Executive Head: Big Data, AI, IA

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Vodacom is a leading African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 130 million customers across 19 countries. The company is committed to using data science to drive innovation and improve the customer experience. Vodacom Group's mission is to "connect people, enrich lives and empower society". The company has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and is a great place to work for data scientists who are passionate about using their skills to make a difference in the world. Vodacom's operations span across a wide range of countries, from South Africa to Tanzania to Mozambique. The company has a large and diverse customer base, which presents a unique opportunity for data scientists to use their skills to make a real impact.

Role Purpose/Business Unit:

• This role offers an opportunity to lead in the areas of Big Data and AI for Vodacom Group focussed on DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. This involves providing Big Data & AI leadership, establishing execution methodologies, and enhancing the capabilities of our team of data scientists. 
• Big Data & AI is an integral part of our company’s strategy and is focused on improving our customer experience, provide hyper-personalized recommendations and unlock efficiencies.
• In South Africa, Vodacom has developed a mature Big Data, IA and AI operation which is fully integrated into multiple business areas and the success of this initiative is being replicated into DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.  
• For the candidate to be successful, they will need to have the ability to build relationships with key stakeholders, develop a roadmap with each market based on market priorities and deliver business value in partnership with group and in-market colleagues.
• The incumbent will lead a team of data scientists in Vodacom Group, located in South Africa and dedicated to each market, delivering the use-cases identified in each market, while also building data science capacity within each market.
• The ideal candidate should be well versed with Customer Value Management principles, Real-Time Recommender systems, Agentic AI and ML Ops practices.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Acts as the principal technical expert, identifying opportunities to make a commercial difference and leads the development of machine learning initiatives to meet business requirements
• Translates complex datasets into strategic insights for the business and communicates simply to non-technical audiences, visualising results, to create understanding and solution buy-in 
• Develops machine learning products to solve real business problems, taking account of user needs and technology and operational landscape 
• Identifies new analytics trends and opportunities to drive the innovation agenda across business functions 
• Supports the prioritization of both internal and external data assets and works with technology in setting key requirements for data sourcing 
• Recognized as an expert in the community, mentoring and advising colleagues on statistical techniques, algorithms and data  
• Drive the delivery quarterly cycle in the PI process and help Market Priorities value producing projects. 
• Build and Develop Big Data and ML standards for the IB Markets and Team across the IB.
• Work closely with International Business CVM lead and Mpesa Big Data Manager to deliver against commercial targets
• Works closely with the Vodacom South Africa Lead Data Scientist to co-create and establish machine learning and recommender capabilities and assets

The ideal candidate for this role will have:

• Master’s or Bachelor’s (or equivalent) in quantitative fields like Mathematics, Statistics , Economics, Computer Science or Engineering 
• 10+ years of experience relevant to this role  
• Proficient in statistical packages and ML libraries in Python (e.g. H2O,  SciPy and NLTK, PyTorch etc.) 
• Well versed in Customer Value Management principles, Real-Time Recommender systems and ML Ops practices 
• Familiar with leading visualisation tools (e.g. Tableau, Qliksense) 
• Familiar with implementing data transformations and algorithms in common programming languages 
• Strong communication skills with prior experience communicating analytics results to senior management 
• Experience working in a group role across multiple geographies would be an advantage.

Your Key Competencies:  

• Significant experience in machine learning & deployment of models and algorithms from large  volumes of structured and/or unstructured data in a commercial /consumer environment 
• Ability to test hypotheses from raw data sets, draw meaningful conclusions, and effectively communicate results verbally, in writing, and through effective visualization 
• Strong knowledge of Big Data technology
• Cloud experience, especially AWS/GCP would be advantageous
• Deep and broad statistical modelling expertise in various domains 
• Ability to work cross functional teams to translate business issues into potential analytics solutions
• Ability to work and coordinate across teams in multiple geographies to realize business value through machine learning and recommender engines
• Experience leading a team of data scientists 
                   

Closing date for Applications: 09 July 2025. 

The base location for this role is Vodacom, Midrand Campus. 

The company's approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.
Vodacom is committed to an organisational culture that recognises, appreciates, and values diversity & inclusion.