Head of Digital Business Support Systems

About the role

The Head of Digital Business Support Systems will lead the strategy, modernization and operational excellence of Safaricom’s BSS portfolio. Reporting to the Chapter Lead – Digital IT, the role is responsible for delivering AI‑enabled, cloud‑native platforms that support customer acquisition, revenue management and digital service evolution.

Key responsibilities

• Define and execute a 3‑year technical roadmap for BSS, ensuring TMF Open API compliance and AI‑native architecture.
• Transform legacy monolithic platforms into cost‑efficient, cloud‑native solutions and drive vendor selection and data governance.
• Lead the creation of AI‑driven self‑service CARE platforms, integrating Customer 360/MDM and predictive analytics.
• Shift delivery to composable, agile models with weekly releases, reusable artefacts and >30% faster time‑to‑market.
• Establish centralized SRE squads to achieve >99.99% availability, <30 min MTTR and implement AIOps.
• Manage CAPEX (~KES 5 B) and OPEX (~KES 2 B) budgets, ensuring zero revenue leakage and audit compliance.

Required profile

• Degree in Computer Science, Information Services, Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 10+ years of management experience in technical delivery and operations, preferably within Business Support Systems.
• Proven experience leading BSS modernization, billing/VAS products and enterprise integration.
• Strong financial governance experience overseeing multi‑billion KES budgets.

Required skills

• TMF Open API standards.
• Cloud‑native and AI‑native architecture design.
• Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and AIOps.
• Enterprise integration platforms.
• Billing systems and Value‑Added Services (VAS) platforms.