Sr. Solution Architect

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 collaboration, 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 earned the Top Employer Award – in recognition of our unwavering commitment to fostering a supportive, innovative, and inclusive environment.

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

• Lead the design and development of scalable, high-performance, and secure technical solutions for clients.
• Create solution architectures, including system designs, integrations, and recommendations for platforms, frameworks, and technologies.
• Lead and participate in architecture reviews, ensuring consistency with company standards and industry best practices.
• Collaboratively oversee the development of the solution as per agreed architecture, evolving it throughout the delivery in the face of changing requirements and feedback from the team.
• Set baseline through the introduction of standards and working practices such as coding standards, design principles, and tools.
• Ensure that the architecture is being implemented consistently across the team through regular code reviews.
• Experiment by building prototypes, frameworks, and foundations to be consumed by the technical team.
• Responsible for making technology decisions by considering all risk factors, reviewed and evaluated with all the relevant stakeholders.
• Contribute to the Architecture Review Board (ARB) on a monthly basis.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

Leadership:

• Lead the development of end-to-end solution designs.
• Partner with senior commercial and technical stakeholders to ensure effective prioritization of initiatives.
• Oversee implementation of solutions to ensure conformance to design and requirements.
• Partner with commercial stakeholders.
• Partner with vendor teams.
• Clear communication of solution design, risks, quantified technical debt, and alternative approaches.
• Translation of business requirements into practical, achievable, and effective solutions.
• Development of solutions that consider industry and domain best practices.
• Development of solutions that align to Vodacom, Vodafone, and Safaricom best practices and governance requirements (e.g., Security, ISO, SOX compliance).
• Development of clear solutions artifacts that aid delivery teams in understanding integration needs, functionality requirements, capacity plans, and associated ongoing support.
• Regular reviews of technical deliverables (including functional specs, manuals, test cases, delivery timelines, technical issues) to ensure adherence to the solution design.

Core competencies, knowledge, and experience:

Business Competencies:

• Working with Others
• Consciously takes steps to make the most of every conversation/interaction.
• Identifies people’s needs, interests, and motives to influence their decisions.
• Communicates simply to excite and engage people.
• Proactively adapts own style and approach to build rapport and work with others more effectively.
• Builds and maintains strong relationships and networks.

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, processes, 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.

Qualifications

• A graduate with a degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Economics, or Commerce.
• Professional certification in Auditing, Accounting, Risk Management or Information Systems will be added advantage
• Relevant post-graduate education is an added advantage
• Have at least 2-5 years’ experience in Assurance, Risk Management and/or Management of Business Process Improvement
• Revenue Assurance Practitioners Certification is an added advantage.
• Experience and knowledge on SQL, script writing, DB knowledge/ data warehousing
• Advanced skills in Microsoft applications including Excel and Power point
• Ability to analyze significant amounts of data and information and distill it to the key points that help Senior Management analyze risk in a given situation.
• Capability to accumulate, summarize and interpret risk reports from business units, support units and assurance units.
• Have strong business acumen and highly developed commercial experience
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills
• High level experience and skills working with stakeholders

Skills Required:

• Automotive
• Chemistry / Chemical / Engineering
• Civil / Engineering / Cotm
• Computer / Software / It / Data
• Economics / Statistics
• Electrician / Electronics / Electrical / Engineering
• Food / Technology / Science / Engineering
• Hydraulics / Water / Engineering
• Industrial / Manufacturing
• Mechanics / Mechanical / Engineering