Head of Merchant Experience (MX)

<div class="content-intro"><p><strong>Who is PawaPay</strong></p> <p>PawaPay is a pan-African fintech enabling local payment channels used by the mass market to both local and international merchants. We operate in a highly regulated, partner-driven environment and are in scale-up mode, with ambitious growth plans across multiple African markets.</p> <p>Our vision is to simplify business for companies and consumers in Africa and we do that by ensuring that payments simply work, at scale, despite fragmentation and complexity that exists on the Continent.</p> <p>Through our payments API we already facilitate over 4 million transactions a day across 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.&nbsp; We are the largest PSP on the Continent for the processing of mobile money payments, and have positioned ourselves well to lead the payment space as it grows over the next decade.</p> <p>At PawaPay, there is an entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a modern and professional working culture. The fast-paced, ever-changing environment will suit someone who can adapt and think on their feet. In return, you will have the opportunity to work alongside a group of dedicated and smart individuals working towards the same mission. We work as a remote team and have team members in Europe, Africa and Asia.</p></div><h3 data-section-id="1froeg" data-start="1287" data-end="1298">The Role</h3> <p data-start="1300" data-end="1422">We are looking for a Head of Merchant Experience to build and lead a new Merchant Experience (MX) function within Product.</p> <p data-start="1424" data-end="1638">This is a senior product leadership role responsible for every stage of the merchant journey — from a merchant's first interaction with pawaPay through onboarding, integration, live operations and long-term growth.</p> <p data-start="1640" data-end="1849">Today, many parts of the merchant experience are owned by different teams across the business. Your mission is to bring those experiences together into a single, coherent strategy, roadmap and operating model.</p> <p data-start="1851" data-end="2122">You'll lead a multidisciplinary team spanning product, design, engineering, AI and QA, working closely with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Operations and Customer Success to make pawaPay the easiest payments platform in Africa to discover, integrate and operate.</p> <p data-start="2124" data-end="2352">As AI increasingly changes how software is built and consumed, you'll also help shape experiences that work equally well for human users and the AI-powered tools and agents that increasingly interact with payment infrastructure.</p> <h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>What You'll Do</strong></h3> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><em>Build and lead the Merchant Experience function</em></p> <ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3"> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Define the vision, strategy and roadmap for MX as a new product discipline.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Hire and lead a high-performing team across product, design, engineering and AI.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Establish the operating rhythms, metrics and accountability structures that make the function run.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Create a single MX scorecard that gives the business clear, consistent visibility into merchant health.</li> </ul> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><em>Own the merchant journey end-to-end</em></p> <ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3"> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Take full ownership of the merchant lifecycle: discovery, onboarding, integration, live operations, growth and expansion.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Drive measurable improvements in activation, adoption, engagement and retention.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Identify and eliminate friction at every stage of the journey.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Partner closely with Marketing, Sales and Operations so that no merchant falls through the cracks.</li> </ul> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><em>Build product experiences merchants actually love</em></p> <ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3"> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Lead the evolution of the merchant dashboard, onboarding flows, documentation and support experience.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Champion quality, usability and design that respects the merchant's time and intelligence.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Push self-serve as a first principle — without sacrificing the quality of support when it's needed.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Partner with Engineering to raise the bar on developer experience, APIs and integration workflows.</li> </ul> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><em>Use AI where it genuinely matters</em></p> <ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3"> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Identify high-leverage opportunities to apply AI across onboarding, support, analytics and merchant productivity.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Help define what world-class AI-enabled merchant experiences look like in the payments context.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Ensure AI-powered experiences are trustworthy, measurable and built for the regulatory environments we operate in.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Think ahead: how will agent-driven interactions with payment infrastructure reshape the merchant relationship?</li> </ul> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><em>Deliver outcomes the business can measure</em></p> <ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3"> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Reduce time-to-value for new merchants.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Improve onboarding completion and activation rates.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Drive deeper product adoption across the merchant base.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Reduce support volume and cost-to-serve.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Build the kind of merchant satisfaction that turns into retention and advocacy.</li> </ul> <h3 class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>What We're Looking For</strong></h3> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><em>Required</em></p> <ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3"> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">10+ years across Product, Customer Experience, Platform or Digital Product leadership.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">4+ years leading multidisciplinary teams.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">A proven track record of improving customer or user experiences at real scale.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Experience owning commercial outcomes — activation, retention, conversion, cost-to-serve.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Strong product and technology fluency; you can go deep with engineering when it counts.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Excellent communicator, written and verbal.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Comfortable with ambiguity and energised by the challenge of building something new.</li> </ul> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><em>Nice to Have</em></p> <ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3"> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Experience in payments, fintech or developer platforms.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">A background building AI-enabled products or workflows.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">B2B SaaS or infrastructure experience.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Exposure to African markets or emerging-market technology businesses.</li> <li class="font-claude-response-body whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">Experience scaling teams and functions through rapid growth.</li> </ul><div class="content-conclusion"><p><strong>Why PawaPay?</strong></p> <ul class="_651c1b54 _6e226a26"> <li>Help improve financial access in Africa</li> <li>Being part of an amazing team that shapes company’s culture as a great place to be</li> <li>An ambitious, talented, and diverse team who always has your back</li> <li>We grow fast, and you will grow fast with us</li> <li>Competitive remuneration</li> <li>35 days of paid leave per year (inclusive of public holidays) and more.</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p></div>