Research Scientist – Financial Inclusion (Remote) at Scale at M-KOPA Nigeria

Job Title: Research Scientist – Financial Inclusion at Scale

Description

• We are looking for a Research Scientist to join our Data Science Team as we scale up and drive digital and financial inclusion across our markets.
• This is a fully remote role, you would be working within the following time zone (UTC -1 / UTC+3) with a diverse group of other employees working remotely from locations such as UK, Europe and Africa. You will be reporting to the Head of Data Science.
• The Impact: Your algorithms will directly unlock financial opportunities for millions of people across Africa who’ve been excluded from traditional banking. We’ve already helped over 5 million customers access $1.5 billion in credit, and your research could accelerate this impact exponentially.
• It’s your chance to be part of something that’s literally transforming lives across an entire continent: Imagine working on challenges where success means a small business in Lagos secures its first inventory loan, a family in Nairobi accessing educational content through their first smartphone, or entire communities gaining financial resilience through accessible digital services.

What You’ll Do

• Build generative AI models (VAEs, GANs, diffusion models) for financial inclusion across Africa
• Prototype and iterate advanced models, from credit risk assessment to customer behaviour modeling
• Publish research at top conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI etc) while solving real-world problems
• Work with teams across Africa and Europe to deploy Machine Learning solutions that expand financial access

What You Need

• Hands-on experience or Academic Publication in generative models (VAEs, GANs, diffusion models, or related methods)
• Advanced expertise in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science
• Experience with deep learning, reinforcement learning, or specialised Machine Learning domains
• Experience with structured or unstructured data
• Proven ability to translate research into scalable algorithms
• Ideally a publication record in Machine Learning research (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI etc preferred)

The Opportunity

• Mission-driven research: Every model you develop helps expand financial inclusion for under-banked populations
• Immediate impact: See your work improve lives in real-time, not just citations
• Global recognition: Join a company named by TIME100 as one of the world’s most influential and by the Financial Times as Africa’s fastest-growing for 4 consecutive years (2022-2025)
• Research freedom: Publish, attend conferences, and collaborate with academic institutions while solving meaningful problems
• Environmental impact: We’re carbon-negative, having displaced over 2 million tonnes of emissions.

Application Instructions:

The application deadline is Not Specified. Therefore qualified and interested candidates can “CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT APPLICATION.” It is important to visit the official website (link found below) for detailed information on how to apply successfully for this vacancy

Website:
Official Job Website: https://www.m-kopa.com/