Director of Risk Strategy

Are you a technology-driven risk leader who knows how to design systems that prevent problems before they happen? Do you combine deep expertise in enterprise risk with strong understanding of digital platforms, automation, and data-driven decision-making? If you are ready to shape and lead a tech-first risk strategy at scale, this role may be your next challenge.

About TIko

Tiko is an African nonprofit committed to strengthening the potential and resilience of adolescent girls across Africa. We address the “Triple Threat” of unintended pregnancy, HIV infection, and sexual and gender-based violence by building local health ecosystems that provide stigma-free, no-cost, quality-assured services.

Our model brings together key local actors: community-based organizations (CBO) with peer mobilisers who act as health companions to girls; public and private health clinics that deliver care; and retail partners that redeem Tiko Miles -our behaviour-change incentive programme that rewards service uptake and feedback.

We invest in partners by strengthening CBO capacity, training frontline workers and providers, supporting clinic quality improvement, and compensating partners based on performance. Our technology platform connects all actors by enabling referrals, verifying service delivery, facilitating payments, and generating real-time data.

Tiko operates in six countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, South Africa, and Nigeria, with additional offices in Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. For a clear overview of our work, we recommend watching this short video.

Globally, our team consists of +250 enthusiastic, international colleagues. Whether you are working from our biggest office in Nairobi, the fast-growing office in South Africa, or from home, our people are young, and our culture is global and dynamic. Our work environment is fast-paced, informal, and friendly. 

For this position, we are happily looking for candidates currently based in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Portugal.

The Job

We are seeking an experienced Director of Risk Strategy to design, implement, and continuously strengthen enterprise-wide risk management across Tiko’s digital ecosystem. This is a critical senior leadership role responsible for embedding technology-first risk governance, automating preventative controls, and ensuring the organisation scales with integrity, compliance, platform reliability, and verified results.

You will lead an end-to-end digital risk strategy spanning enterprise risk, technology and data risk, digital identity systems, automated fraud detection, audit and assurance, and operational risk. The role requires deep collaboration with executive leadership, product, engineering, finance, country teams, and machine learning specialists to design out risk, detect issues early, and deploy rapid, technology-enabled mitigation.

Key responsibilities include:

Enterprise Technology Risk & Strategy

• Lead a technology-first Enterprise Risk Management strategy across platforms, partners, markets, and user groups.
• Own and maintain the organisational risk register, ensuring accurate and up-to-date enterprise risk documentation.
• Define and drive a Risk Automation Roadmap, embedding automated controls, biometric verification, and digital identity assurance into product and operational workflows.
• Provide the Executive team with predictive, data-driven risk insights derived from analytics and automated risk signals.
• Integrate risk strategy into platform architecture, data pipelines, AI models, and claims or reimbursement workflows.
  
  

Automation of Prevention Controls

• Champion a prevent-by-design approach, embedding risk prevention mechanisms directly into technology systems.
• Ensure automated preventative controls such as biometric validation, geolocation rules, eligibility checks, and abnormal claim detection are integrated into feature design.
• Drive the adoption of self-correcting and continuously improving control mechanisms.
  
  

Automated Early Detection & Intelligence

• Oversee the development of an automated detection ecosystem, including machine learning fraud models, risk scoring, biometric anomaly detection, and behavioural analytics.
• Ensure early identification of identity spoofing, impersonation, manipulated claims, coordinated fraud, and abnormal utilisation patterns.
• Drive automation of investigation triggers and escalation processes.
  
  

Technology-Driven Mitigation & Response

• Lead rapid, technology-enabled responses such as automated account lockdowns, geo-blocking, biometric re-verification, and dynamic rule updates.
• Ensure incidents result in system-level improvements and strengthened controls.
• Oversee automated workflows for investigations and corrective actions.
  
