Legal Counsel

Our mission We're making Africa the first cashless continent. 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…