Overview

Application

We are looking for a Business Intelligence Manager who combines deep analytical expertise with outstanding business acumen to drive M-KOPA Kenya's strategic agenda.

This role offers the opportunity to sit at the strategic heart of M-KOPA Kenya Operations, shaping the direction of one of Africa's most innovative fintech companies. You won't be waiting for questions to answer—you'll be anticipating the questions leadership should be asking and arriving with solutions already formulated. You'll combine the analytical rigor of a data scientist with the strategic mindset of a management consultant and the business instincts of a seasoned operator. Your insights won't just inform decisions—they'll shape strategy and impact millions of customers' lives, working with talented cross-functional teams across all departments.

About Us

We foster a culture where strategic intelligence meets proactive problem-solving. Our team values forward-looking insights, commercial acumen, and analytical rigor that drives competitive advantage. You'll be empowered to identify opportunities and risks before they become obvious, challenge strategic assumptions with data, and serve as a trusted advisor who translates market dynamics into winning strategies that position M-KOPA for sustained success.

At M-KOPA, our Business Intelligence function isn't just about reporting—it's the strategic early-warning system and competitive intelligence engine that enables us to lead rather than follow in Africa's fintech revolution.

In this role, you would be responsible for:

Strategic Intelligence & Proactive Solution Development

• Serving as the strategic early-warning system for Kenya Operations, proactively identifying emerging threats and opportunities before they impact the business
• Developing unsolicited strategic recommendations based on patterns you observe in performance data, market dynamics, or competitive moves
• Anticipating leadership's strategic questions and arriving at meetings with analysis and recommendations already prepared
• Building advanced forecasting models that identify inflection points, risks, and opportunities requiring strategic response
• Designing sophisticated scenario planning frameworks that pressure-test strategies against multiple future states (regulatory changes, competitive disruption, macroeconomic shifts)
• Challenging strategic assumptions with rigorous analysis—being the voice that asks "what if we're wrong about this?" and provides data to validate or redirect strategy
• Transforming complex, multi-dimensional datasets into compelling strategic narratives that drive executive decision-making
• Conducting deep-dive root cause analyses when performance deviates from expectations, arriving with not just diagnosis but recommended solutions
• Building business cases for strategic initiatives, quantifying expected ROI and implementation requirements

Market & Competitive Intelligence: Winning the Strategic Game

• Maintaining comprehensive competitive intelligence that goes beyond feature comparison to understand competitors' strategic intent, vulnerabilities, and likely next moves
• Proactively developing competitive response strategies before competitors' actions impact our market position
• Building war-gaming scenarios that simulate competitive dynamics and test the robustness of our strategies
• Identifying strategic whitespace—underserved segments, unmet needs, or market inefficiencies that represent growth opportunities
• Monitoring the broader fintech and financial services ecosystem for emerging business models or technologies that could disrupt our approach
• Translating regulatory developments into strategic implications—not just compliance requirements, but competitive advantages or strategic risks
• Developing point-of-view perspectives on "what's next" for Kenya's fintech market and positioning M-KOPA to lead rather than follow
• Building relationships with industry experts, regulatory bodies, and market intelligence sources to maintain information advantage
• Creating competitor scorecards that track not just what competitors are doing but how effectively they're executing

Customer Intelligence & Commercial Strategy

• Developing deep customer insight that goes beyond demographics to understand motivations, decision-making processes, and unmet needs
• Proactively identifying customer segments with attractive unit economics or strategic value that we're underserving
• Supporting pricing strategy with commercial insights
• Translating customer insights into product and marketing strategies that drive acquisition, engagement, and retention
• Identifying early signals of customer behavior shifts that could impact portfolio quality, retention, or lifetime value
• Building financial models linking customer acquisition strategies to long-term unit economics and shareholder value
• Challenging product and commercial teams with customer data when strategies seem misaligned with market realities
• Developing customer segmentation frameworks that inform differentiated go-to-market strategies

Performance Management & Strategic Diagnostics

• Designing executive dashboards that don't just report what happened but highlight why it matters and what action is required
• Establishing leading indicators that provide early warning of performance issues before they become crises
• Conducting proactive variance analyses when performance trends deviate from expectations, arriving with hypotheses and recommended interventions
• Building self-service analytics that empower managers to answer their own questions while maintaining strategic oversight
• Creating KPI frameworks that align operational activities with strategic objectives and drive accountability

Strategic Partnership & Cross-Functional Enablement

• Serving as thought partner to department heads, bringing external perspective and analytical rigor to their strategic challenges
• Facilitating strategic planning sessions where you don't just participate but shape the agenda and drive outcomes
• Proactively identifying cross-functional issues or opportunities that no single department owns but require coordinated response
• Building analytical capability across teams, raising the bar for data-informed decision-making organization-wide
• Challenging strategies that lack analytical foundation while offering to develop the analysis needed to validate or improve them
• Serving as strategic translator between technical teams and commercial teams, ensuring both perspectives inform strategy

This is a strategic leadership role based in Nairobi, Kenya. If successful, you would be reporting to the Head of Business Management, Kenya Operations.