  

Audit, Assurance & Digital Compliance

• Oversee internal audit processes with emphasis on automated audit testing and digital verification.
• Strengthen claims assurance through automated validation, biometric proof-of-service, geospatial confirmation, and reconciliation systems.
• Provide executive leadership and donors with transparent, data-rich reporting aligned with global standards such as ISO 31000.
  
  

Ecosystem, Operational & Partner Risk

• Integrate technology-enabled risk controls into partner onboarding and monitoring processes.
• Use analytics, biometrics, and geospatial tools to monitor compliance and service quality.
• Lead technology-supported crisis response and business continuity planning.
  
  

Leadership

• Lead and mentor a team of risk professionals, fostering a culture of proactive risk identification and mitigation.
• Continue to evolve risk practices in line with global best practice and emerging technologies.

About You

You are a strategic and technology-driven risk leader who combines deep analytical capability with strong executive judgement. You are comfortable operating at the intersection of risk, digital platforms, AI-driven systems, and operational scale. You thrive in complex, fast-evolving environments and are motivated by building systems that prevent issues before they arise.

You are confident advising senior leadership and external stakeholders, and you understand how to balance innovation, compliance, and operational agility. You are outcome-focused and committed to embedding sustainable, automated risk controls rather than relying on manual oversight.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Finance, Business, Risk Management, or a related quantitative field. Professional certification such as FRM, PRM, or similar is strongly preferred.
• 10–15 years of progressive experience in risk management, including substantial experience within financial services, fintech, health, or insurance environments.
• Proven experience leading Enterprise Risk Management frameworks aligned with global standards such as ISO 31000.
• Strong technical expertise in risk modelling, data analytics, machine learning applications in fraud detection, and ERM systems.
• Demonstrated experience embedding automated risk controls within digital platforms and product ecosystems.
• Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to provide strategic insights to senior leadership and donors.
• Proven leadership experience managing and developing risk teams.
• Strong analytical capability, regulatory understanding, and commitment to ethical standards.

Compensation & Benefits

The gross monthly salary brackets for this position are:
South Africa: R124,000 - R150,000 (x12)

Kenya: Ksh952,000 - Ksh1,190,000 (x12)
Uganda: UGX25,734,000 - UGX32,168,000 (x12)
Ethiopia: €6,960 - €8,700 (x12)
Portugal: €5,105 - €7,658 (x14)

In addition to your monthly salary, we offer you:

• Benefits and allowances tailored to your location.
• Flexible work arrangements, including remote or hybrid options.
• A personal development budget of €500 per year to invest in your professional growth 
• Unlimited holiday days to use as you see fit - just coordinate with your team and take the time you need to recharge.
• The opportunity to shape a growing, impactful product and leave your mark on how we work
• A culture built on trust - we believe you’ll do your best without the need for unnecessary rules or micromanagement

The Details

Interested? Click Apply for This Job! Want more information? Check out our website Tiko – Do more with Tiko. We only accept applications through the apply links, not by email.

Important Recruitment Fraud Alert
Please be aware that Tiko maintains a professional and ethical recruitment process.

• Zero Fees: We do not charge candidates any fees for applications, interviews, or processing at any stage of the hiring journey.
• Fraud Prevention: If you receive a request for money, bank details, or "onboarding equipment" payments from someone claiming to represent us, this is not a legitimate request.
• Official Channels: We only communicate through our verified company email domain (@tiko.org).

If you are approached by anyone asking for payment in our name, please ignore the request.

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Tiko prioritizes integrity in our workplace and respects your privacy.

Tiko is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour by its employees at work, including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct. This is why we will do reference and background screening checks on successful candidates before hiring. Tiko also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. As part of this scheme, we will request information from your previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during your employment, or incidents under investigation when you left employment. By applying for this position, you confirm you have read and understood these recruitment procedures.

We value your privacy and understand the importance of safeguarding your personal data. We invite you to review our privacy notice for the recruitment process to understand how we collect, use, and protect your personal data during the recruitment process. Click here to view the document. By applying for this position, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our privacy notice.