M-Pesa Africa: Senior Data Architect

Qualifications

• Education:
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a related field.
    
• Experience:
  • Experience in data architecture, data engineering, or closely related technical disciplines, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead capacity.
    
  • Proven track record designing enterprise-scale data platforms in financial services, fintech, or telecommunications.
    
  • Deep expertise in data modelling (conceptual, logical, physical) for both OLTP and OLAP systems.
    
  • Hands-on experience with cloud data platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and big data technologies (Spark, Databricks, BigQuery, Redshift, etc.).
    
  • Proficiency in data integration patterns: ETL/ELT, Change Data Capture (CDC), event streaming, and API-driven data exchange.
    
  • Strong understanding of data governance frameworks and tools (DAMA-DMBOK, Apache Atlas, Collibra, or equivalent).
    
  • Experience with streaming platforms such as Apache Kafka in high-throughput transactional environments.
    

• Data Architecture & Strategy
  • Own the enterprise data architecture across M-PESA Africa's multi-market environment, spanning transactional, operational, analytical, and AI/ML data domains.
    
  • Define and enforce data modelling standards, data flow patterns, and integration architecture for real-time and batch processing pipelines.
    
  • Lead architecture design for data platforms supporting payment rails, API analytics, fraud and AML detection, and regulatory reporting.
    
  • Drive the transition to modern data architectures: data mesh, data lakehouse, event-driven patterns aligning to M-PESA's cloud and hybrid infrastructure strategy.
    
• Data Governance & Standards
  • Establish and champion enterprise-wide data governance frameworks, data quality standards, and master data management (MDM) policies across all six markets.
    
  • Define data classification, lineage, and cataloguing standards, ensuring traceability from source systems (e.g., Fintech 2.0 Platform) through to consumption layers.
    
  • Partner with Compliance, Legal, and Market teams to ensure data architectures meet local regulatory obligations and cross-border data sovereignty requirements.
    
• Integration & Platform Architecture
  • Architect data integration patterns between M-PESA core systems, third-party platforms and analytics/AI layers.
    
  • Collaborate with API gateway teams to define event-driven, API-first data exchange patterns aligned with the integration layer strategy.
    
  • Design and govern streaming and CDC pipelines using technologies such as Apache Kafka and Oracle GoldenGate across market-level deployments.
    
• AI & Analytics Enablement
  • Design data architectures that underpin AI/ML use cases including transaction monitoring, watchlist screening, customer intelligence, and predictive analytics.
    
  • Define feature store design, data pipeline standards, and model serving infrastructure patterns for production ML workflows.
    
  • Partner with the AI/ML team to evaluate and onboard vector databases, embedding pipelines, and LLM-ready data infrastructure.
    
• Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement
  • Serve as the senior data architecture voice in Architecture Review Boards, design forums, and group-level governance bodies.
    
  • Mentor and coach mid-level data engineers and architects across markets, building data architecture capability within the team.
    
  • Produce executive-ready architecture artefacts, including C4/Mermaid diagrams, ADRs, and data strategy presentations for CTO/CIO audiences.
    
  • Lead vendor evaluations for data platform tools, cloud data services, and governance technologies.