Head of Brand Design and Creative, Wave
Financial services for underbanked communities
Open for applications
Financial services for underbanked communities
1001+ employees
Open for applications
1001+ employees
Company mission
To make Africa the first cashless continent.
Role
Who you are
- 10+ years of experience in brand design or creative leadership roles
- Experience leading and scaling creative teams in high-growth environments
- Proven ability to design and implement scalable creative systems and governance frameworks
- Experience operating across multiple markets or regions
- Strong strategic thinking paired with high creative standards
- Experience managing agencies and external partners
- Fluent in English (French is a strong advantage)
- Hold a BSc/BA in advertising, fine art, design, or a relevant field
- You will be occasionally be required to travel to our operating markets
- Have successfully built and scaled creative or brand teams in high-growth, multi-market environments
- Demonstrate strong organisational leadership, with the ability to implement structured processes and operating models
- Have a proven track record of translating brand strategy into scalable systems and consistent execution
- Are experienced in cross-functional leadership and influencing senior stakeholders
- Bring experience managing external agencies and complex production workflows
- Have strong business acumen and understand how brand contributes to growth, trust, and customer adoption
- Combine high creative standards with operational rigor and accountability
What the job involves
- We’re looking for a Head of Brand Design and Creative who is strategic, thrives for creative excellence and is operationally effective to be responsible for defining Wave’s brand expression at scale. You will build up and lead a high-performing creative team, establish strong creative processes, and ensure our brand supports Wave’s rapid growth across Africa
- Define and lead Wave’s brand design strategy, ensuring it supports business objectives across all markets
- Conceive and implement scalable brand systems, guidelines, approval processes and quality standards to ensure consistency and local adaptability
- Build, structure, and lead a global team of brand designers and creative leads
- Establish clear creative processes, intake systems, prioritisation frameworks, and review cadences to improve efficiency and quality
- Partner closely with Marketing, Growth, Product and leadership to align creative output with strategic priorities
- Lead and facilitate high-level creative direction sessions and provide clear, actionable feedback that elevates the team’s work
- Collaborate and optimize relationship with external agencies, production partners, and vendors
- Set performance standards, mentor team members, and build career development paths
Our take
Because of things like high fees and a lack of local branches, about half of the adults in Africa still do not have a bank account. Although this is an improvement on past estimates, the continent is still significantly underbanked - which is what Wave helps to combat.
Wave addresses this banking gap with technology, offering a straightforward and cost-effective tool accessible via mobile. The impact has been substantial. A 2021 GSMA report suggested over 500 million mobile money accounts were registered in Africa, facilitating transactions valued at nearly $500 billion.
Wave has already established its presence in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Mali, using steady investment to expand its footprint and reach unicorn status. It also continues to enhance product development and engineering efforts, as well as shore up business operations. Despite challenger companies emerging, Wave has a considerable head start on the competition.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
9% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Mar 2022
$10m
LATE VC
Sep 2021
$200m
SERIES A
Total funding: $210.2m
Company benefits
- Subsidised health insurance for you and your dependents (vary from country to country)
- 6 months fully paid parental leave and subsidized fertility assistance
- Flexible vacation, with most folks taking between 30-40 days per year
- $10,000 annual charitable donation matching
- Retirement contributions (vary from country to country)
- Yearly travel to one of our African operating countries
Company HQ
Mermoz Sacre-coeur, Dakar, Dakar Region
Leadership
Drew Durbin
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously co-founder and CEO at Sendwave (International Remittance).
Lincoln Quirk
(Co-Founder)Previously co-founder and CTO at Newsbrane, Engineer at Demiurge Studios and co-founder of Sendwave (International Remittance).
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