Executive Head of Department - Digital & Analytics Development

Job Description

About Us

At Safaricom Ethiopia, we are a purpose-led technology company dedicated to transforming lives through digital connectivity and inclusive financial services. In under four years, we have grown to serve over 10 million customers, with our network now reaching 55% of Ethiopia’s population – a testament to our bold vision and trusted partnerships.Guided by core values such as customer obsession, innovation, integrity, and get it done together, we are building a workplace that is dynamic, inclusive, and empowering. We believe our greatest strength lies in our people. That’s why, for two consecutive years, we have proudly get earned the Top Employer Award – in recognition for our unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive, innovative, and inclusive environment to people. Join Safaricom Ethiopia and be part of a team that is shaping the digital future of Ethiopia. Here, your work has meaning, your voice matters, and your growth is our priority. Together, we are transforming lives for a digital future

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Platform Roadmap:

• Develop and execute a cohesive technology strategy and roadmap for all digital, data, and integration platforms, ensuring tight alignment with commercial and enterprise business objectives.
• Act as the primary technology partner to business units (Consumer, Enterprise, Financial Services), translating their needs into scalable and resilient technical solutions.
• Drive architectural decisions for future-proofing our technology stack, including cloud adoption, microservices architecture, and API-first principles.
• Oversee Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis and manage CAPEX/OPEX budgets for all platforms to maximize ROI

Management:

• Lead the development and management of the enterprise Big Data platform, Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions to provide actionable insights across the business.
• Oversee the engineering of robust, real-time data pipelines for Revenue Assurance & Fraud Management (RAFM) and Customer Value Management (CVM) engines.
• Champion data governance, data quality, and data security best practices across all data platforms.
• Enable advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities by providing the necessary data infrastructure and toolin

Digital Channels & Customer Experience:

• Direct the development, enhancement, and operational stability of all customer-facing digital channels, including the corporate mobile app, web portals, and chatbots.
• Ensure a seamless and engaging user experience (UX) across all digital touchpoints in collaboration with product and design teams.

Integration & DevOps Excellence (API Economy):

• Own the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and the entire API lifecycle, from strategy and design to building, deployment, and monetization.
• Foster a world-class DevOps culture, implementing and maturing CI/CD pipelines to enable rapid, high-quality software delivery.
• Ensure seamless and secure integration between internal systems and with external partners, building a robust and scalable API ecosystem. Manage the legacy and evolution of the USSD channel, integrating it where necessary into the broader digital ecosystem.

Team Leadership & Development:

• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of engineers, developers, and data specialists.
• Foster a culture of engineering excellence, continuous learning, and innovation.
• Manage recruitment, training, performance management, and career development to build technical depth and leadership capability within the team.
• Promote modern software development methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Kanban) while integrating best practices from frameworks like ITIL where appropriate

Operational Excellence

• Targets effort and resources on high-value, high impact activity
• Focuses on achieving maximum performance
• and driving continuous improvement
• Thinks about processes and problems cross-functionally
• and end-to-end
• Uses knowledge of products, technology, process,
• systems and policy to solve problems

Creativity and Innovation

• Finds creative ways to exploit opportunities
• and solve problems.
• Takes risks and pushes what is possible
• Experiments with unorthodox approaches

Business Know how

• Uses data and research to make decisions
• that are competitively and financially robust
• Balances current and future needs
• Thinks and acts like an owner of the business

Working with Change

• Responds flexibly to changing situations
• Manages the business and people aspects of change to drive performance

Project and Programme Management

• Defines scope and deliverables in terms of time, cost, quality and business benefit
• Schedules activity and identifies resource needs, dependencies and synergies
• Evaluates progress, mitigates risks and addresses issues

Qualifications

Must have technical / professional qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, data engineering, and technology leadership.
• At least 4-5 years in a senior management role, leading multiple development and engineering teams in a fast-paced, agile environment.
• Proven experience managing platforms in the following areas: Big Data, BI/EDW, Digital Channels (App/Web), API/Integration, DevOps, CVM, RAFM.
• Experience in the telecommunications or financial technology (FinTech) industry is a strong advantage.
• Experience in deploying large scale ML models and Gen AI
• Strong knowledge of modern technology stacks, databases (SQL, NoSQL), and programming languages.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Must have assumed current Safaricom role for a minimum of 12 months period.
• Employees are strongly advised to discuss their career aspirations with their line managers when they apply for vacant jobs.
• Candidates are eligible to apply for roles at the same level (possible lateral move to another function) or one level higher (next higher immediate level)
• Please be aware that promotions (band increments) may lead to changes in financial rewards. However, lateral moves only result in changes to job title and reporting lines.

Skills Required:

• Computer / Software / It / Data