Lead Protection Officer

M-KOPA

WE ARE LOOKING FOR A SAFEGUARDING LEAD TO JOIN OUR IMPACT TEAM; AS WE SCALE UP AND DRIVE DIGITAL AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION ACROSS OUR MARKETS.   ROLE OVERVIEW Safeguarding roles in Uganda are almost exclusively found inside NGOs and humanitarian programmes; protecting beneficiaries in crisis settings, reporting into protection clusters. This is not that. You'll be building and owning M-KOPA's internal safeguarding function inside a fast-scaling private sector company, covering a genuinely diverse workforce across commercial operations. You'll have the mandate to design prevention measures, lead cultural change, manage internal communications on safeguarding, and own the full incident lifecycle from first response through to resolution and closure. The seniority is real. So is the complexity. ABOUT US M-KOPA is one of Africa's fastest-growing fintechs — 7 million customers served, $2 billion in credit extended, and 86% of customers reporting a meaningfully improved quality of life. Behind those numbers are 2,300+ employees and 35,000 field agents working across Uganda and four other markets. We believe every single one of them — at HQ, in the field, in our retail shops, in our warehouses, on the phones — has the right to a safe, respectful, and dignified work environment. We're building the function to make that real. This is that role. This is an on-site role, you would be working from our offices in Uganda, partnering with a diverse group of employees from our different markets and locations across the UK, Europe and Africa. WHAT YOU'LL DO * Build awareness across all operations so that every employee from HQ staff to field sales agents across Uganda understands our safeguarding policies, knows their rights, their obligations, and exactly how to report and ask for help; attend and monitor reporting channels to ensure no incident goes unheard or unacted upon. * Design and implement preventive measures, deliver training that genuinely shifts behaviours, champion a safeguarding culture internally, create and manage internal communications on safeguarding, and serve as the primary point of contact for survivors from first response through follow-up support, third-party referrals, and full case closure. * Conduct and support administrative investigations, liaise with law enforcement and specialist external service providers, document and manage incidents through the grievance platform, identify and mitigate risks proactively, resolve and close incidents in line with M-KOPA's global standard operating procedures, and advocate for duty of care across all people managers. WHAT YOU'LL NEED * At least 4 years of hands-on safeguarding experience with a demonstrable track record of managing sensitive cases across diverse operational environments — experience in a private sector, HR, or field-based setting is a genuine advantage. * Deep knowledge of Uganda's legal framework and cultural context around workplace harm, with established relationships or the ability to quickly build them with relevant third parties, law enforcement, hospitals, counsellors, and specialist service providers. * Strong communication and training skills to sensitize diverse teams and drive real behaviour change, combined with the personal resilience to carry distressing, confidential situations with professionalism and care; candidates with direct experience handling GBVH and sexual violence cases will be at a significant advantage in this role given Uganda's operational context. The honest part You will be the person employees call when something has gone wrong. You'll carry confidential, sometimes deeply distressing information, and you'll need to act on it quickly, calmly, and correctly often without a playbook, in a country where GBV is significantly underreported and where building trust with a workforce takes real time and real consistency. This role demands emotional resilience, personal discipline, and a genuine commitment to protecting people not as a concept, but as a daily practice. If that's where you find your purpose, this is the role for you. 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, 2025 and 2026) and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 7 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.

