Job Vacancies at Safaricom Kenya

About the Role

MPA is a technology partner, enabler, and supporter of M-Pesa markets, driving innovation and the introduction of new services, solutions, and platforms to deliver on our Financial Services Strategy and Plans.

One of the critical aspects of our service to the markets, and key to driving the expansion and improvement of the M-Pesa ecosystem, is the management of key projects and initiatives across multiple markets. Joining us as a Programme Manager, focusing on key projects and initiatives, will give you the opportunity to be part of the M-Pesa journey, utilizing your experience, expertise, and energy to make a positive contribution to our success.

In this role, you will be part of the Technology leadership team, leading the programme management of key strategic projects, and will report to the Technology Strategy, Planning, and Delivery function.

The core responsibility of the Programme Manager role is:

• Manage and oversee key projects and initiatives, ensuring effective planning, coordination, and resource utilization to meet objectives and milestones.
• Supervise the Programme Management Function, ensuring projects are delivered end-to-end, managing inter-dependencies, and holding stakeholders accountable.
• Identify and mitigate risks and issues to ensure on-time and on-budget delivery aligned with business objectives.
• Monitor and report progress, ensuring stakeholders are informed and engaged.

Responsibilities

Programme Planning and Management:

• Manage program and project teams for optimal return-on-investment, and coordinate and delegate cross-project initiatives.
• Ensure Project objectives align with strategic objectives and anticipated value creation are reflected in the scope.
• Align Key Projects with overall Portfolio.
• Ensure Project Governance and Project Management standards are compiled to by all projects.
• Manage Programme level Risks, Issues and Escalations and ensure mitigations are in place and actioned.
• Ensure effective Stakeholder engagement and the establishment of an effective communication and reporting plan, for each project is in place.
• Ensure Key Project roadmaps, project plans and milestones are updated, agreed and measured
• Ensure the delivery of the Key Projects are within agreed quality, time and when needed according to cost.
• To ensure strategic objectives of each Key project are measurable and met by tracking major milestones and status metrics of all projects within the portfolio.
• Measure Key Project delivery performance and initiate pro-active corrective actions as required to ensure delivery is within agreed targets.
• Programme scheduling of projects and initiatives - Manage delivery schedules for projects to ensure timeous implementation and compliance with requirements.
• Alignment with Agile Portfolio and ARTs to ensure contributions and delivery to Key Projects are aligned and committed.

Strategy:

• Create and maintain a framework for managing the delivery of the Key projects and initiatives.
• Interface with the Key Market stakeholders, MPA Executive and Managers as well as relevant Subject Matter Experts to align the objectives/outcomes of Key Projects to align with the overall strategy and business goals.
• To contribute to the overall business and technology strategy.
• To communicate the strategy to the project managers to execute and ensure that individual project goals align with the strategy.

Resource Management:

• To establish priorities within the overall program and ensure project teams are adequately resourced by aptly allocating people and technical resources to individual teams in line with those priorities.
• To minimize waste and reduce costs by identifying tasks that are common to several projects and ensures that teams do not duplicate work.
• To identify necessary skills available within the project teams and arrange any necessary training to improve performance.
• Effective management of project and business teams from diverse areas of specialization.

Planning:

To work with individual project managers to establish plans and goals for each project:

• Set objectives, assign tasks, and agree to timetables for achieving intermediate and overall goals.
• Set review dates to ensure that projects remain on target.

Communication:

• Stakeholder management ranging from market executives, MPA management and Project teams.
• Communication is a key responsibility for the role as it will need to work closely with project managers to track progress and provide updates on any changes in strategy or priorities.

Risk Management:

• Work with other project managers to identify risks, dependencies and opportunities across multiple projects.
• Analyse, evaluate, and overcome program risks, and produce program reports for management and stakeholders.
• To help project teams with difficult problems by contacting specialists within the organization to obtain information or request support.
• Compile and communicate reports as agreed with stakeholders.

Project Execution:

• Manage and drive the approval of memo’s, business cases, checklists etc.
• Lead the project management processes and systems.
• Manage the portfolio roadmaps and portfolio plans are updated, agreed, measured and communicated as agreed with stakeholders.
• Manage major milestones and status metrics of all projects within the portfolio.
• Identify key requirements needed from cross-functional teams.
• Manage unforeseen development requirements, changes and available resources.
• Manage and drive continuous Improvement Initiatives.
• Create, Maintain, re-evaluate, optimise or automate existing project management reporting.
• Review and analyse the efficiency of processes and systems and the impact on product & services launched. 