Your application should demonstrate:

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics, Finance, Engineering, or related quantitative field
• 6-8 years combining strategic analysis, business intelligence, and hands-on business management with demonstrated ownership of strategic initiatives end-to-end
• Proven track record of proactively identifying business opportunities or risks that resulted in strategic action and measurable impact
• Experience in high-growth fintech, financial services, telecoms, or technology sectors balancing rapid execution with analytical rigor
• Background in East African markets with understanding of Kenya's commercial, regulatory, and competitive dynamics preferred

Core Competencies

• Business Acumen & Strategic Thinking (paramount): Deep commercial intuition connecting analytical insights to P&L drivers, customer behavior, and competitive positioning
• Analytical & Technical Capabilities: Advanced proficiency in SQL, Python/R, Excel financial modeling, and visu

• Serving as the strategic early-warning system for Kenya Operations, proactively identifying emerging threats and opportunities before they impact the business
• Developing unsolicited strategic recommendations based on patterns you observe in performance data, market dynamics, or competitive moves
• Anticipating leadership's strategic questions and arriving at meetings with analysis and recommendations already prepared
• Building advanced forecasting models that identify inflection points, risks, and opportunities requiring strategic response
• Designing sophisticated scenario planning frameworks that pressure-test strategies against multiple future states (regulatory changes, competitive disruption, macroeconomic shifts)
• Challenging strategic assumptions with rigorous analysis—being the voice that asks "what if we're wrong about this?" and provides data to validate or redirect strategy
• Transforming complex, multi-dimensional datasets into compelling strategic narratives that drive executive decision-making
• Conducting deep-dive root cause analyses when performance deviates from expectations, arriving with not just diagnosis but recommended solutions
• Building business cases for strategic initiatives, quantifying expected ROI and implementation requirements
• Maintaining comprehensive competitive intelligence that goes beyond feature comparison to understand competitors' strategic intent, vulnerabilities, and likely next moves
• Proactively developing competitive response strategies before competitors' actions impact our market position
• Building war-gaming scenarios that simulate competitive dynamics and test the robustness of our strategies
• Identifying strategic whitespace—underserved segments, unmet needs, or market inefficiencies that represent growth opportunities
• Monitoring the broader fintech and financial services ecosystem for emerging business models or technologies that could disrupt our approach
• Translating regulatory developments into strategic implications—not just compliance requirements, but competitive advantages or strategic risks
• Developing point-of-view perspectives on "what's next" for Kenya's fintech market and positioning M-KOPA to lead rather than follow
• Building relationships with industry experts, regulatory bodies, and market intelligence sources to maintain information advantage
• Creating competitor scorecards that track not just what competitors are doing but how effectively they're executing
• Developing deep customer insight that goes beyond demographics to understand motivations, decision-making processes, and unmet needs
• Proactively identifying customer segments with attractive unit economics or strategic value that we're underserving
• Supporting pricing strategy with commercial insights
• Translating customer insights into product and marketing strategies that drive acquisition, engagement, and retention
• Identifying early signals of customer behavior shifts that could impact portfolio quality, retention, or lifetime value
• Building financial models linking customer acquisition strategies to long-term unit economics and shareholder value
• Challenging product and commercial teams with customer data when strategies seem misaligned with market realities
• Developing customer segmentation frameworks that inform differentiated go-to-market strategies
• Designing executive dashboards that don't just report what happened but highlight why it matters and what action is required
• Establishing leading indicators that provide early warning of performance issues before they become crises
• Conducting proactive variance analyses when performance trends deviate from expectations, arriving with hypotheses and recommended interventions
• Building self-service analytics that empower managers to answer their own questions while maintaining strategic oversight
• Creating KPI frameworks that align operational activities with strategic objectives and drive accountability
• Serving as thought partner to department heads, bringing external perspective and analytical rigor to their strategic challenges
• Facilitating strategic planning sessions where you don't just participate but shape the agenda and drive outcomes
• Proactively identifying cross-functional issues or opportunities that no single department owns but require coordinated response
• Building analytical capability across teams, raising the bar for data-informed decision-making organization-wide
• Challenging strategies that lack analytical foundation while offering to develop the analysis needed to validate or improve them
• Serving as strategic translator between technical teams and commercial teams, ensuring both perspectives inform strategy

• Advanced proficiency in SQL
• Python/R
• Excel financial modeling
• Business Acumen & Strategic Thinking
• Analytical & Technical Capabilities

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics, Finance, Engineering, or related quantitative field
• 6-8 years combining strategic analysis, business intelligence, and hands-on business management with demonstrated ownership of strategic initiatives end-to-end
• Proven track record of proactively identifying business opportunities or risks that resulted in strategic action and measurable impact
• Experience in high-growth fintech, financial services, telecoms, or technology sectors balancing rapid execution with analytical rigor
• Background in East African markets with understanding of Kenya's commercial, regulatory, and competitive dynamics preferred