M-KOPA

WE ARE LOOKING FOR A LEAD PROTECTION OFFICER TO JOIN OUR IMPACT TEAM; AS WE SCALE UP AND DRIVE DIGITAL AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION ACROSS OUR MARKETS.   ROLE OVERVIEW Protection roles in Nigeria are almost exclusively found inside NGOs and humanitarian programmes; protecting beneficiaries in crisis settings, reporting into protection clusters. This is not that. You'll be building and owning M-KOPA's internal safeguarding function inside a fast-scaling private sector company, covering a genuinely diverse workforce across commercial operations. You'll have the mandate to design prevention measures, lead cultural change, manage internal communications on safeguarding, and own the full incident lifecycle from first response through to resolution and closure. The seniority is real. So is the complexity. ABOUT US M-KOPA is one of Africa's fastest-growing fintechs — 7 million customers served, $2 billion in credit extended, and 86% of customers reporting a meaningfully improved quality of life. Behind those numbers are 2,300+ employees and 35,000 field agents working across Nigeria and four other markets. We believe every single one of them; at HQ, in the field, in our retail shops, in our warehouses, on the phones has the right to a safe, respectful, and dignified work environment. We're building the function to make that real. This is that role. This is an on-site role, you would be working from our offices in Nigeria, partnering with a diverse group of employees from our different markets and locations across the UK, Europe and Africa. WHAT YOU'LL DO * Build awareness across all operations so that every employee from HQ staff to field sales agents across Nigeria understands our safeguarding policies, knows their rights, their obligations, and exactly how to report and ask for help; attend and monitor reporting channels to ensure no incident goes unheard or unacted upon. * Design and implement preventive measures, deliver training that genuinely shifts behaviours, champion a safeguarding culture internally, create and manage internal communications on safeguarding, and serve as the primary point of contact for survivors from first response through follow-up support, third-party referrals, and full case closure. * Conduct and support administrative investigations, liaise with law enforcement and specialist external service providers, document and manage incidents through the grievance platform, identify and mitigate risks proactively, resolve and close incidents in line with M-KOPA's global standard operating procedures, and advocate for duty of care across all people managers. WHAT YOU'LL NEED * At least 4 years of hands-on safeguarding experience with a demonstrable track record of managing sensitive cases across diverse operational environments — experience in a private sector, HR, or field-based setting is a genuine advantage. * Deep knowledge of Nigeria's legal framework and cultural context around workplace harm, with established relationships or the ability to quickly build them with relevant third parties, law enforcement, hospitals, counsellors, and specialist service providers. * Strong communication and training skills to sensitize diverse teams and drive real behaviour change, combined with the personal resilience to carry distressing, confidential situations with professionalism and care; candidates with direct experience handling GBVH and sexual violence cases will be at a significant advantage in this role given Nigeria's operational context. The honest part You will be the person employees call when something has gone wrong. You'll carry confidential, sometimes deeply distressing information, and you'll need to act on it quickly, calmly, and correctly often without a playbook, in a country where GBV is significantly underreported and where building trust with a workforce takes real time and real consistency. This role demands emotional resilience, personal discipline, and a genuine commitment to protecting people not as a concept, but as a daily practice. If that's where you find your purpose, this is the role for you. 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, 2025 and 2026) and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 7 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.