Qualifications

Job Knowledge:

• Project management and Project management processes such as Scrum, Agile, etc.  or similar
• Financial knowledge
• General Telecommunication knowledge
• Understanding and application of project management tools and techniques in a complex systems environment
• Program Management
• Technical or commercial project management knowledge

Skills:

• Project and Programme Management
• Uses the right frameworks and approaches to manage projects and relationships to drive excellence through effective action management/tracking, planning and cost/quality control in respect of the Trust initiatives. 
• Expert Communication
• Demonstrates clear and effective communication through all channels including digital channels and has an ability to switch seamlessly between them. 

Business Partnering    

• Demonstrates robust understanding of the purpose of the Trust, identifies and prioritises stakeholders, builds sustainable relationships to drive performance and best value outcomes for the Trust initiatives.

Partner and Vendor Management

• Drives performance and relationship management with internal and external stakeholders to support improvement of delivery standards for the beneficiaries of the Trust initiatives. 

Complexity Management    

• Able to quickly and efficiently identify opportunities, tackle big challenges, understand root causes, and make informed decisions to deliver the Trust initiatives. 

Risk Assessment

• Ability to identify and understand emerging risk and apply the risk management approach. Understands the process of Risk identification and assessment, response and reporting.

Business Acumen    

• Has clear understanding of socio-economic circumstances and demonstrates foresight and entrepreneurship to contribute to the delivery of the Trust initiatives. Can understand and interpret the impact of external factors on the business. 

Agile    

• Understands agile methodologies (e.g., Kanban, Lean, Scrum, Scaled Agile) and apply agile ways of working. Is a role model of the agile mind-set and principles.

Professional Qualifications

• Relevant Degree or Diploma or related/Equivalent 
• Postgraduate degree or Master’s degree in business administration or related field (advantageous)
• Recognized project / program management qualification (Agile, Scrum Master etc.)
• A minimum of 8 years of experience within the Telecoms/Banking / Fintech industry (preferred) in:
  • Project Management
  • Programme/Portfolio Management

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About the Role

The Technical Operations Manager is expected to lead and manage the 24x7x365 Technical Enterprise and Service Operations Center, ensuring robust systems monitoring, effective incident management, and the overall availability, performance, health, and security of all services. This role is responsible for managing and optimizing key people, processes, and tools, integrating Zero Touch Operations (ZTO) and Automation to drive operational efficiency.

The role involves leading and coordinating multiple technical teams, including the Service Desk, L0 Monitoring, L1, L2 Support, and Incident Management. The primary objectives include optimizing operations, minimizing incidents, enhancing service quality, and driving automation while fostering teamwork, compliance, and communication across various stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Key performance indicators:

• Responsible for 24/7 efficient operation of the Shared Service Operations Center.
• Responsible for managing and coordinating the Operations technical support teams. The main aim for this coordination is to ensure that the operations centre runs efficiently without interruption.
• Responsible for informing Management, partners and peers about infrastructure performance issues and service availability.
• Must keep senior management informed about major incidents which impact business.
• Constantly evaluates the workings of the Operations centre and stays abreast of new technologies emerging in the industry.
• Report on key metrics of availability, incident resolution and service delivery performance.  
• Manage and document Standards, Policies, and Processes for the Operations service based on best practices.
• Perform regular process improvement reviews to ensure ongoing optimization. Incident and Event Management.
• Ensures the duty shift table for the SSOC and the allocation of staff members (SSOC technicians and engineers) on different shift duties for ensuring the whole SSOC shift works in an efficient and effective manner.
• Responsibility for direct supervision of team members;-
  • Conduct Performance Appraisals, coaching, training and objective settings.
  • Provide an assessment of all staff and provide internal/external training schedule
  • Provide direction and leadership to build process-focused, cross-functional team.
  • Manage scheduling of shift coverage and operational work streams to optimize service delivery.
  • Address technical and non-technical escalations.

Incident and Event Management

• Ensure efficient resolution of incidents through automation, optimized processes, and technology.
• Ensure accurate categorization of incidents to minimize SLA breaches and downtime.
• Provide timely, accurate, and effective communication on service-impacting events.
• Collaborate with vendors on issue resolution and communication.

Enterprise Monitoring & Zero Touch Operations

• Drive the implementation of Zero Touch Operations (ZTO) to reduce manual interventions and enhance system reliability.
• Leverage automation to improve event correlation, anomaly detection, and self-healing capabilities.
• Manage and optimize toolsets for event management and automated monitoring.
• Ensure compliance with tier models and SLAs through proactive monitoring.

