In 2017, over half the population 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 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 2017, we launched a mobile app in Senegal for cash deposit, withdrawal, and peer-to-peer and business payments. Now, we have millions of users across 9 countries and are growing fast.

Our goal is to make Africa the first cashless continent and that's where you come in...

How you'll help us achieve it

As a Legal Counsel at Wave, you will play a key role in supporting our Legal Team and contributing to the company's growth and compliance objectives. You will operate in our market in Burkina Faso and Niger.

You will work closely with both operational and functional teams to help them achieve their goals while proactively identifying, assessing, and managing legal risks to ensure full compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

In this role, you will be responsible for providing clear, practical, and business-oriented legal advice and for implementing legal strategies that protect the company's interests and contribute to its overall success.

You will report directly to the Head of Legal.

In this role, you'll:

Contracting

Draft, review, and negotiate contracts across all business areas, ensuring alignment with company objectives and compliance with applicable laws.
Support contract drafting and review for Wave's core products and services, ensuring the protection of the company's commercial and legal interests while optimizing value and efficiency.
Lead and participate in complex, high-value contract negotiations, providing strategic legal input to achieve balanced, sustainable agreements.
Enhance and manage the contracting process, including the implementation of contract policies, contract management systems, electronic signature tools, and document archiving procedures.

Legal Operations

Implement group legal policies and propose updates based on legal developments, operational feedback, and industry best practices (e.g., contract policy, data privacy policy).

Litigation

Develop and apply procedures for managing legal claims and disputes, including pre-litigation strategy, mediation, arbitration, and litigation follow-up.

People Support

Provide legal support for employment matters, including contracts, disciplinary procedures, and terminations.

Company Secretarial

Provide support for the company secretary.

Risk Management

Collaborate with the Risk and Controls teams to identify legal risks and implement appropriate mitigations and internal controls.

Data Privacy & Consumer Protection

Support the rollout and enforcement of the company's data privacy compliance framework.

Regulatory Support

Provide legal advice on licensing and regulatory requirements, working closely with colleagues across the legal and compliance teams.

External Counsel Management

Build and maintain relationships with external law firms and manage legal service delivery.

Special Projects

Contribute to cross-functional legal initiatives and support other legal priorities as they arise.

Key details

Location: You'll work from our office in Burkina Faso.
This is a permanent position.
Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula.
We offer generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents.
We support working parents - we offer generous parental leave policies (26 weeks for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers) and subsidized child care when you return to work.
We help you live your fullest life now - we subsidize gym memberships and fitness classes.
Airtime reimbursement.

Requirements

Master's degree in Law or equivalent.
3–5 years of professional legal experience, ideally within a dynamic corporate or regulatory environment.
Fluency in both written and spoken French and English.
Proven experience in corporate governance, including planning and preparing for board and shareholder meetings.
Strong knowledge of general legal and regulatory requirements applicable to corporate and commercial activities.
An experience in a law firm, Financial / Telco sector.

You might be a good fit if you

Efficiently and quickly apply instructions from your lead, and proactively identify and report problems or blockers.
Excel in both teamwork and independent work.
Are proficient in drafting and reviewing contracts in English and French.
Demonstrate tenacity and a commitment to completing tasks.
Possess a strong analytical approach to problem-solving.
Are highly organized and detail-oriented, with a clear and accurate legal approach.
Have excellent writing, listening, and communication skills, consistently striving for excellence in all endeavors.

Our team

We have a rapidly growing in-country team in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, Uganda, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon plus remote team members spread across the world.
We're deeply passionate about our mission of bringing radically affordable financial services to the people who need them most.
We foster autonomy for our employees. You'll own your projects at every stage, from understanding the problem to monitoring your solution in production.
We raised the largest Series A in Africa in 2021. Our world-class investors, include Founders Fund, Sequoia Heritage, Stripe, Ribbit Capital, Y Combinator, and Partech Africa.
We are on Y Combinator's top companies by revenue.