Monzo

🚀 We’re on a mission to make money work for everyone. We’re waving goodbye to the complicated and confusing ways of traditional banking. After starting as a prepaid card, our product offering has grown a lot in the last 10 years in the UK. As well as personal and business bank accounts, we offer joint accounts, accounts for 16-17 year olds, a free kids account and credit cards in the UK, with more exciting things to come beyond. Our UK customers can also save, invest and combine their pensions with us.  With our hot coral cards and get-paid-early feature, combined with financial education on social media and our award winning customer service, we have a long history of creating magical moments for our customers! We’re not about selling products - we want to solve problems and change lives through Monzo ❤️ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   📍London or Remote (UK)  | 💰 £71,400 - £90,000 + Incentive Awards tied to your performance + Benefits  🌟 About the team: Our Global DPO Office  As Monzo grows into new countries, new products and innovative technologies, including AI, we work to find a careful balance between meeting our regulatory obligations and supporting innovative, customer-centric solutions that help make money work for everyone. At Monzo, we use the three lines of defence approach to manage risk. The Global DPO Office sits in the second line Compliance function, and this role reports directly to the Data Protection Officer. The Global DPO Office supports the DPO in meeting their responsibilities and provides independent oversight of data protection compliance across Monzo. We work closely with the first-line Data Protection team, Legal, and teams across the bank to help Monzo understand, evidence and strengthen its data protection compliance. We’re building the foundations for a global DPO Office that can scale, bringing more consistency to how we work across the UK and Europe through global processes, clearer governance and a group risk framework. About the role... We’re looking for a hands-on Manager who can support and lead important work across the DPO Office and the wider bank. You’ll turn broad goals into clear plans, work through complex and ambiguous problems, and deliver improvements with pace, structure and good judgement. This is an individual contributor role in a small and mighty team with high standards and a practical, proportionate way of working. You’ll provide advice, oversight and challenge, build trusted relationships across Monzo, and help improve how the Global DPO Office operates as we scale. It’s also a great opportunity for someone who wants to deepen their existing experience across DPO-level responsibilities. You’ll deputise for the DPO from time to time, while helping build the processes, governance and ways of working needed for a global DPO Office. 🔑 You’ll play a key role by…  * Working as part of the Global DPO Office to provide practical, proportionate data protection advice, oversight and challenge across the bank. * Reviewing DPIAs, providing DPO opinions, assessing data breaches, and supporting clear, well-documented decisions on regulatory reporting. * Supporting our relationship with regulators, improving the processes behind regulatory engagement and complaints, and providing oversight of data subject rights and contact point processes. * Supporting on and leading projects within the Global DPO Office at pace, and representing the team in projects led by others where data protection compliance is affected. * Working toward specific goals and workstreams within the DPO Office maturity plan, working with the DPO and wider team to build practical, scalable and efficient processes, governance and ways of working. * Proactively finding opportunities to improve how we work, including through better use of data, automation, AI and other tools that help us move faster without lowering standards. * Deputising for the DPO from time to time, giving you the opportunity to build experience across DPO-level responsibilities. 🤩 We’d love to hear from you if… * You’re a practical, experienced data protection professional with strong knowledge of UK GDPR, PECR and ICO expectations, backed by a relevant qualification such as an IAPP qualification or equivalent. * You’re curious about AI and innovative technology, and are already using or exploring how to use AI practically in your work. * You’re a self-starter who enjoys solving complex and ambiguous problems, using your initiative to work methodically, find clear and proportionate solutions, and deliver tangible improvements. * You have hands-on experience across core DPO work, including DPIAs, data breaches, privacy notices, governance, reporting and regulator-facing activity. * You understand what good second-line oversight looks like, and can build trusted relationships while still providing effective advice, oversight and challenge. * You’re a thoughtful communicator who enjoys working with teams across the company, sharing knowledge, influencing well and working through problems early, with solutions in mind. The Interview Process: Our interview process involves three main stages:  1. Recruiter Call (30mins) 2. Initial Call (30 mins) 3. Final stage - a take-home task, with successful candidates progressing to a role-specific interview and a behavioural interview Our average process takes around 4-6 weeks but we will always work around your availability.  🙌 What’s in it for you * 💰 £71,400 - £90,000 + Incentive Awards tied to your performance benefits. * 📍 This role can be based in our London office, but we're open to distributed working within the UK (with ad hoc meetings in London). * ⏰ We offer flexible working hours and trust you to work enough hours to do your job well, and at times that suit you and your team. * 📚 £1,000 learning budget each year to use on books, training courses and conferences. * 🏡 We will set you up to work from home; all employees are given MacBooks and for fully remote workers we will provide extra support for your work-from-home setup. * ➕ Plus lots more! Read our full list of benefits. We have some guidelines on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to ace an application and interview at Monzo. You can read them here. We're hiring for both a Data Protection Manager and a Senior Data Protection Manager. Please apply for the role that best matches your skills and experience. There's no need to apply for both roles, we'll consider you for the most appropriate opportunity. #LI-TK1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equal opportunities for everyone Diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we’re making sure we have lots of support for all of our people to grow at Monzo. At Monzo, we’re embracing diversity by fostering an inclusive environment for all people to do the best work of their lives with us. This is integral to our mission of making money work for everyone. You can read more in our blog, 2026 Diversity and Inclusion Report and 2025 Gender Pay Gap Report. We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, or veteran, neurodiversity or disability status. If you have a preferred name, please use it to apply. We don't need full or birth names at application stage 😊