Senior Public Policy and Advocacy Manager

Department: Mobile for Development

Department detail: Mobile Money Programme

Location: London

Position type: Fixed Term Contract (6 months from September 2025)

Reporting to: Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Mobile Money

About the Team

The GSMA Mobile Money Programme works with mobile money providers to accelerate the availability of digital payment services to the underserved in developing countries. Through its work, the GSMA has supported the development of an industry with over 500 million monthly users and $4.6 billion flowing through mobile money accounts daily, it’s now a mainstream financial service, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Countries with mobile money services have seen a $720 billion GDP uplift over the last decade. Mobile money provides much-needed digital financial services to underserved and marginalised communities where before there were none, underpinning poverty reduction, job creation, gender equality and the attainment of broader development goals

What the hiring manager says

“The Senior Public Policy and Advocacy Manager will work closely with the Director of Public Policy and Advocacy to manage key relationships and promote the impact of mobile money on the global stage. This is an excellent opportunity to gain exposure to the work of international organisations working on inclusive development issues and a broad range of senior stakeholders internally and externally. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in digital financial services, a deep appreciation of international development topics, and a thorough understanding of the role that the private sector can play in achieving development goals and how an enabling policy and regulatory landscape can help achieve that.”

About the Role

In this role you will:

• Lead, produce and contribute to evidence-based research and advocacy campaigns for mobile money-relevant policy areas which include financial inclusion, international remittances, taxation, data privacy and the Mobile Money Certification. Consider the policy implications for stakeholders as well as assessing their impact on wider development goals. 

• Line manage the Policy and Advocacy Manager, Financial Inclusion, based in Nairobi through regular communication including holding weekly 1-1 meetings, review and approve work product as well as travel and speaking engagements and expenses and trip reports post-travel. Provide mentorship and guidance to the Manager.  

• Lead the Mobile Money Certification (MMC) scheme including holding the monthly check in meetings with the Scheme Operator. Provide feedback to the Scheme Operator on course corrections where necessary. Convene the Advisory Board meetings with Advisory Board members, providing updates on the Scheme and seeking buy-in and feedback from the members. Report back to the Director of Public Policy and Advocacy and Operations colleagues updates on the MMC. Act as the main focal point with the Scheme Operator through continuous communication.  

• Drive a targeted engagement strategy to advance GSMA’s position in the industry including to regulatory and policy decisionmakers, MMPs, bilateral and multilateral organisations. 

• Act as the main point of contact with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), our partner organisation, including holding the monthly calls with the AFI PPD manager and relevant colleagues, collating summaries of what was discussed and acting on follow up items including supporting the preparation of events and workshops. Actively scan for visibility and speaking opportunities for GSMA and be proactive in obtaining these on behalf of the organisation, getting clearance from the Director and selecting the correct representative.  

• Maintain a broad network of public and private sector partners, including international organisations, mobile operators, regulators and fintech companies. Act as the main focal point for international organisations on the team. 

• Act as the main support to the Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Mobile Money, in coordination of the team and relationship management with key partners at the global level to ensure close alignment. Support the Director in defining the Team’s strategic approach for 2026, including objectives, and support the annual business planning exercise that takes place Autumn 2025 to January 2026. 

• Support the Director in delivering the Quarterly Policy Working Groups, including providing high-level remarks verbally on policy and advocacy engagements and answering corresponding questions from MMPs in the meeting. Take notes in the Policy Working Groups and provide the Director with a summary of what was discussed including attendees and absentees.  

• Support the Director to hold the Project Pulse calls with the Head of Programme monthly to provide oversight and updates on project delivery. Note down the commitments in the calls and provide support to the Director for the delivery of the workplan.  

• Represent the GSMA externally in bilateral meetings as well as in conferences including speaking engagements. 

• Be responsible for producing high quality briefing notes and research outputs, presentations and other materials as needed for senior internal and external stakeholders. 

• Shape global policy issues through written submissions and sustained engagement with global standards organisations and international organisations on behalf of GSMA and its members, for example, FATF submissions. 

• Synthesise key policy issues, supporting the industry position and driving financial inclusion, for the Programme Leadership and wider team to ensure alignment. Along with the Policy and Advocacy Manager, ensure the Messaging Pack and Team Talking Points are updated regularly for access on the sharepoint drive. 

• Disseminate industry positions and resources at relevant GSMA Events as well as external regional or global events, positioning the Mobile Money Programme and M4D as a thought leader within the industry. 

• Attend and proactively prepare and participate in the weekly 1-1s with the Director including providing updates on your work plan and flagging any issues observed early on.  

• Attend and proactively prepare and participate in the monthly Mobile Money Programme team meetings and Policy, Regulatory and Advocacy (PRA) Updates calls providing updates on the Policy and Advocacy function to the wider team. 

• Monitor the use of the Engagement Tracker and encourage regular updates by other members of the PRA team for use during the PRA update calls. 

• Oversee travel and project delivery under the Policy and Advocacy function (including yourself and the Policy and Advocacy Manager), ensuring adherence to timelines or exceeding expectations. Flag any issues with delivery at the earliest opportunity and proactively develop solutions with Senior Management if needed. 

• Coordinate closely with other GSMA M4D Teams and Regional Teams to ensure a coordinated approach to all our work. 

• Travel is required, including providing a key role to GSMA events when requested by the Director such as MWC Kigali.

• Communicate with the Senior Public Policy and Advocacy Manager who is on Mat Leave with updates. 

About You

You will have a strong foundation of the mobile money industry and a clear understanding of the policy and regulatory landscape across low- and middle-income countries as it relates to this sector. You actively stay up to date on current trends and decisions that affect the mobile money industry, with a proactive and solutions-oriented attitude to support industry players in addressing key challenges in their markets. You are comfortable engaging stakeholders, communicate effectively, and rapidly adapt to different cultures. 

We welcome applications from individuals who have the following demonstrated qualifications and skills: 

• You are a strategic thinker with the ability to define a strategy to deliver on key objectives and have the capacity to disseminate and implement this strategy through a team 

• You have a good understanding of mobile money and the existing financial services landscape for the underserved across low- and middle-income countries and familiarity with the relevant policy and regulatory context in key markets 

• You have demonstratable policy and advocacy experience in the international sphere 

• You have experience analysing the business impact of policy and regulatory decisions on the mobile money sector and in designing advocacy campaigns to affect that impact 

• You are able to express complex technical, commercial and policy and regulatory issues in plain language 

• You have excellent relationship management skills, are comfortable engaging at the executive and ministerial level, and can manage a diverse set of stakeholders effectively 

• You understand the need for, and value of tracking long-term engagements and have experience in doing so 

• You are comfortable working in a matrixed structure, with the need to positively influence peers and support cross functional collaboration across the GSMA 

• You have the ability to handle pressing deadlines, ambiguity and competing priorities 

• You have excellent cultural awareness and the capability to work with globally dispersed teams 

• You have experience managing a team, proving the ability to deliver on priority activities through a high-performing team 

• English language fluency required 

Contract type

Worker type

What We Offer

Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.

In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.

To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site, our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.

Being You at the GSMA

We care deeply about diversity, equity and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important, so flexi-time and remote working is available to all staff. We're keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The sucess of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.

GSMA Values

Our values not only drive our culture – they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.

Passionately driven

We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.

Insightful leaders

We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we’re always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.

Stronger together

We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other’s successes and constantly asking how we can help.

Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we’re at our best – we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.