Senior Manager - Artificial Intelligence Solution Design and Architecture

Mission/Core purpose of the Job:

The Senior Manager: AI Solution Design & Architecture will be responsible for leading the design and architecture of AI-driven solutions that align with the MTN’s strategic objectives. The role will ensure the seamless integration of AI technologies into business operations, addressing complex business challenges through innovative and scalable AI solutions.

As a Senior Manager, the role will work closely with cross-functional stakeholders including data scientists, business leaders and engineers to design AI architectures that are strategically impactful, optimizing key business processes, improving customer experiences, and driving long-term growth.

They will be pivotal in driving innovation within the organization by architecting AI solutions that leverage emerging trends in AI and telecom; By developing secure, scalable, and high-impact AI technologies, the role will empower the company to stay ahead of the curve, enabling technological advancements that drive business success and foster competitive advantage.

Job Outcomes and Results:

• Lead the creation of AI solutions that solve key business problems, improve operational efficiency, and drive innovation across MTN
• Ensure seamless integration of AI solutions with existing infrastructure and business systems, enhancing functionality and performance
• Design AI solutions that are both scalable to handle future growth and secure to meet regulatory and security standards
• Deliver AI solutions that are optimized for performance, minimizing latency, cost, and resource usage
• Deliver tangible improvements in business metrics such as customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and revenue growth
• Foster strong relationships with cross-functional teams, ensuring AI solutions meet business needs while being technically feasible
• Build a collaborative and high-performance team environment, providing guidance on best practices and professional development

Values:

We at MTN are a purpose and value-led organization. At MTN, we believe that understanding our people’s needs and aspirations is key to creating experiences that delight you at work, everyday. We are committed to fostering an environment where every member of our Y’ello Family is heard, understood and empowered to live an inspired life.

Our values keep us grounded and moving in the right direction. Most importantly, they keep us honest. It is not something we claim to be. It is in our DNA.

As an organisation, we consider it our mission to create an exciting and rewarding place to work, where our people can be themselves, thrive in positivity and ignite their full potential. A workplace that boosts creativity and innovation, improves productivity, and ultimately drives meaningful results. A workplace that is built on relationships and achieving a purpose that is bigger than us.

Our commitments go beyond an organisational promise. It is in our leadership and managerial ethos to meaningfully partner with our employees, customers and stakeholders with a vision to realise our shared goals.

Live Y’ello

Lead with Care
Can-do with Integrity
Collaborate with Agility
Serve with Respect
Act with Inclusion

The Senior Manager – AI Solution Design & Architecture will be responsible for the following:

• Lead the design and implementation of robust, scalable, and innovative AI solutions, overseeing the entire end-to-end AI solution blueprint and roadmap ensuring alignment with the MTN’s technical and architectural standards
• Work closely with business leaders and key stakeholders to translate AI architecture requirements into strategic architecture solutions, securing the integration of cloud-native tools from major hyperscalers and machine learning
• Oversee the design and implementation of scalable, modular solutions that efficiently accommodate growing data volumes, user demands and evolving business needs, while enabling future upgrades and AI advancements
• Spearhead the entire lifecycle of AI solutions, from the initial design and prototype to production deployment ensuring that the AI Models are developed and optimized for performance, latency, and cost-efficiency
• Collaborate with teams to ensure seamless integration of AI models and platforms into existing infrastructure, such as CRM systems, ERP software, APIs, databases, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and other critical business applications
• Orchestrate the deployment of AI models into live environments, driving continuous optimization, facilitating regular performance assessments, and ensuring timely retraining to sustain accuracy, effectiveness, and alignment with evolving business objectives post-deployment
• Ensure AI solutions adhere to stringent security and privacy requirements, implementing encryption, authentication, and authorization protocols to safeguard data across MTN’s AI systems
• Liaison with AI Ethics & Compliance teams to lead initiatives to ensure AI solutions comply with data privacy regulations and industry-specific standards, while proactively monitoring and addressing compliance challenges related to data handling, model development, and deployment
• Advocate for ethical AI practices by ensuring models and algorithms are transparent, explainable, and fair, while promoting the responsible use of AI in alignment with the organization’s ethical guidelines and governance framework
• Serve as a key technical advisor to the GM: AI COE Lead and other senior stakeholders, providing insights on the latest developments in AI and related technologies (e.g., cloud computing, edge computing, IoT) ensuring the organization remains competitive by leveraging cutting-edge solutions that drive innovation and enhance overall capabilities
• Responsible for the maintenance of comprehensive documentation of AI solution designs, architectures, model configurations, and deployment procedures, ensuring that design decisions, assumptions, and constraints are clearly communicated and easily accessible for future reference
• Leverage feedback from business users, technical teams, and external sources to refine AI solutions, ensuring that the solutions continue to evolve and meet changing business needs

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field 
• Relevant certifications in AI/ML, Cloud Computing, AWS Certified ML, Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer).(preferred)

Experience:

• 8+ years of experience in AI solution design and architecture, with a proven track record of delivering AI-driven solutions in large-scale, complex telecom environments
• Strong experience with AI technologies, including machine learning, deep learning, and data engineering
• Hands-on experience with integrating AI solutions into existing business systems, such as CRM, ERP, and other enterprise platforms
• Experience of working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment 

Skills :

• Proficiency in AI and machine learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras and Scikit-learn)
• Expertise in cloud computing platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) for deploying and scaling AI solutions
• Strong understanding of data engineering principles and tools for handling large-scale data pipelines (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Kafka)
• Experience with MLOps practices for managing AI model lifecycles
• Expertise in designing and integrating AI-driven solutions using microservices architecture and APIs