Executive Head of Department – Finance Business Partner -Technology & Support Functions Full Time

Role purpose:

·       To be the trusted advisor to the Chief Finance Officer and the Technology Chief Officers to help them take the best possible commercial and operational decisions that ensures that Safaricom Ethiopia continues to grow and strengthen our customer centricity as well as operational intensity on the use of finance resources.

·       To drive Capex and NOPEX decision making shift towards a more efficient network build and operations from a cost/capital perspective in a low ARPU market.

·       To avail key financial management information and performance indicators to senior management and other stakeholders on a periodic basis within the timelines provided. This will be swift, analytical and insightful financial support and information for all internal business decisions by partnering with the different divisions in a proactive manner to drive faster turnaround capital investments and enhanced benchmarking for key business activities & processes that drive Opex; all within the approved Budgets and Business Plans.

·       Lead the Technology & Support Functions Finance Business Partnering team across the organization. Championing their development in line with the world class finance benchmarks on skills and proficiency

Key accountabilities and decision ownership:

·       Preparation and review of forecasts, budgets, LRP and Business Plan, and provide timely insights into the capex, opex and network and IT opex lines to Senior Management and the Financial Planning & Analysis team.

·       Partner with the Chief Technology Officer to drive the delivery of the most cost/capital efficient network build in Ethiopia by leveraging own vast experience and challenging assumptions and strategic thinking by the technology team.

·       Ensure the annual budgets and quarterly forecast information adheres to IFRS and complies with Group accounting policies especially with regards to IFRS 16 on leases and depreciation.

·       Ensure that capex and NOPEX spend are in line with approved Budgets, and that funding aspects of capex are in line with approvals including on any parental company guarantees relating to capex.

·       Partner with Chief Human Resources Officer to deliver optimal employee costs for the organization that considers the realities of the organization’s evolution.

·       Act as the single point of information and contact on all technology, and support functions finance-related matters for the Business Units.

·       Ensure ROI for all asset categories is properly defined and enhanced to drive returns for capital investments

·       Prepare and review financial models as required and carry out any financial due diligence required

·           Lead the organization in the drive for efficiency, sustainable and optimal cost control measures

·       Identify areas for digitization, simplification and automation for process improvement and using robotic process technology to eliminate repetitive tasks.

·       Establish and roll out a mix of agile and project methodology with stakeholders across the business to ensure any input required from the department is thorough and timely and build into the project deliverables.

·       Define clear and optimal Finance business partnering structure across technology and support functions taking note of spans, layers and future business evolution.

·       Manage performance management, objective setting & Performance development Review Processes.

·       Ensure relevant staff reskilling and upskilling is undertaken to develop credible succession planning within the department.

·       Align and advocate to the team, division and all staff the Spirit of Safaricom behaviors

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 be able to influence the decisions they make

·       Communicates simply to excite and engage people

·       Pro-actively 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 continuous improvement

·       Thinks about processes and problems cross-functionally and end-to-end

·       Uses knowledge of products, technology, process, systems and policy to solve problems
Creativity and Innovation

·       Finds creative ways to exploit opportunities and solve problems

·       Take risks and push what is possible

·       Experiments with unorthodox approaches

Business Know how

·       Uses data and research to make decisions that are competitively and financially robust

·       Balances current and future needs

·       Thinks and acts like an owner of the business

·       Acts in line with legal, regulatory, professional and ethical standards

Working with Change

·       Responds flexibly to changing situations

·       Manages the business and people aspects of change to drive performance

Agile, Project and Program Management

·       Defines scope and deliverables in terms of time, cost, quality and business benefit

·       Schedules activity and identifies resource needs, dependencies and synergies

·       Evaluates progress, mitigates risks and addresses issues

Functional Competencies:

Planning and Control

·       Analyses performance trends to determine the health of the business

·       Steers business performance by using strategy and external data to help set goals

·       Translates strategies into actionable plans that add value via process and operational improvements

·       Maintains controls within Financial Systems through setup control and master data management

Accounting

·       Prepare, analyses and summarize financial data to support business operations and delivery statutory information

·       Ensures the integrity of processes and systems to record and authorize transactions in compliance with Safaricom accounting policies and regulations

Reporting

·       Delivering timely and accurate reports to satisfy statutory and business requirements

·       Identifies key performance and variances, and provides recommendations

Treasury

·       Develops and advice on funding strategies for the business

Must have technical / professional qualifications:

·       Relevant Degree in Accounting, Economics, Finance

·       Preferably at least 8 years of experience with, and a deep knowledge of technology underpinning the telecoms sector.

·       Preferably at least 12 years of broad, progressive experience in all facets of Finance i.e. Management Accounting, Forecasting and Planning, Financial Accounting, and Finance Operations.

Key performance indicators:

·       Ensure timely review of monthly performance for the technology and support functions to support monthly performance pack

·       Ensure timely and in-depth reports of key financial models and forecasts for the strategic projects and opportunities availed

·       Demonstrable impact of the improvements in cost, efficiency, talent development and management

·       Prepare with Business Unit leadership teams for the monthly performance review with Safaricom PLC, Vodacom & GPE Consortium

·       Ensure Funds allocated to projects are allocated correctly and are spent within budget and deliver returns.

·       Overview of performance of staff in the department through quarterly and annual reviews.

·       Implement and address matters raised from Employee Survey to align and bring up the Spirit of Safaricom behaviors

Financial Responsibility:

·       Responsible for approval of Capex Spend for the business falling within the capex governance committee

·       Responsible for the Investment Board

·       Approval of budget transfers for all opex expenditure

Direct reports:

• Manager – Finance Business Partner
• Senior Manager – Decision Support & Partnering (1)

Note -We strongly encourage women to apply and bring their unique perspectives and talents to our diverse and inclusive team.

How To Apply

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

https://safaricom.bamboohr.com/careers/544
The closing date for receiving applications is Tuesday, 11th July 2025, 5:30 pm