Senior Manager, Communications

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SENIOR MANAGER, COMMUNICATIONS — M-KOPA
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YOUR PITCHES LAND. YOUR CRISIS PLANS HOLD UP. BUT CAN YOU MAKE BOTH WORK ACROSS FIVE MARKETS — WHILE KEEPING A BUSINESS, ITS LEADERS AND ITS REPUTATION MOVING IN THE SAME DIRECTION?
There are communications roles where the brief is clear, the markets are familiar, and there is a team for every specialist need.
This one asks for something broader.
At M-KOPA, communications sits much closer to the business. You'll shape the narrative, advise senior leaders, manage reputation, navigate complex stakeholders and know what to do when the story changes quickly.
You'll need to be equally comfortable building the story before it becomes news and protecting it when the stakes suddenly rise.
We're building financial access at a scale few companies attempt. M-KOPA now serves over 10 million customers across Sub-Saharan Africa, having unlocked over $2 billion in credit. Independent research tells us 86% of our customers report improved quality of life, 70% use our products to generate income, and 55% are accessing formal financial services for the first time. Behind that: 2,300+ employees, 35,000+ agents, $45 million contributed in taxes, 2 million smartphones assembled in Kenya, and a growing e-mobility business already saving riders $5.62 a day in fuel costs.
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WHY THIS TIMING MATTERS
If you've noticed M-KOPA advertising several senior roles at once, that's not a coincidence — it's deliberate. We're scaling beyond 10 million customers, and that means building the infrastructure, leadership bench, and narrative capability to match.
Communications sits right at the centre of that.
As we grow, more markets, more media, more employees, more regulators and more public stakeholders need a coherent, credible story about who we are and the impact we're creating.
And that story needs to work at two levels: locally, where context matters, and across the Group, where consistency matters just as much.
This role exists because communications can't simply respond to what is happening. It needs to help shape what happens next.
WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT
Most Senior Manager, Communications roles at this level sit above the work — reviewing, approving, delegating.
This one doesn't.
You'll draft the media pitch yourself. You'll sit with a Country MD and work through Group positioning. You'll counsel senior stakeholders on how to navigate a sensitive issue. You'll work alongside marketing and integrated teams to make sure campaigns, brand and corporate reputation are telling the same story. You'll partner directly with People/HR on a sensitive change narrative.
You'll also build relationships with the people who matter beyond the organisation — from media and partners to government stakeholders and regulators across the markets in which we operate.
And when something goes wrong, you'll be one of the people in the room figuring out what happens next.
Because reputation doesn't stop at the press release. It lives in the decisions a business makes, the way leaders communicate, the relationships it builds and how it responds when circumstances get complicated.
And in the same week, you might chase a purchase order and reconcile a budget line, because genuine ownership extends from strategy through to execution.
It's a rare mix of strategic counsel, integrated communications, reputation management and hands-on ownership, you'll be the connective tissue holding Group positioning and market execution together across the region.
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WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO BRING
- A strong communications foundation. You've built your career in corporate communications, integrated communications or a similarly broad communications environment, with a clear understanding of how media, reputation, brand, internal communications and stakeholder engagement connect.
- Strong strategic instincts. You can take a business objective, understand what matters to different audiences and turn it into a communications strategy that leaders can actually use. You're as comfortable giving counsel as you are executing the work yourself.
- Deep experience in reputation and issues management. You've managed reputation across different markets and geographies, and understand that protecting it is about more than managing a message. You know how to understand risk, anticipate issues and help leaders navigate moments where judgement matters.
- Strong crisis communications experience. You've had to think clearly under pressure, advise leaders, coordinate stakeholders and communicate externally when circumstances change quickly. You know that a crisis rarely arrives in the format you prepared for.
- Multi-market experience, ideally across Africa. You've managed communications and reputation across different geographies, cultures, regulatory environments and stakeholder landscapes. You understand that what works in one market may not work in another — and can balance local relevance with a consistent Group narrative.
- Confident stakeholder management. You'll work with Country MDs, senior executives, government stakeholders, regulators, media and other external partners. You can build trust quickly, navigate different agendas and provide clear, considered counsel — including when the message is difficult.
- Strength across external and internal communications. External communications will be a significant part of the role, but you'll also need to understand employee communications, leadership messaging, organisational change and culture — and how the internal and external narrative connect.
- Excellent writing. You can turn complexity into clarity. You know when a message needs precision, when it needs personality and when it needs both. Whether you're writing a press statement, executive briefing, leadership speech, crisis response or employee communication, the quality of your thinking should come through in the quality of your writing.
- Experience in complex, fast-moving environments. You may have worked in a fintech, technology business, high-growth company, agency or another matrixed organisation. What matters is that you've learned to operate across functions, influence without always having direct authority and get up to speed quickly when the context changes.
- Comfort operating in a lean, high-ownership environment. You know when to bring in an agency or specialist, when to solve the problem yourself and how to move work forward while maintaining quality and judgement.
- Operational ownership. Agencies, suppliers and budgets are part of the job too. You're comfortable taking work from strategy through to execution — including procurement, POs, spend tracking and the finance administration that keeps the function moving.
WHAT THE WORK ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE
One day you're drafting a press statement under time pressure.
The next, you're on a call with a Country MD, working through why local execution has drifted from Group messaging — and helping them fix it, not just flagging it.
You're preparing a senior leader for a difficult conversation with an external stakeholder. You're working with marketing on an integrated campaign and asking the questions that make sure the communications strategy supports the wider business objective.
A regulatory issue emerges in one market. You need to understand it quickly, bring the right people together, assess the reputational implications and help determine what M-KOPA should say — and what it should do.
You're building the weekly media report that actually tells the Director something useful about sentiment and share of voice, not just a list of clippings.
You're in a planning session with People/HR, shaping how a sensitive organisational change gets communicated to employees across several countries.
And somewhere in the same week, you're raising a PO, chasing an invoice, or reconciling the department's budget — because keeping the function's engine running is as much your job as the storytelling is.
THE HONEST VERSION
This role is genuinely demanding.
You're doing strategic, high-visibility work and operational detail in the same breath, often across multiple markets and without the buffer of a dedicated in-market communications team.
It asks for someone who can move between the boardroom and the detail. Someone who can challenge a senior leader with confidence, build trust with a regulator, navigate a developing issue, write a statement at speed and still care about whether the budget reconciles at the end of the month.
You'll need to be curious about Africa. Commercial enough to understand the business behind the story. Calm when things move quickly. And experienced enough to know when communications needs to lead, when it needs to listen and when it needs to bring others in.
If you're looking for a role where communications is neatly separated into internal, external, brand and PR lanes, this probably isn't it.
If you're looking for the opportunity to shape reputation, influence leaders, work across markets and be close enough to the business to actually change the outcome, it might be.
LET'S TALK
If you're the kind of communications professional who wants to do more than manage the message — someone who wants to understand the business, shape the narrative, counsel the people making the decisions and know what to do when the une

Employment type
FullTime

Work arrangement
No