Overview
Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead Jobs in Kenya at Safaricom PLC
Title: Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead
Company: Safaricom PLC
Location: Kenya
What we’re looking for;
In keeping with our current business needs, we are looking for a person who meets the criteria indicated below
Reporting to the Chief Financial Services Officer, the role purpose is as highlighted below;
The Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead is accountable for enabling safe, resilient, and scalable end-to-end fintech operations across M-PESA's Financial Services portfolio. The role serves as the operational backbone of the cluster — ensuring policy clarity, process excellence, regulatory compliance, and risk discipline while actively enabling innovation and growth.
A defining feature of this role is its governance boundary: Product owns commercial decisions; Operations owns compliance thresholds, operational guardrails, and risk frameworks that allow Product, Growth, Loyalty, and API teams to execute confidently within defined boundaries. The Lead uses AI, automation, and data to build an intelligent operations engine — one that is predictive, not merely reactive — ensuring fintech solutions operate with high reliability, strong fraud and risk controls, and consistent service standards across all customer touchpoints.
The Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead oversees end-to-end fintech operational integrity, including policy and process management, partner and ecosystem governance, regulatory and operational compliance, risk and control frameworks, service level governance, business continuity planning, and customer experience enablement. The role ensures that fintech solutions operate with high reliability, strong fraud and risk controls, and consistent service standards across all customer touchpoints. Anchored in regulatory clarity and operational resilience, the role institutionalizes structured compliance governance while avoiding bureaucratic friction. It embeds lean process optimization and continuous improvement loops to reduce operational complexity, improve turnaround times, and enhance customer experience outcomes.
The Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead also ensures that operational risk, fraud management, and control frameworks are forward-looking and proportionate to scale, supporting innovation without compromising trust. Through disciplined service level governance and ecosystem partner oversight, the role strengthens platform stability, operational performance, and regulatory confidence. Operating within agile ways of working, the role enables cross-functional squads by providing clear compliance thresholds, defined decision rights, and escalation protocols. It champions iterative improvement while balancing speed with regulatory and operational safeguards.
Thus, the Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead is strategically accountable for:
- Intelligent Ops Leadership: Oversees ensures end to end fintech operations run reliably, efficiently, and proactively by leveraging AI, automation, and data to drive seamless customer experiences, operational excellence, and predictive issue resolution.
- End-to-End Fintech Operational Enablement: Oversee the integrity, scalability, and operational readiness of the full fintech portfolio, ensuring operations support growth ambitions without compromising stability or resilience.
- Policy & Process Governance: Define and maintain clear, simplified policies and scalable process frameworks that embed control discipline while enabling efficient execution across the cluster.
- Regulatory & Operational Compliance: Establish compliance thresholds and operational guardrails that enable innovation within defined regulatory boundaries, ensuring adherence without unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Fintech Risk & Controls Management: Lead the design and oversight of risk, fraud, and operational control frameworks that protect customer trust and business integrity at scale.
- Service Level Governance & Customer Experience Enablement: Own service performance standards across fintech touchpoints, ensuring consistent reliability, rapid issue resolution, and continuous service improvement.
- Partner & Ecosystem Governance: Define governance and performance standards for ecosystem partners to ensure scalable, compliant, and resilient integrations across the fintech landscape.
- Business Continuity & Operational Resilience: Ensure robust continuity and disaster recovery frameworks are in place to safeguard service stability and regulatory confidence during disruptions.
- Continuous Improvement & Lean Optimization: Embed structured continuous improvement loops and lean process optimization principles to enhance operational efficiency and reduce friction.
- Clear Domain Boundaries & Governance Clarity: Operate within defined decision rights where Product owns commercial decisions and Operations owns compliance thresholds, preventing overlap and friction.
- Agile Leadership & Delivery Governance: Lead empowered cross-functional squads aligned to shared OKRs, champion iterative delivery, and balance execution speed with regulatory and operational guardrails.
Anchored in Safaricom’s purpose of Transforming Lives, the Intelligent Ops & Governance Lead ensures that digital financial services remain secure, resilient, and trusted, enabling individuals, merchants, and enterprises to transact confidently within a stable and compliant financial ecosystem.