Automation & Process Improvement

• Implement AI-driven automation to enhance operational efficiency and reduce manual tasks.
• Deploy self-healing and auto-remediation solutions to minimize downtime and enhance service stability.
• Define and optimize workflows for incident, change, and problem management.
• Identify opportunities for process improvements and automation to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Ad-Hoc Project Management

• Manage projects for upgrading and maintaining SSOC technologies.
• Lead automation initiatives to streamline service operations.
• Assist with various service-related projects as needed.

Qualifications

Knowledge and experience:

• Experience working in large multi-national, matrix-based organizations.
• 5+ years of team or project management experience.
• Proven experience in customer relationship management.
• Budget and cost management experience.
• Strong expertise in Zero Touch Operations and IT automation.
• Extensive experience in technical operations management, including leadership roles.
• Deep understanding of IT Service Management (ITSM) and ITIL best practices.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.
• Proficiency with IT monitoring tools, ticketing systems, and event management solutions.
• Experience implementing and maintaining monitoring policies and best practices.
• Proven ability to optimize incident management processes.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Knowledge of security and compliance standards in IT operations.
• Vendor Management experience

Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred).
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and work experience leading Technical Operations Teams.
• IT certifications (e.g., ITIL, PMP, or relevant automation certifications).
• Hands-on experience with automation frameworks and monitoring tools.

Desirable

• Experience in Mobile Payments or Financial Services.
• Experience working in regulated industries.

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About the Role

As a Cost Analyst, you'll play a pivotal role in driving financial excellence! You’ll help optimize our financial performance by diving into cost structures, uncovering exciting cost-saving opportunities, and supporting the budgeting and spending processes. Your expertise will contribute directly to the creation of detailed, impactful financial reports. By leveraging your strong analytical skills, mastery in financial modeling, and building strong stakeholder relationships, you'll make a meaningful impact on the organization's bottom line. This is your chance to influence key decisions and shape our financial future.

Responsibilities

Month End Close & Rolling forecast

• Facilitate timely end month reporting by ensuring Opex accruals and Recharges are submitted on time.
• Carrying out variance analysis of actual spend vs budget and sharing the same with FLT.
• Sharing commentary on drivers of variances between spend and budget.
• Share an updated monthly RF with FP&A team for Opex with anticipated risks and opportunities.

Budget Tracking

• Track Actual spend vs budget highlighting risks to plan.
• Create a savings tracker for project Opex based on signed off contracts.
• Build a solid accrual base and tight control over all contracts.

Business Cases:

• Support in development of business cases as required and support in review of investment decisions. 
• Business Partnering Conduct quarterly performance reviews with budget owners, commercial and tech teams giving visibility on actuals vs forecast.

Forecasting

• Assisting in the preparation of the operating budget 
• Assist with financial forecasting for each Value Stream and understand the true cost of initiatives 

Cost control 

• Tracking, analyzing, and controlling costs associated with ARTs.
• Proactively advise and support the business unit to ensure an effective operating control environment is in place.
• Provide ongoing to financial assurance to Procurement with regards to Supplier Management.
• Confirm PO accuracy to underlying contract i.e correct currency as per contract and accurately categorisation into Opex/ Capex. 
• Ensure timely PO return process within set SLA’s. 
• Monitor and respond to vendor queries & correspondence within set SLA’s. 
• Lead regular reviews and provide support to the Management on the achievement of targets. 
• Support internal and external audit processes via providing required support.

Qualifications

Core competencies, knowledge, and experience: 

• >3 years of professional experience, ideally with a bank or financial service provider in Africa 
• Excellent Commercial Awareness with strong knowledge of mobile money, fintech and financial services 
• Ability to build trusted relationships and work collaboratively with others 
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written, with the ability to influence and win over key stakeholders 
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to interpret raw data and translate it into clear, concise information
• The ability to explain complex financial data to non-finance individuals
• Aligns mindset, words, and actions to Lean-Agile values and principles
• Supports innovation and customer centricity and fosters flow & relentless improvement
• Problem solving skills and the ability to think creatively and see the ‘bigger picture’

Technical / professional qualifications:

• Part qualified or qualified accountant (ACCA/ACA or CIMA)
• Agile Experience – minimum 2 years
•  Contagious passion for, and commitment to, driving mobile money growth and innovation
• Communication and relationship management experience to executive level – 2 years
• Mobile Payment or Financial Payment Services Experience – 2 years
• Relevant certified SAFe qualification, for example, SAFe Lean Portfolio Management
• Knowledge and understanding of Jira