Impact
Our models will directly shape how millions of underserved customers access credit for the first time. We've helped over 7 million customers access more than $2 billion in credit and process over 1.5 million payments daily. This is a chance to be part of something that is literally transforming lives across an entire continent.
Opportunity
- Mission‑driven data science: build credit scoring and pricing models that expand financial access for customers traditionally excluded from formal lending.
- Global recognition: join a company named by TIME 100 and the Financial Times as Africa’s fastest‑growing for four consecutive years.
- Scale challenges: work with rich repayment datasets across five African markets, developing ML models that balance growth with credit risk.
- Environmental impact: we are carbon‑negative, having displaced over 2.1 million tonnes of emissions.
What You’ll Do
At M‑KOPA, you’ll build and refine predictive models that power our lending strategy.
- Build and refine credit scoring models that assess customer creditworthiness, default risk, and loan pricing across multiple markets.
- Develop and test ML models for loan eligibility and pricing optimisation through A/B testing and statistical analysis.
- Continuously improve eligibility criteria by analysing repayment data, engineering new features, and monitoring credit performance for risk shifts and margin impact.
- Collaborate cross‑functionally with engineers, data scientists, and commercial stakeholders to scale models into production.
Technical Environment
- Languages & libraries: Python, SQL, scikit‑learn, pandas, numpy, and relevant ML libraries.
- Techniques: predictive modelling, classification/regression, feature engineering, model selection, hyper‑parameter tuning, A/B testing.
- Domain: credit scoring, underwriting, loan pricing, risk analytics.
Team Approach
- Low‑ego environment where diversity, innovation, and collaboration drive growth and social impact.
- High degree of ownership over your domain – you’re empowered to make data‑driven decisions and prioritise solutions.
- Cross‑functional collaboration with engineering, product, and commercial teams across multiple countries.
- Analytical rigour combined with deep market understanding to serve customers excluded from formal financial services.
What You Need
Credit accessibility and affordability are at the core of this role. You’ll join a small, high‑performing team where each day brings new modelling challenges and analyses that shape our lending strategy. If building models that can transform financial access for millions of African customers excites you, we’d love to hear from you.
Required Experience
- Experience building predictive models, particularly credit scoring, risk models, or similar classification/regression problems.
- ML background with hands‑on experience in model development, validation, deployment, and performance monitoring.
- Proficiency in Python, SQL, and relevant ML libraries (scikit‑learn, pandas, numpy, etc.) with experience in feature engineering, model selection, and hyper‑parameter tuning.
- Experience translating complex model outputs into actionable business strategies and stakeholder communications.
- Ability to work cross‑functionally with product, engineering, and commercial teams.
- Strong data communication skills – written, oral, and visual.
Highly Desirable
- Experience in credit, underwriting, lending analytics, or fintech modelling.
Location & Benefits
- Fully remote role within UTC –1 to UTC +3 time zones.
- Work with diverse teams across UK, Europe, and Africa.
- Professional development programmes and coaching partnerships.
- Family‑friendly policies and flexible working arrangements.
- Well‑being support and career growth opportunities.
Mission
We make financing for everyday essentials accessible to everyone. We strive to drive greater inclusion of women, youth, and low‑income communities.
Impact
- Connected: 2.5 million first‑time smartphone users connected.
- Prosperous: 70% of customers use M‑KOPA products for income generation, with 35 000 livelihoods created for agents.
- Green: 2.1 million tonnes of CO₂ avoided through clean energy products, with over 127 700 circular economy products provided.
Equal Opportunity & EEO
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 to 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.
Recruitment
M‑KOPA does not collect or 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 may take place at any stage of 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, including criminal records, identification verification, academic qualifications, employment dates and employer references.
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