DFS Innovation Lead

Report to: Associate Director - DFS Innovation
Location: Islamabad
Application deadline for the position is February 24, 2020

About Us

Guided by Karandaaz vision, we believe that every Pakistani deserves to be Financially Included and Economically Empowered. Our Mission at Karandaaz is to Foster economic growth and create jobs through financial inclusion of unbanked individuals and unserved enterprises.

Karandaaz Pakistan is a Non-profit organization, based out of Islamabad, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan under Section 42 of the Companies Act 2017. We are supported by Department for International Development (DFID) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Karandaaz is governed by an eminent board who set the strategy of the organization and steer it towards achievement of its objectives.

 Position Summary

DFS Innovation Lead is a part of Innovation & Incubation team within Karandaaz Digital unit.  . The Innovation & Incubation team interfaces with private sector stakeholders and partners to build a relationship for successful design, development, and deployment of innovative digital financial services projects serving excluded populations. In doing so, Innovation Lead will be responsible for end to end grant management for multiple projects and partners. End to end grant management includes creating concept papers & grant narratives for the project, securing internal approvals including presentations to management, DFS advisory committee and /or Board, designing grant agreement with milestones, manage technical assistance procurement where required, coordinate project deployment, coordinate with point of contact in the partner to facilitate timely delivery, report progress and coordinate with Knowledge Management (KM) and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) units for respective impact and learning outputs and coordinate with DFS Program office for project updates.

Key Duties and Responsibilities
  • Design, develop and implement digital financial inclusion focused program for private sector;
  • Identify innovative approaches to solving barriers to uptake and adoption of digital financial services
  • Identify relevant experiments (A/B) and pilots that can be funded in private sector players to develop new business models, products and services, focusing on vulnerable and poor segments of society, especially women and poor.
  • Champion collaboration in private sector players to help industry lower down its distribution costs such as merchant acquiring, common agent network etc
  • Create collaborative approaches to solving industry issues including non-banking financial institutions like PSO/PSPs, Fintechs, EMIs etc
  • Manage the initiatives and projects from start to finish including grant management
  • Work with private sector partners to oversee the incubation of promising ideas taking them from concept, through testing, to commercialization.
  • Support digital financial service providers to develop commercially viable business models for digital financial services that will create a positive social impact
  • Identify gaps in existing DFS ecosystem setup and provide advisory support to create innovative approaches in targeting unbanked segments
Candidate Profile
  • Bachelors / Master’s degree in business administration, economics or related discipline from a reputable international or Pakistani Institution.
  • Minimum 6 years of professional experience in leading project teams and cross-functional working with a range of clients, consultants, and partners with a broad exposure to private and public stakeholders.
  • Deep understanding of the digital financial services industry (mobile money, branchless banking, payment services etc).
  • Past experience in the design and successful execution of innovative digital/digitization projects. Experience relevant to digital financial services sector is highly appreciated
Behavioural & Technical Skills
  • Passionate and self-driven with the ability to work independently both internally and externally
  • Ability to create and manage relationships at senior level in ecosystem players and regulatory bodies
  • Ability to manage delivery through partners and consultants. Extremely good at execution and follow up.
  • Team player with strong interpersonal skills and ability to influence & trigger action in support terms
  • Creative and solution oriented.
  • Excellent spoken and written English. Adept in creating project documentation, concept & grant papers and presentations
  • Strong ability to analyse and synthesize data/information and present it using appropriate frameworks.
  • Experience with digital financial services and prior experience of developing projects with a range of industry stakeholders
  • Experience and familiarity with Karandaaz’s DFS Theory of Change and National Financial Inclusion Strategy NFIS in promoting financial inclusion will be an added advantage.

Culture and Values at Karandaaz

Karandaaz Culture is guided by our values of Innovation, Collaboration, Accountability, Respect and Equity (ICARE). These values shape our choices on what we do and how we do it, both with colleagues internally and partners externally. We also believe that we are all responsible for creating a great place to work and are constantly looking to hire individuals who bring the same level of passion and commitment to the purpose of the organization.

If you believe in Karandaaz vision and values and feel excited about the work we are offering, please send us your application for this position to careers@karandaaz.com.pk clearly mentioning the position title in the subject line. We will be accepting submissions till 24th Feb 2020. 

Karandaaz is an equal opportunity employer.  Women and people with disabilities and encouraged to apply.

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Non-profit company registered under Section 42 of the Companies Act, 2017