Senior People Partner
Join our expanding People team in Kenya, partnering with leadership to scale digital and financial inclusion across one of our most established markets
The Impact 💚
We're adding a strategic partner who will help shape how M-KOPA Kenya grows from 7 million to 10 million customers. Your people strategies will directly enable the organisational capabilities that help 86% of our customers improve their quality of life while unlocking over $2 billion in credit for Africa's Every Day Earners.
This is people partnership at scale. You'll advise Kenya's leadership team while contributing to global people initiatives that span five African countries. If you've been waiting for the right opportunity to apply your HR expertise where it creates genuine impact, this is it.
The Opportunity
🎯 Strategic people leadership: As one of our People Partners for Kenya you'll drive our people agenda while contributing to global initiatives across five African markets
🏆 Global recognition: Partner with leaders at a company named by TIME 100 as one of the world's most influential and by the Financial Times as Africa's fastest-growing for 4 consecutive years (2022-2025)
🚀 Unprecedented growth: Shape people strategy as we've expanded to 2,300+ employees, 35,000 agents, and delivered 53,000+ hours of training in the past year
🌱 Purpose-driven impact: Build the organisational capabilities enabling financial inclusion - from smartphone assembly to 35,000 field agents serving millions of customers
What You'll Do
At M-KOPA, you'll be a strategic advisor and hands-on executor in equal measure. You'll partner with Kenya's leadership team to address organisational challenges while designing the people systems that will define how we scale. Our People Partners own their solutions end-to-end, from strategic workforce planning to hands-on change management. Join us in combining cutting-edge people practices with purpose-driven work that makes digital and financial inclusion possible across Africa.
Strategic Partner to Kenya Leadership
Serve as trusted advisor to members of Kenya's leadership team, aligning people strategies with business priorities and market growth objectives
Partner with leadership to tackle organisational challenges and deliver innovative people solutions that drive business performance
Use people analytics to track key metrics, identify trends, and provide actionable insights that inform strategic decision-making
Drive Talent Excellence & Organisational Development
Design and implement talent strategies for attraction, development, and retention across all Kenya functions
Lead organisational design initiatives, workforce planning, and succession strategies to support business scaling
Facilitate talent reviews and performance calibrations with leaders, ensuring fair and effective talent management processes
Connect employees and managers with impactful learning and development opportunities, including mentorship and coaching
Build High-Performance Culture
Cultivate a growth-oriented, high-performance culture through effective performance management and employee engagement initiatives
Address employee relations issues with professionalism, ensuring consistent policy application and compliance with local labour practices
Coach managers and employees on best practices, conflict resolution, and professional development
Lead employee engagement initiatives, including surveys and follow-up actions to enhance overall engagement
Lead Change & Strategic Initiatives
Manage complex organisational change initiatives, from planning through execution and measurement
Support business transformations, restructuring, and strategic project implementations
Collaborate with global People team and local stakeholders to ensure seamless integration of people strategies
Your Environment 💼
Market context: Kenya is home to our smartphone assembly facility (2 million phones assembled)
Organisational complexity: Support diverse operations spanning manufacturing, field sales, customer service, and technical teams.
Scale of impact: Partner with leaders managing rapid expansion while maintaining quality - we've grown our agent network from 30,000 to 35,000 in the past year
Our Approach to People Partnership 🚀
Business partnership: Deep collaboration with business leaders to translate organisational priorities into people strategies that drive measurable results
Data-driven insights: People analytics inform talent reviews, organisational design, engagement initiatives, and diversity progress
Change leadership: Proven change management capabilities support continuous transformation as we scale toward 10 million customers
Global-local expertise: Balance global people practices with deep understanding of Kenyan labour regulations and local market context
Strategic autonomy: Significant ownership of key people initiatives with direct access to senior leadership and real decision-making authority
What You Bring
8+ years of progressive HR experience with 3-4 years partnering with senior leaders in fast-growth, complex organisations.
Proven track record designing and implementing people strategies that drive measurable business results across local and global contexts.
Strategic and operational range - equally comfortable with long-term planning and hands-on execution, with strong business acumen to translate people priorities into business outcomes.
Expert coaching and advisory skills for leaders at all levels, with strong change management capabilities and ability to influence without authority.
Data-driven approach to decision-making with experience using people analytics to inform strategy and track performance.
Deep understanding of Kenyan labour practices and regulatory environments, with experience navigating complex employee relations.
Experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments with proven success in matrixed organisations and multi-stakeholder management.
Location & Benefits
Hybrid flexibility: Full-time, onsite role with some hybrid flexibility, working local hours in Kenya and supporting managers and colleagues both in-person and virtually
Global collaboration: Work with a global People team across Africa and Europe
Professional development: Access to development programs and coaching partnerships
Family-friendly policies: Enhanced parental leave and flexible working arrangements
Well-being support: Comprehensive well-being programs and career growth opportunities
Why This Role Rocks
🌍 Market impact: Shape Kenya's growth trajectory while influencing broader organisational strategy
💪 Strategic ownership: Lead key people initiatives with significant autonomy and direct access to senior leadership
🌐 Global reach: Influence people practice across Africa while building deep market expertise in Kenya
📈 Growth platform: Build scalable people solutions in a high-growth fintech environment driving financial inclusion at scale
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 💚
Our technology has created measurable change:
Included 💳: Over 7 million customers served with $2+ billion in credit unlocked
Connected 📱: 2.5 million first-time mobile internet users connected
Prosperous 💰: 70% of customers use their product for income generation, with 35,000+ livelihoods created for agents
Sustainable 🌱: 2.155 million tonnes of CO₂ avoided through our products, with 127,700+ circular economy products provided
Ready to build people strategies that create real-world financial inclusion while advancing your career in people partnership?
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.
Recognized four times by the Financial Times as one Africa's fastest growing companies (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 6 million customers, unlocking $1.5 billion in cumulative credit for the unbanked across Africa.
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.