively
• You like team work, but you also know how to work well independently
• You are at ease in preparing contracts in French/English
• You are adept at negotiating especially in challenging situations
• Demonstrate tenacity and a willingness to go the distance to get something done
• Are comfortable defaulting to over-communication and overreaching when it comes to coordination
• Are analytical in your approach to problems
• Are excessively detail oriented and seek to achieve excellence in everything you do

Our team

• We're a team of 300+ Senegalese, 100+ Ivorian and 60+ remote people who are deeply passionate about our mission of bringing great financial services to the people who need them most.
• We foster autonomy for our employees. You'll learn to own your own projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production.
• We’re backed by world-class investors including Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and the cofounders of PayPal.