Retail Operations Lead | M-KOPA | South Africa

You've spent time in retail or field operations, and by now you know the difference between a team that executes and a team that just shows up. You've probably also learned that the gap between those two things comes down to one thing: the quality of leadership in the middle. The people who set the standard daily, who hold the line on accountability without burning relationships, who can read a store visit and know within minutes what's working and what isn't.

If that's the operational leader you've become, M-KOPA has a role in South Africa that's worth your attention.

The organisation behind the role

M-KOPA is a pan-African fintech with a mission that's easy to describe and genuinely hard to replicate: we extend financial access to people who've historically been locked out of it. Seven million customers across the continent have now accessed credit, smartphones, solar energy, and electric mobility through our model — 55% of them for the very first time. We've unlocked more than $2 billion in credit. Eighty-six percent of our customers report a measurable improvement in their quality of life. We employ more than 2,300 people and work with 35,000 agents.

The retail channel is a core part of how that access gets delivered — and how we continue expanding it.

Why this moment

M-KOPA is on a deliberate growth path from 7 million toward 10 million customers, and the retail footprint that supports that ambition is expanding with it. If you've noticed us hiring across multiple functions, that's intentional — we're building the infrastructure to support the next phase of scale, and the Retail Operations Lead role sits at the operational centre of that effort in South Africa.

This isn't a role that gets created because things are going wrong. It's a role that exists because we're growing fast enough to need sharp, accountable operational leadership closer to the ground.

What this role actually owns

The Retail Operations Lead is responsible for execution — making sure the retail channel performs, day in and day out, across every store within the team's portfolio. That ownership has real scope.

You'll directly manage Retail Team Leads: setting expectations, running structured performance conversations, conducting formal reviews, and implementing performance improvement plans where needed. You'll own the full people management cycle for your direct reports — including participating actively in recruitment, supporting onboarding, and building team capability through ongoing coaching. The expectation is that you develop leaders, not just manage them.

On the operational side, you'll drive accountability for sales performance across assigned stores — tracking results, identifying underperforming sites, and working with Team Leads to build and execute improvement plans. You'll conduct regular store visits to verify standards, confirm store readiness, and document outcomes. You'll monitor stock movement, ensure daily and weekly stock disciplines are being followed, and flag anomalies to the Retail Operations Manager without delay. Loss prevention in this context is a leadership behaviour, not a reporting function.

You'll also serve as the operational liaison between your team and internal support functions — Customer Care, Warehouse, IT, Sales Operations — and review supplier invoices for stores within your portfolio for manager approval. When partner or supplier issues threaten trading, the escalation runs through you.

What you bring

• Demonstrated experience in retail or multi-site field operations, with a proven track record of driving sales performance and operational standards across a distributed team or store network.

• Established capability in people leadership — you've managed, coached, and held individuals accountable in a field-based environment, and you can point to outcomes that reflect it.

• Strong data fluency and reporting discipline, with hands-on experience using Excel, dashboards, or retail/CRM systems to track performance and surface insights that drive decisions.

A Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations Management, or a related field is required.

How this role sits within the structure

The Retail Operations Lead works closely with the Retail Compliance Lead, who owns audit, training, EHS assessments, and end-to-end store maintenance. The division of responsibility is deliberate: the Operations Lead prevents gaps from occurring through day-to-day management and execution; the Compliance Lead identifies and closes gaps in process and practice. These roles are designed to complement each other, not compete — clarity on ownership is built into the model.

The Operations Lead reports to the Retail Operations Manager, who holds final approval authority on hiring decisions, supplier invoices, and significant operational changes. Within those parameters, this role has genuine decision-making scope: managing schedules and performance for direct reports, conducting store visits independently, holding Team Leads accountable for stock and sales discipline, and approving minor field-level operational adjustments.

The reality of this role

This is a field-engaged position with real accountability. You'll be measured on stock loss rates, sales performance across your store portfolio, store visit completion, Team Lead performance review cadence, and the timeliness of your reporting. The KPIs are specific, the targets are high, and the expectation is that you own your outcomes rather than escalate your way out of them.

Strong performance in this role is explicitly designed to build toward the next step — Retail Operations Manager, Regional Operations Lead, or senior field operations roles across M-KOPA's other markets. The path is real and the trajectory is visible.

If you're an operational leader who's ready to put that capability behind something that genuinely extends financial access to people who've never had it, this is the right conversation to be having.

Ready to lead the execution layer of M-KOPA's retail growth in South Africa? Let's talk.

Why M-KOPA?

At M-KOPA, we empower our people to own their careers through diverse development programs, coaching partnerships, and on-the-job training. We support individual journeys with family-friendly policies, prioritize well-being, and embrace flexibility.

Join us in shaping the future of M-KOPA as we grow together. Explore more at m-kopa.com.

Recognized four times by the Financial Times as one Africa's fastest growing companies (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 6 million customers, unlocking $1.5 billion in cumulative credit for the unbanked across Africa.

Important Notice

M-KOPA is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to assembling a diverse, broadly trained staff. Women, minorities, and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply.

M-KOPA explicitly prohibits the use of Forced or Child Labour and respects the rights of its employees to agree to terms and conditions of employment voluntarily, without coercion, and freely terminate their employment on appropriate notice. M-KOPA shall ensure that its Employees are of legal working age and shall comply with local laws for youth employment or student work, such as internships or apprenticeships.

M-KOPA does not collect/charge any money as a pre-employment or post-employment requirement. This means that we never ask for ‘recruitment fees’, ‘processing fees’, ‘interview fees’, or any other kind of money in exchange for offer letters or interviews at any time during the hiring process.

Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisting and interviews will take place at any stage during the recruitment process. We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a suitable candidate is selected before the advertised closing date.

If your application is successful M-KOPA undertakes pre-employment background checks as part of its recruitment process, these include; criminal records, identification verification, academic qualifications, employment dates and employer references.