Research Scientist - Financial Inclusion at Scale

M-KOPA Kenya Limited; Mission (KS); Remote; USD 85,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Join M-KOPA as a Research Scientist and leverage your expertise in AI to expand financial inclusion for under-banked populations across Africa. You will develop innovative models that improve lives in real-time and help drive significant impact in financial services. With a commitment to diversity and sustainability, M-KOPA offers a fully remote position, fostering career growth through various training programs.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Diverse development programs

Coaching partnerships

Family-friendly policies

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience in generative models such as VAEs, GANs.
• Advanced expertise in mathematics and statistics.
• Publication record in top AI/ML conferences preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop AI models for financial inclusion across Africa.
• Prototype advanced models for credit risk assessment.
• Publish research findings at top-tier conferences.

Skills

Generative models

Deep learning

Machine learning

Statistical analysis

Mathematics

Research publication

Education

PhD in Computer Science or related field

Job description

We are looking for a Research Scientist to join our Data Science Team as we scale up and drive digital and financial inclusion across our markets.

The Impact Your algorithms will directly unlock financial opportunities for millions of people across Africa who've been excluded from traditional banking. We've already helped over 5 million customers access $1.5 billion in credit, and your research could accelerate this impact exponentially.

It's your chance to be part of something that's literally transforming lives across an entire continent Imagine working on challenges where success means a small business in Lagos secures its first inventory loan, a family in Nairobi accessing educational content through their first smartphone, or entire communities gaining financial resilience through accessible digital services.

The Opportunity

Mission-driven research: Every model you develop helps expand financial inclusion for under-banked populations

Immediate impact: See your work improve lives in real-time, not just citations

Global recognition: Join a company named by TIME100 as one of the world's most influential and by the Financial Times as Africa's fastest-growing for 4 consecutive years (2022-2025)

Research freedom: Publish, attend conferences, and collaborate with academic institutions while solving meaningful problems

Environmental impact: We're carbon-negative, having displaced over 2 million tonnes of emissions

What You'll Do

• Build generative AI models (VAEs, GANs, diffusion models) for financial inclusion across Africa

• Prototype and iterate advanced models, from credit risk assessment to customer behaviour modeling

• Publish research at top conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI etc) while solving real-world problems

• Work with teams across Africa and Europe to deploy Machine Learning solutions that expand financial access

What You Need

• Hands-on experience or Academic Publication in generative models (VAEs, GANs, diffusion models, or related methods)

• Advanced expertise in mathematics, statistics, and theoretical computer science

• Experience with deep learning, reinforcement learning, or specialised Machine Learning domains

• Experience with structured or unstructured data

• Proven ability to translate research into scalable algorithms

• Ideally a publication record in Machine Learning research (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI etc preferred)

Our Mission

We create financial inclusion for the traditionally excluded through a fair, flexible, customer-centric financing model. We strive to drive greater inclusion of women, youth, and low-income communities.

Our Impact

Our technology has created measurable change:

• Connected : 1.7 million first-time mobile internet users connected

• Prosperous : 62% of customers use M-KOPA smartphones for income generation, with 30,000+ livelihoods created for agents

• Green : 2.1 million tonnes of CO2 avoided through clean energy products, with over 100,000 circular economy products provided

Ready to drive financial inclusion through AI? Apply now to join our mission.

This is a fully remote role, you would be working within the following time zone (UTC -1 / UTC+3) with a diverse group of other employees working remotely from locations such as UK, Europe and Africa. You will be reporting to the Head of Data Science.

Why M-KOPA?

At M-KOPA, we empower our people to own their careers through diverse development programs, coaching partnerships, and on-the-job training. We support individual journeys with family-friendly policies, prioritize well-being, and embrace flexibility.

Join us in shaping the future of M-KOPA as we grow together. Explore more at m-kopa.com.

Recognized four times by the Financial Times as one Africa's fastest growing companies (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) and by TIME100 Most influential companies in the world 2023 and 2024 , we've served over 5 million customers, unlocking $1.5 billion in cumulative credit for the unbanked across Africa.

Important Notice

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-KOPAexplicitly 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 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.

M-KOPA does not collect/chargeany money as a pre-employment or post-employment requirement. This meansthat 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 will take place at any stage during the recruitment process. We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a suitable candidate is selected before the advertised closing date.