Chief Customer Operations Officer (Chief COPs) Full Time NEW

The Chief Customer Operations Officer (Chief COPs) will lead and transform customer operations, ensuring a seamless and exceptional customer experience across all channels. This role is vital in driving Safaricom Ethiopia’s strategy and customer-centric culture.

At Safaricom Ethiopia, we are a purpose‑led technology company dedicated to transforming lives through digital connectivity and inclusive financial services. In less than five years, we have grown to serve 15 million customers, with our network now reaching 62% of Ethiopia’s population — a testament to our bold vision and trusted partnerships.

Guided by our core values of 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 is why, for three consecutive years, we have proudly earned the Top Employer Award — 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

Role purpose: 

The Chief Customer Operations Officer is accountable for interpreting Safaricom Ethiopia’s customer operations strategy into consistent, high-quality execution across all assisted, physical and operational service channels. The role provides leadership for call center, retail customer experience and capability, M-PESA customer operations, back-office fulfilment and Enterprise Business customer management.

The role holder is expected to establish one integrated operating model, service standards and governance framework across Consumer, M-PESA and Enterprise Business, ensuring Safaricom Ethiopia’s customers receive simple, reliable and differentiated service while the company improves first-contact resolution, turnaround time, digital adoption, productivity and cost-to-serve.

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the role leads to customer operations transformation through data, technology, automation, process excellence and frontline capability. It owns executive-level service performance, customer recovery and cross-functional resolution to common issues, while building a high-performing, customer-obsessed team in all its sub-functions.

Key accountabilities and decision ownership: 

• Call Center leadership: Own the strategy and performance of voice, digital, social and specialist call-center operations, including outsourced partners, workforce planning, service levels, quality, productivity and business continuity.
• Customer operations strategy implementation: Translate Safaricom’s Customer strategy into a feasible operational plan, service planning, standards, and performance framework across Consumer, M-PESA and Enterprise Business.
• Retail experience and capability: Set and govern the service experience across shops and other retail touchpoints; strengthen frontline capability, service routines, knowledge, quality assurance and adoption of digital service tools in partnership with Sales and Distribution team.
• MPESA customer operations: Lead MPESA customer service, case handling, transaction support, complaints, reversals and operational escalations, ensuring secure, timely and compliant resolution in partnership with the MPESA business, Technology, Finance, Risk and Compliance teams.
• Back-office operations: Lead customer fulfilment, order and case management, billing and account support, escalations, adjustments, reconciliation support and exception handling; simplify processes and deliver agreed turnaround times.
• Enterprise customer management: Provide dedicated operational leadership for Enterprise Business customers, including onboarding support, service assurance, incident coordination, complaint resolution and executive escalations against contracted service commitments in collaboration with Enterprise team.
• Customer journey ownership: Govern priority end-to-end journeys, embed operational readiness in product and proposition launches, and remove recurring failure points using customer insight and root-cause analysis.
• Digital care and automation: Scale self-service initiatives, AI tool usage, workflow automation, predictive analytics and knowledge management to improve accessibility, first-contact resolution and digital containment.
• Service assurance and recovery: Establish a single governance model for complaints, incidents and escalations; lead major customer-impacting events and ensure timely communication, recovery and prevention of recurrence.
• Performance and value: Own customer operations measures including Net Promoter Score, customer effort, service level, first-contact resolution, quality, turnaround time, complaint ageing, digital adoption, productivity and cost-to-serve as part of continuous service improvement.
• Risk and compliance: Ensure operations comply with regulatory, data privacy, financial-control, fraud-management, consumer-protection and health and safety requirements.
• People and partner leadership: Build a high-performing leadership team and customer operations workforce; strengthen succession, capability, coaching and accountability.
• Vendor management: Provide strategic oversight of outsourced customer operations and service partners, ensuring vendor selection, contracting and mobilization align with business objectives, customer experience standards and regulatory requirements. Establish clear service levels, performance scorecards and governance routines; hold partners accountable for quality, productivity, cost, capability, business continuity and compliance; and lead corrective action, commercial optimization and continuous improvement to deliver sustainable value and consistent customer outcomes.

   

  Core competencies, knowledge and experience:

  Business Competencies:

  Collaboration 

• Customer obsession and sound judgement in balancing customer outcomes, risk, revenue protection and efficiency.
• Companywide strategic leadership with the discipline to translate customer strategy into measurable operational outcomes.
• Strong executive influence and cross-functional leadership across Consumer, MPESA, Enterprise, Technology, Finance, Risk, Sales and Distribution, Brand and Marketing.
• Clear communication, stakeholder management and effective leadership during major incidents and sensitive escalations.
•    Ability to build strong teams, partnerships and accountability across direct, matrixed and outsourced operations.

   

  Building operational excellence

• Designs and govern scalable operating models, service standards, controls and performance routines.
• Applies Lean, process re-engineering and root-cause disciplines to remove failure demand and recurring customer pain points.
• Maintains resilient operations through capacity planning, supplier governance, business continuity and effective incident management.
• Ensures clear ownership, timely escalation and corrective action when service commitments are not achieved.

