M-Pesa Permanent Controller: Back-Office Operations, Commercial/Sales and Customer Care

Job Description

Role Purpose

To provide independent second-line oversight and challenge over the operational, conduct, customer, and commercial control framework across the mobile money ecosystem—ensuring that risks related to transaction processing, agent/merchant management, tariff application, customer service, dispute handling, and revenue assurance are properly controlled, monitored, tested, and escalated.

The role tests and monitors 1st LoD controls, assesses effectiveness, issues findings, drives remediation tracking, and validates closure. It does not execute daily operational tasks (transaction processing, call handling, sales execution, agent cash management). The role, independently, tests and challenges operational, commercial, and customer care controls.

Scope of Coverage (EMI/Mobile Money)

Controls and risks across:

• Back-office processing: transaction exceptions, settlements, reversals, refunds, disputes, chargebacks, sim swap, pin reset, account creation, upgrade, closure process.
• Commercial/Sales operations: agent/merchant onboarding governance, commissions and incentives, pricing/tariffs, partner performance and contractual adherence
• Customer care: complaint management, service quality, vulnerable customer treatment, turnaround time adherence, escalation protocols
• Channel ecosystem: agents, merchants, aggregators, banks/interoperability partners
• Customer funds & operational integrity: prevention of loss, leakage, and customer harm

Key Responsibilities

1. Back-Office Operations Controls (End-to-End Transaction Integrity)

• Maintain and execute the permanent control plan (PACP) for back-office operations covering
• Test key operational controls evidence of checks performed (logs, tickets, maker-checker) and completeness and timeliness of processing
• Identify root causes of recurring exceptions and propose sustainable control improvements.

2. Operational Reversals, Refunds and Disputes

• Oversee controls ensuring reversals/refunds are properly authorized, traceable, and compliant with policy, processed within agreed SLAs and reconciled and reported accurately
• Perform thematic reviews on high-volume refund drivers (system issues, agent errors, fraud attempts) and dispute resolution consistency and customer fairness
• Validate segregation of duties between request initiation, approval, processing, and closure.

3. Commercial / Sales Controls (Agent, Merchant and Partner Governance)

• Oversee controls across the commercial function
• Test controls around:tariff and commission configuration changes (maker-checker; approval evidence; effective dates)
• Identify revenue leakage and propose control strengthening actions.

4. Customer Care Controls (Complaints, Service Quality and Conduct Risk)

• Oversee the customer care control framework:
• Test adherence to complaint management procedures and evidence retention
• Monitor service KRIs and trends

5. Fraud Risk Coordination (Operational and Commercial Touchpoints)

• Work In coordination with Fraud/IT/Cyber and Compliance/AML oversight teams, test controls for commercial partner
  • agent fraud patterns (collusion, float manipulation, rapid cash-out)
  • social engineering impacts (customers misled to share OTP/PIN)
  • internal misuse of customer care tools (unauthorized profile changes)
• Ensure that operational and customer-care processes include escalation triggers for suspected fraud and ocumentation standards and audit trail integrity

6 Control Testing, Monitoring and Issue Management

• Perform risk-based control testing (design and operating effectiveness)
• Document results in Observation – Risk – Recommendation format with severity rating.
• Maintain and follow-up on the Remedial Action Plan tracker owners, due dates, evidence requirements, closure validation
• Escalate overdue critical actions and recurring weaknesses.

7. Process Documentation and Control-by-Design

• Ensure each area maintains up-to-date procedures/manuals for reversals/refunds/disputes, commission management and tariff changes, customer complaint handling and escalation and agent/merchant lifecycle governance
• Provide second-line challenge during product/project changes to embed control-by-design and compliance-by-design and monitoring requirements and clear accountability for controls

8. Reporting and Governance

• Produce monthly/quarterly reporting to management
• Support audit and regulatory examinations:evidence readiness, corrective actions tracking, closure validation

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Risk, Operations, or related.
• 5–10+ years’ experience in:
• mobile money operations / customer care governance / commercial controls
• internal control, operational risk, compliance, audit, or assurance roles
• Strong understanding of:
• mobile money transaction flows and exception handling
• agent/merchant network operating model
• customer complaint management and Conduct Risk.

Skills and Competencies

Technical

• Control testing (design and operating effectiveness), sampling, documentation
• Data analysis (Excel advanced; SQL/Power BI desirable)
• Process mapping and procedure standardization
• Issue tracking and remediation validation

Behavioral

• Independence and professional skepticism (2nd LoD mindset)
• Strong stakeholder management; ability to challenge constructively
• Clear audit-style writing and concise executive reporting
• Ability to work under pressure with high-volume operational environments