Advisory Services Design Specialist (Africa) at Women’s World Banking

POSITION OVERVIEW

Title: Specialist, Advisory Services (Africa)

Reports to: Manager, Advisory Services

Classification: Full-time

Location: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa

Start Date: Immediate

ummary:

Women’s World Banking is seeking an innovative, energetic and multifaceted Specialist to support Women’s World Banking’s strategic goals of advancing women’s financial inclusion Africa. The Specialist will support the development and implementation of financial solutions using design processes. Designs including ideation, prototyping and user testing. The individual will play a key role in building Women’s World Banking’s business and working on projects within Africa, with a focus on Nigeria.

You should apply to this position if:

• You are passionate about the power of financial services to change lives and understand what it takes to reach low-income women where they live and work.
• You have working experience in financial services, specifically/preferably with a focus on financial inclusion and emerging markets.
• You are well versed in design approaches and methodologies, such as human-centered design and behavioral design, and are able to apply them effectively to develop solutions that represent the needs and voice of women customers.
• You are able to think strategically to develop highly effective design solutions to drive impact and scale.
• You are driven to find solutions to “making it work” and have a “yes and” mindset when it comes to teamwork and leadership.

Responsibilities:

You will be responsible for supporting the Manager with partner engagements, project execution, and providing advisory services to enable partners to effectively reach and serve low-income women with relevant financial services and products. You will work in teams of typically 3–5 people, playing an active role in all aspects of partner engagement, with focus on designing effective and commercially viable solutions and developing and communicating recommendations for rollout to scale the impact of the solutions. You will work on multiple engagements concurrently and with colleagues across various functions within Women’s World Banking.

You will:

• Lead design development processes from a customer behavioral lens – from customer research to ideation, solutions development, prototyping, workshop for partners, user testing and solution pilot.
• Utilize best practices in behavioral and inclusive design.
• Analyze and interpret the research findings/information from different research methodologies, qualitative and quantitative data analysis and statistics and use it for solutions development.
• Engage in strategic and creative problem solving to develop highly effective solutions that drive impact and scale for low-income women customers.
• Play an active role in technical work (project management-based activities) to execute project activities, which includes supporting customer research, gathering and analyzing client-partner background information, gathering market intelligence on current market trends, and project implementation monitoring.
• Develop project deliverables, project monitoring, and presentations.
• Develop a strong understanding of the financial inclusion context in Africa and combined with your own experience and perspectives, provide support in developing solutions that can increase women’s financial inclusion.

Within the first 75 days:

• Demonstrate Women’s World Banking’s values – Think Big, Own and Commit to It, Smarter Together.
• Learn and comprehend Women’s World Banking’s business model.
• Fully integrate into the Advisory Services team.
• Build a strong working relationship across functional teams.
• Demonstrate your ability to support project work in the Africa advisory portfolio.

Required Qualifications:

• 3–5 years of work experience in Fintech/digital financial services/e-commerce, banking/financial services, or consulting for financial services. Preferably in product/strategy/user experience/business design and development for financial services.
• Undergraduate degree, preferably Master’s degree, in Design Strategy/Human-Centered Design, Business Management, Behavioral Science, Psychology, Finance, Economic, Development Studies or related fields.
• Demonstrated strong project management skills.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to quickly identify behavioral change levers. An empathy-first mindset in your design approach.
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage responsibility with integrity and tact.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, and ability to work with remote teams.
• Willingness to learn and show adaptability; a good team player.
• Fluency in English is a must.
• Working knowledge of graphic design software such as Adobe Creative Suite and proficiency in using MS Office tools especially Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated skills in human-centered design and/or behavioral design, as well as facilitating design ideation, prototyping and user testing sessions and workshops.
• Experience working with low-income populations in emerging markets and/or experience with women’s economic and empowerment issues.
• Track record of superior creativity and problem-solving abilities.
• Demonstrated ability to execute and successfully achieve objectives in a dynamic, fast-paced environment with aggressive timelines.
• International work experience.

We offer comprehensive benefits including

• Competitive salary & top tier benefits
• 15+ paid time off days in addition to paid sick days and holidays
• Company closes for two paid Mental Health and Rejuvenation Weeks per year (July & December)
• 401(k) with employer match / pension contributions where applicable
• Company paid professional development opportunities
• Flexible work options available, including work from home options (outside of fieldwork)

About Women’s World Banking

We believe in being a force for the greater good, devoted to accelerating and growing the financial inclusion of women. With rapidly changing markets, influenced by technology and social behavioral expectations, we are embarking on a new chapter to transform the way we design and implement solutions.

For over 40 years, Women’s World Banking has partnered with financial institutions, showing them the benefit of investing in women as customers. We equip these institutions with in-depth research and data driven insights to develop financial products and educational programs. While our clients are financial service providers, our mission is to engage consumers – women who are marginalized by financial systems.

Women’s World Banking and WWB Asset Management is an equal employment opportunity for all regardless of race, color, citizenship, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, veteran or reservist status or any other category protected by federal, state or local law.