Director, Handset Affordability

Director, Handset Affordability
ApplyLocation: London Position type: Fixed Term Contract until Dec 2027 What the hiring manager says "This role is a unique opportunity to help drive digital inclusion of the unconnected in low-and middle-income countries, and of women in particular. As the Director of Handset Affordability, you will lead a team to support mobile operators and others in the mobile ecosystem design and implement innovative commercial approaches to increase handset ownership, which can have a profound impact on billions of lives." Melle Tiel Groenestege, Senior Director About the Team GSMA Mobile for Development (M4D) is a global team within the GSMA, which brings together our mobile operator members, tech innovators, the development community and governments, to realise the impact of mobile in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
This role sits within the GSMA's Connected Women and Connected Society programmes. GSMA's Connected Women programme works with mobile operators and their partners to address the barriers to women accessing and using mobile internet and mobile money services.
The GSMA's Connected Society Programme works with the mobile industry and key stakeholders to increase access to and adoption of the mobile internet, focusing on underserved population groups in developing markets.
About the Role The Director Handset Affordability will lead a project focused on improving affordability and ownership of internet-enabled handsets for women so that they can use them to help meet their needs and support their livelihoods. Specifically, they will lead a team to support mobile operators and others in the mobile ecosystem with developing and implementing approaches to increase handset ownership and use at scale across primarily Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly women. Such support includes developing thought leadership, providing strategic advisory support, inputting into the design and scaling of handset affordability approaches and business models, building capacity and engagement of partners through workshops and other means, and monitoring impact.
Key roles and responsibilities include: Develop and execute a strategy to accelerate handset ownership and use, especially of women, across primarily Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.Together with colleagues in the Digital Inclusion team, create a pipeline of mobile operators and other partners committed to work with us on the design, implementation and scaling of handset ownership initiatives which include a focus on women.Lead action-oriented research to fill key knowledge gaps related to women's access to handset-financing, reducing handset costs, improving willingness to pay and mitigating risks to the continued use of handsets.Lead the development or updating of new or existing materials (e.g. toolkit, workshops, case studies) to implement, test or advise on handset ownership initiatives based on existing and new knowledge.Broker partnerships between different players in the mobile ecosystem that will help advance handset ownership.Lead the development of a dissemination strategy of the insights and learnings on successful approaches to increasing handset ownership to drive replication and scale.Collaborating effectively across the GSMA at global and regional level. This includes working closely with other M4D teams.Managing a team to deliver the above.About You The right candidate will be able to develop and deliver the overall strategy for the project, manage a team and drive impact, ensuring activities are delivered to time, quality and budget. You will have strong experience and understanding of how to drive digital inclusion or underserved populations in low-and middle-income countries at scale. This will include both very strong commercial experience and solid knowledge and understanding of approaches to increasing handset affordability with a gender lens.
You will be excited to join a diverse team that shares a passion for the ways mobile technology can empower underserved populations in low- and middle-income countries, especially women.
You must have the right to work in the UK.
We welcome applications from professionals with the following demonstrated experience and qualifications: Strong commercial experience is a must-have ideally within (or for) the telecoms, digital or fintech industry.Strong strategic and research capabilities in developing and assessing new business models and commercial opportunities.Experience working in emerging market contexts is a must-have.Knowledge of key issues and the barriers facing underserved populations, especially women, in accessing and using mobile phones, such as digital skills, safety and security, relevance, and access.Experience establishing, managing and inspiring productive relationships across stakeholders, including senior-level stakeholders. This includes strong interpersonal, relationship-building and public speaking skills, in order to develop constructive relationships with diverse stakeholders with an emphasis on mobile network operators.Strong and compelling written communication and presentation skills in the English language are essential. This includes the ability to express complex issues articulately, concisely and persuasively in a structured manner. French is a bonus.Experience managing a team, ideally across cultures and globally dispersed technology.First-rate project management skills, ability to work independently, self-motivated, entrepreneurial and organised to deliver high impact outputs.Conscientious and creative with a can-do attitude.Contract type Fixed Term Contract (Fixed Term)
Worker type Employee
What We OfferWorking 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.
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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 success 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.
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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.

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