Senior Accountant

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

We’re looking for a Finance professional who’s resourceful, organised, and proactive about getting things done. You'll be responsible for helping develop and maintain an effective financial and accounting unit as we rapidly scale our business in Cote d'Ivoire.

 In this role, you'll:

• Represent the Finance unit towards external stakeholders:
• Review and monitor company financial transactions
• Comply with financial, legal and regulatory requirements by studying existing and new legislation, enforcing adherence to requirements, and advising on needed actions.
• Maintain accounting controls by preparing and recommending policies and procedures.
• Manage the external auditor relationship and ensure the organisation is compliant with accounting standards
• Oversee the Finance team:
• Recruit, train, mentor and develop staff.
• Interact with Product Managers to ensure new products are correctly designed from both accounting and tax perspectives
• Lead by living Wave's values, and ensure they're deeply ingrained within your team.

Key details

• Location: You'll work from our office in Abidjan and may travel to field locations.
• Work authorisation in Cote d'Ivoire is required
• This is a permanent position
• Our salaries are competitive and calculated using a transparent formula. We run performance reviews twice a year and award bonuses to strong performers who have been with the company for more than 6 months
• We offer generous health insurance for yourself and your dependents
• We support working parents - we offer 26 weeks of  parental leave for mothers and 4 weeks for fathers, in addition to subsidised child care when they return to work
• Airtime reimbursement
• Free food and a beautiful office space

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Accounting or Finance
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in Auditing/Accounting/Finance
• Experience with financial reporting requirements in Cote d'Ivoire
• Experience managing tax audits
• Speak both French and English fluently (this role will interact regularly with non-French speakers)
• Exceptional time management, critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Great interpersonal communication and leadership skills, with the ability to communicate and manage staff
• Ability to lead by example and demonstrate a strong sense of integrity, ethics and dependability
• Proven ability to work under pressure
• Professional written and oral communication skills
• Good computer skills, especially in Word and Excel
• Experience in an audit firm will be an added advantage

You might be a good fit if you

• Possess strong accounting and reporting skills.
• Are excessively detail-oriented and seek to achieve excellence in everything you do.
• Are a critical thinker who likes to challenge the status quo.
• Are deadline-oriented.
• Are intellectually curious, creative in the way you go about tackling problems, and embrace failure as a means to spark innovation and growth.
• Love owning projects - you're autonomous yet know when to escalate problems.
• Are comfortable defaulting to over-communication and overreaching when it comes to coordination.
• Know how to maintain confidentiality when dealing with sensitive information.
• Adjust quickly to changing priorities and conditions, while managing time factors.

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.

How to apply

Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English and a cover letter describing your interest in Wave and the role.

We review applications frequently and recommend that you apply to the role that most closely aligns with your skills, experience and career goals.

Wave is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.