   

  Creativity and Innovation

• Champions innovation in customer operations by testing and scaling new service models, digital channels and automation.
• Use customer insight, operational data and emerging technology to solve systemic service issues and anticipate changing needs.
• Creates an environment of disciplined experimentation, continuous improvement and rapid learning while managing operational and regulatory risk

  Business Know-how and change leadership

• Demonstrates strong commercial understanding of Telcom, customer options, mobile financial services, retail and enterprise customer dynamics.
• Leads complex transformation across people, process, technology and partner ecosystems.
• Operates with an owner’s mindset, balancing immediate operational
• priorities with long-term customer and business value.
• Applies sound regulatory, ethical, financial-control and risk judgement.
• Builds organizational capability and sustains change through clear sponsorship, engagement and performance management.
• Leads enterprise-wide customer operations programs with clear outcomes, governance, milestones, dependencies, risks and benefits.

  Functional Competencies:

  Digital Care, AI and Automation

• Translates customer and operational needs into scalable digital-care, self-service, automation and AI use cases.
• Understands conversational AI, IVR, chat, CRM, workflow automation, predictive analytics and digital-channel performance.
• Balances automation assisted service and human intervention to improve customer outcomes, first-contact resolution and cost-to-serve.

  Customer Journey and Experience Management

• Designs and governing end-to-end journeys across Consumer, Enterprise and Financial Services products and converged propositions.
• Uses customer insight, service data and root-cause analysis to remove friction and prevent repeat demand.
• Embeds customer experience requirements in product design, launch readiness and go-to-market execution.

  Products, Services and Technology Knowledge – Consumer

• Demonstrates strong knowledge of telecommunications, mobile financial services, retail and enterprise products, services, policies, systems and enabling technologies.
• Ensures operational readiness for new products, propositions and technology releases, including process, people, system, control and customer-communication requirements.
• Use product, technology and policy knowledge to resolve systemic customer issues, protect revenue and ensure consistent service delivery across channels

  Commercial Acumen

• Understands customer dynamics, revenue drivers, service commitments and the financial impact of operational decisions.
• Balances customer outcomes, regulatory obligations, risk, revenue protection and cost-to-serve when prioritizing resources and investments.
• Uses commercial and market insight to improve service differentiation, retention and enterprise customer value.

  Service Quality, Insight and Planning

• Monitors customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, first-contact resolution, customer effort, quality, digital adoption and cost-to-serve.
• Translates insight from customer feedback, operational data and predictive analytics into prioritized service improvements.
• Forecasts customer contact patterns and volumes across channels and aligns capacity, automation and workforce plans accordingly.
• Ensures robust quality assurance, complaint governance, root-cause management and closed-loop customer feedback.

  Key performance indicator:

• Delivery of the approved customer operations strategy, transformation roadmap and annual operating plan.
• Improvement in enterprise customer experience measures, including Net Promoter Score, customer effort and satisfaction across Consumer, M-PESA and Enterprise Business.
• Achievement of agreed service levels, first-contact resolution, quality, response time and turnaround-time targets across contact centers, retail and back-office operations.
• Reduction in repeat contacts, complaints, ageing cases, unresolved escalations and recurring root causes.
• Growth in digital self-service adoption, automation and digital containment without compromising customer outcomes.
• Achievement of MPESA customer operations, transaction support, complaint and reversal service commitments within regulatory and control requirements.
• Achievement of Enterprise Business onboarding, service assurance, incident response and complaint-resolution commitments.
• Improvement in operational productivity, workforce utilization, vendor performance and cost-to-serve within approved budget.
• Compliance with regulatory, consumer-protection, data privacy, fraud-management, financial-control, business-continuity and health and safety requirements.
• Strength, engagement, capability and succession readiness of the customer operations leadership team and workforce

  Financial Responsibility:

• Own the customer operations operating and capital budgets, ensuring alignment with enterprise priorities and approved financial plans.
• Optimize workforce, channel, technology and supplier costs while protecting customer outcomes, control effectiveness and operational resilience.
• Approve expenditure, commercial commitments, credit notes and manual adjustments within delegated authority and established controls.

  Direct reports: 

• EHOD – Call Center Operations
• EHOD – MPESA Operations and Process
• EHOD – Retail Experience & Capability
• Manager – Back-office Operations
• Manager – EBU Customers Operation

  Dotted reports: 

• TBC

Must have technical / professional qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Business Management engineering, technology, customer experience or a related discipline; a relevant postgraduate qualification is preferred.
• Minimum of 12 years’ progressive experience in customer operations, service delivery or a related field, including at least five years in a senior leadership role with substantial scale and complexity
• Demonstrated leadership across multiple customer operations domains such as contact centers, retail service, digital care, back office, mobile financial services or enterprise service management.
• Proven experience leading large-scale transformation across people, process, technology, automation and outsourced partner ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of telecommunications and mobile financial services; exposure to enterprise customer operations, regulated environments and consumer-protection requirements is highly desirable.
• Track record of managing sizeable operating budgets, commercial contracts, vendors, workforce capacity and service-performance commitments.
• Strong command of customer operations platforms and practices, including CRM, omnichannel service, workforce management, quality assurance, knowledge management, analytics and automation.
• Executive-level communication, stakeholder influence, judgement and decision-making capability, with demonstrated success leading high-performing and diverse teams.

   

How to Apply. If you feel that you are up to the challenge and possess the necessary qualification and experience, kindly proceed to create/ update your candidate profile on the recruitment portal and then Click on the apply button. Remember to attach your resume