Senior Associate – Bank Partnerships

Job Title: Senior Associate – Bank Partnerships, Shari’ah-Compliant Intelligent Finance (SCIF)

Place of Work: Kifiya HQ
Department: Shari’ah-Compliant Intelligent Finance Office (SCIFO)
Reports To: SCIFO/Director or Manager – Bank Relationship Management

Position Summary

The Senior Associate – Bank Partnerships is responsible for managing bank partnerships and supporting the execution of Kifiya’s Shari’ah-compliant digital financial solutions.

The role serves as a primary operational and relationship focal point for assigned partner banks, ensuring effective product deployment, portfolio performance and strong daily coordination. The Senior Associate focuses on small-tier banks or selected strategic branches/segments, ensuring they achieve their commercial and impact KPIs.

This is a hands-on role suitable for professionals with experience in banking, insurance, digital finance, partnerships, or SME financings who can independently manage a portfolio of partners while working closely with cross-functional teams.

Core Purpose

To independently manage assigned partner banks (small-tier institutions) through structured engagement, accurate performance tracking, and proactive operational follow-up, ensuring steady growth in financing, liquidity utilization, collections, and customer activation.

Key Responsibilities

1. Partnership Management

• Act as the primary day-to-day relationship contact for assigned partner banks.
• Support relationship building with senior, operational and branch-level teams.
• Prepare and update partnership plans tailored to each institution’s size, focus and KPIs.
• Coordinate joint working sessions, follow-ups and stakeholder alignment activities.

2. Portfolio & Performance Tracking

• Monitor and analyze key indicators such as disbursement volumes, utilization, PAR/NPF, repayments, liquidity velocity, and customer activation.
• Maintain accurate dashboards and ensure timely reporting for assigned partners.
• Identify variances in performance and propose corrective actions early.
• Provide the Director/Manager with periodic reviews summarizing trends, concerns and opportunities.

3. Product Launch & Go-to-Market Execution

• Support the rollout of digital and Shari’ah-compliant financing and other financial products across assigned partners.
• Coordinate with Product, Technology, Risk, Operations and Shari’ah teams to ensure readiness.
• Facilitate UAT, pilot testing, onboarding documentation and early-stage issue resolution.
• Track branch enablement, customer uptake and initial product performance.

4. Training, Marketing & Channel Enablement

• Coordinate and deliver product training for partner bank staff.
• Liaise with Marketing to support branch activations, promotional campaigns and awareness efforts.
• Track campaign effectiveness and channel contribution to customer acquisition and repeat usage.

5. Operational Support & Issue Management

• Serve as escalation focal point for operational issues raised by partner institutions.
• Log, track and coordinate issue resolution with relevant Kifiya teams.
• Identify recurring operational or process issues and recommend improvements.
• Ensure high partner satisfaction and strong service delivery performance.

6. Analytics, Reporting & Documentation

• Prepare weekly, monthly and quarterly performance reports for assigned partners.
• Compile insights on underperforming areas, growth opportunities and product-channel dynamics.
• Maintain documentation standards, including meeting notes, trackers, action logs and compliance documentation.

7. Governance & Compliance Support

• Assist in preparing materials for audits, Shari’ah reviews, operational governance forums and joint partnership committees.
• Ensure that partner reporting, documentation, and operations comply with Kifiya standards and regulatory expectations.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Category	Key Metric	Target / Measure
Partnership Health	Financial Institution’s satisfaction and engagement index	≥ 80%
Portfolio Growth	Financing volume, Revenue/Income, liquidity utilization	As per quarterly targets
Product Deployment	Go-live rate and time-to-market	≥ 90% launches on time
Customer Conversion	Client activation and repeat Financing rates	As per venture KPIs
Operational Efficiency	Issue resolution turnaround, disbursement velocity	<48 hours
Reporting and Governance	Timely, accurate reports and dashboards	100% compliance

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Management or related fields.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in banking, Insurance, digital finance, partnerships, SME financing or financial operations.
• Experience managing institutional relationships is desirable.
• Understanding of digital Financing, fintech workflows and Shari’ah-compliant products is an advantage.

Core Competencies

• Strong relationship management and stakeholder coordination skills.
• Good analytical skills with ability to interpret performance and financial data.
• Excellent communication skills: clear, professional and structured.
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams and deliver results on time.
• High attention to detail and accuracy in reporting and documentation.
• Strong follow-through, accountability and problem-solving capability.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating with cross-functional teams.
• Professional integrity, adaptability and commitment to partnership excellence.

Work Environment & Expectations

• Frequent presence at assigned partner banks (approx. 60–70%).
• Regular coordination with Kifiya HQ for reporting and cross-functional alignment.
• Occasional regional travel for partner engagement, training and rollout activities.