PawaPay · Remote
Senior Project Manager
Who is PawaPay PawaPay is a pan-African fintech enabling local payment channels used by the mass market to both local and international merchants. We operate i...
Who is PawaPay
PawaPay is a pan-African fintech enabling local payment channels used by the mass market to both local and international
merchants. We operate in a highly regulated, partner-driven environment and are in scale-up mode, with ambitious growth plans
across multiple African markets.
Our vision is to simplify business for companies and consumers in Africa and we do that by ensuring that payments simply work, at
scale, despite fragmentation and complexity that exists on the Continent.
Through our payments API we already facilitate over 4 million transactions a day across 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. We
are the largest PSP on the Continent for the processing of mobile money payments, and have positioned ourselves well to lead the
payment space as it grows over the next decade.
At PawaPay, there is an entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a modern and professional working culture. The fast-paced,
ever-changing environment will suit someone who can adapt and think on their feet. In return, you will have the opportunity to
work alongside a group of dedicated and smart individuals working towards the same mission. We work as a remote team and have team
members in Europe, Africa and Asia.
The role
We are introducing a single, disciplined way of running cross-functional projects: clear ownership, one source of truth, and
reliable visibility. This is the role that makes it work. You will own the delivery system across the business — intake,
coordination, visibility, prioritisation support and escalation — while the teams who do the work retain ownership of their own
projects.
This is deliberately a standalone senior role reporting to the COO. It is not the head of a Project Management Office and it is
not the first hire of a growing PMO. There is no team to build and no governance bureaucracy to stand up. We are looking for a
strong operator who runs a system and drives discipline, not an empire-builder. The core delivery workspace is in the process of
being launched in ClickUp and an MVP will be in initial use when you join; your job is to run it, refine it, and make it
indispensable — not to build it from a blank page.
What you are accountable for;
You are accountable for the integrity of the delivery system and for ensuring that no delivery risk reaches leadership without
warning.
In practice, the principle is simple: no surprises, not no slips. Projects will slip — often for external reasons we do not
control. If a project slips and leadership saw it coming and made a conscious call, you have done your job. If a project slips and
it blindsides us, that is a failure of the role, whatever the underlying cause. You surface risk early and clearly; the authority
to act on it sits with line managers and the executive.
You are not accountable for the delivery outcome of any individual project. Accountability for delivery is held at task level by
the person who owns each task, and overall project ownership stays with the intake owner (Sales Executive, Account Manager or
Functional Lead). You are the framework and the safety net, not a substitute driver.
What you own day to day
- Intake. The integrity of the intake process — ensuring every project enters with a clear, complete brief and a named owner
before work begins, and that the AI-assisted intake tooling is used and kept useful.
- Single source of truth. Keeping a single, trusted, centralised view of every project in ClickUp, so that business owners and
leadership never need to request an ad hoc status update and no team needs its own shadow tracker.
- Prioritisation support. Supporting leadership dialogue on prioritisation and bottleneck management — preparing the portfolio
view, helping facilitate the session, and ensuring it produces a force-ranked list with an explicit de-prioritised column that
is logged and communicated.
- Escalation. Spotting blockers and stalling tasks early, flagging them to the responsible line manager within the agreed window,
and escalating to the COO where they are not resolved.
- Cross functional bridge. Maintaining a clean interface with different departments within the organisation, ensuring fast
alignment, clarity on project deliverables and timelines, and efficient delivery across the organisation at large. Build
fantastic relationships with all collaborators in the organisation, encouraging their collaboration and buy in on project
management activities.
- Active coordination. Actively coordinating the highest-priority projects hands-on, while ensuring the rest run correctly
through the framework via their owners.
- Reporting and AI. Stewarding the AI-assisted intake and reporting capability, and turning the maintained ClickUp data into the
business reports and dashboards as necessitated by business owners. Adopting an AI first mindset as we optimise and improve the
way in which we run cross functional projects.
- Improvement. Refining the delivery framework and ClickUp workspace as real use exposes what needs to change — continuous,
pragmatic improvement, never process for its own sake.
What you do not own
To keep the role sharp, it is as important to be clear on what sits outside it:
- Delivery outcomes of individual projects — these sit with task owners and intake owners.
- Line management of delivery teams — tool discipline and performance are enforced by each person’s own line manager, not by you.
- Product and Engineering roadmaps, workflows or daily task management.
- Building a PMO, hiring a team, or introducing governance gates. Possible growth on our project management team is a future
decision for the COO, contingent on evidence — not an expectation of this role.
How the role is measured
You will be measured on the health of the delivery system and on early warning, not on outcomes you do not control. The primary
measures are:
- Early risk surfacing. Surprise rate — missed commitments that reach leadership with no prior formal flag (target: zero).
- Trusted visibility. Shadow trackers retired and ad hoc status requests to teams eliminated.
- Escalation working. Blocker age and share of escalations actioned within the agreed window.
- Prioritisation calls are clear. We have a clear view on priority decisions made and a known understanding of what we are
de-prioritising when prioritising new initiatives.
- Intake quality. Projects entering with a complete brief and named owner; low rate of major scope rework after kickoff.
These measures tighten over the first months as flow builds and a baseline is established. Internal cycle time — time spent in the
stages PawaPay controls, measured separately from external wait — is the initiative’s longer-term north star that this role
stewards, reviewed at six months. Alongside the metrics, success means the teams who do the work experience you as someone who
makes their projects easier, not as overhead who chases them.
What we are looking for
- Experience. Significant experience delivering and coordinating complex, cross-functional projects — ideally in fintech,
payments, or another regulated, partner-dependent environment.
- Operator, not administrator. A track record of bringing order to ambiguity: standing up ways of working, driving adoption, and
holding discipline without formal authority over the people involved.
- Tooling and AI. Fluency with ClickUp (or a comparable platform) and Slack, plus confidence with Google Workspace. AI-native in
how you work — you use tools like Claude to reduce manual effort, not to replace judgement.
- Domain. Experience delivering merchant integrations, client onboarding or API implementation projects is highly desirable;
experience across multiple African markets is a plus.
- Method. Relevant certification (PMP, PRINCE2, AgilePM, Scrum) is welcome but secondary to demonstrated ability to make delivery
work in a fast-moving, dependency-heavy business.
Key competencies
- Exceptional stakeholder management and influence without authority.
- Strong cross-functional coordination.
- Sharp risk anticipation and problem-solving.
- Clear, credible communication with everyone from specialists to the executive team.
- Comfort operating with high autonomy in a fast-paced, ambiguous, high-growth environment.
- A genuine bias toward ownership and toward keeping processes proportionate.
Why PawaPay?
- Help improve financial access in Africa
- Being part of an amazing team that shapes company’s culture as a great place to be
- An ambitious, talented, and diverse team who always has your back
- We grow fast, and you will grow fast with us
- Competitive remuneration
- 35 days of paid leave per year (inclusive of public holidays) and more.
Roll
Senior Project Manager
Kategori
Administration
Plats
Publicerad
13 juli
Sista ansökningsdag
16 augusti
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