Responsibilities

• Uphold the company code of conduct, policies and procedures, ensuring integrity and accountability in every aspect of your work
• All employees have a responsibility to adhere to safety, health, and wellbeing policies, guidelines and procedures in all actions and decisions.
• Regulatory Engagement and Advocacy
• Lead proactive engagement with financial services and fintech regulators to influence policy and legislative frameworks in favor of business objectives.
• Represent Safaricom in regulatory forums, consultations, and policy formulation processes, ensuring Safaricom’s positions are clearly articulated and adopted.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with regulatory authorities to mitigate adverse actions and secure favorable outcomes.
• Legal Advisory, Risk Management & Dispute Resolution
• Provide strategic legal counsel on complex commercial, financial services, and public sector digital transformation matters. 
• Embed privacy-by-design and compliance-by-design principles into product development and lifecycle management. 
• Identify, assess, and mitigate regulatory and legal risks across financial services operations, ensuring full compliance with applicable laws and standards.
• Manage and resolve disputes arising from financial services operations, ensuring minimal operational and financial impact. 
• Oversee litigation processes and provide timely updates to leadership on contentious and potentially contentious matters.
• Contractual Management & Negotiation
• Draft, review, and negotiate high-value partnership agreements and complex commercial contracts for financial services and public sector initiatives. 
• Ensure all agreements safeguard organizational interests while remaining commercially viable and aligned with evolving product features and regulatory requirements. 
• Maintain and update customer-facing templates (e.g., consumer T&Cs, agent agreements, B2C/C2B contracts) to reflect regulatory and business changes. 
• Policy and Legislative Monitoring & Compliance
• Conduct continuous legislative and regulatory watch to anticipate emerging trends impacting financial services and fintech. 
• Prepare concise briefs and strategic recommendations for leadership on regulatory developments and their implications. 
• Actively contribute to internal and external stakeholder sessions on key legislative issues such as AML, electronic financial services, and digital public infrastructure.
• Serve as custodian of critical compliance records, including registers of licenses, regulatory fines/sanctions, and inspection calendars. 
• Ensure timely and accurate reporting to internal stakeholders and regulators, including monthly and ad hoc compliance reports. 
• Drive adherence to internal governance frameworks and external regulatory obligations.
• Stakeholder & Team Management
• Partner with cross-functional teams (Finance, Risk, Public Sector Digital Transformation, Vodafone/Vodacom counterparts) to align legal and regulatory strategies with business objectives. 
• Support joint initiatives and maintain strong collaboration on global compliance matters, trademarks, managed service agreements, and international money transfer agreements.
• Provide clear strategic direction to legal and regulatory support teams aligned with organizational priorities for Financial Services and Public Sector Digital Transformation. 
• Set performance expectations and ensure accountability for delivery of high-quality legal and compliance outcomes.
• Mentor and coach junior legal professionals to build expertise in financial services law, fintech regulation, and policy advocacy.
• Foster a culture of collaboration within the Legal Services CoE and across business units.
• Core competencies, knowledge and experience
• Customer Obsession
• Deepen team connection to our customers and communities.
• Foster authentic relationships with customers and partners that build trust.
• Explicitly take customer-centric decisions and take personal ownership to achieve results.
• Simplify processes through digitalisation and promote a digital mindset and digital first customer experience.
• Stay focused on the big priorities, know when to make meaningful trade-offs and demonstrate brilliant execution.
• Purpose
• Create an inspiring vision for your team to drive strategy and performance.
• Show ambition and courage, empowering others to go beyond the plan.
• Bold and challenge teams to reimagine how things are done.
• Prompt new thinking and ideas by asking “what if” questions.
• Use knowledge of the external environment (customers, partners, competition, external bodies) to identify and act on opportunities for growth at pace.
• Innovation
• Create psychological safety so everyone can have an impact.
• Fuel innovative ideas from others and test them to enable growth.
• Explore successes and failures with curiosity and resilience; fearlessly recognizing lessons learned.
• Share your ongoing learning and personal purpose with others.
• Learn fast from digital adoption, using learnings to drive simplicity, scale and efficiency.
• Collaboration
• Articulate your team’s role in making our strategy happen, prioritizing and aligning resources with current and future needs.
• Actively collaborate to break silos and hold your team accountable to do the same.
• Develop others to make the most of their talents and coach them to take ownership to get things done.
• Create an inclusive environment ensuring the safety and wellbeing of others.
• Live our Purpose and demonstrate the highest standard of integrity.

Qualifications

• At least ten (10) years’ knowledge and progressive experience in commercial law within Financial Services, Telecommunications sectors of which three (3) should have been in a senior leadership role. 
• Proven track record in regulatory engagement and advocacy with financial services regulators, drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements & managing litigation and dispute resolution for financial services matters. 
• Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from a reputable Commonwealth University.
• Completion of the Kenya School of Law Diploma and admission as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
• Member in good standing of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and compliant with all professional requirements.
• Relevant professional certification (e.g., Arbitration/Mediation & Negotiation Skills; Fintech and Financial Services Regulation; Anti-Money Laundering (AML); Intellectual Property (IP); Legislative Processes/Drafting)
• Master’s Degree in Law (LL.M) from a recognized institution is an added advantage. 
• Possess high professional and ethical standards. 
• Be a strategic thinker with an analytical mind.